What water temps are you guys seeing out there? I went out to Black Lake with Carlos on Saturday and the highest we found was 47.8 deg. We had a few bites at 17 ft, but not sure if they were bass. We pounded stuff shallow looking for early largemouth and nothing.

Hard to say about water clarity. Silver is really dirty and can be great early with the right little stretch of good weather. Fish still have to eat regardless of water clarity. The females need to be eating and getting sunlight and warmth on their bellies for the eggs. Just need a little more stable weather I think.

You will still probably only catch 1 small walleye.

Rob,

Just got to adapt!!!!!

Russ

Oh we adapted, it just didn't work.....

Chris, you're right. I think of it like when it's cold out but the sun pops through and it feels 10 degrees warmer. I'm sure the fish feel the warmth of the sun even with cooler water temps.

Well rain can be warmer than the lake water and raise shallow water temps by 5 degrees. But cold rain doesn't help. I'm not saying you can't catch fish, I'm talking factors of triggering the spawn. There is a difference. That 8 1/2 pounder on my profile was caught in the rain. No sunshine that weekend when 2 bags over 20 lbs were caught and that beauty. But we are talking factors triggering pre-spawn/spawn. And there are some differences between smallmouth and largemouth.

I was seeing 48/48.5 degrees on American Lake yesterday, no fish for me either. I want to see 50 degrees when I launch at 0:dark thirty!

Articles I've read over the years say fish like seeing at least 54-58 to start reaaly moving. By 60 degrees, males should be making nests and 64 is the ideal temp for spawning to kick off. Smallies can do the same stuff with cooler temps. Even fishing water along the California-Arizona border, the fish acted the same way. We had 57-58 degree water and the fish were in staging areas. When we finally found 60 water, there were beds. Finding the staging areas in some of these lakes can be tough. In desert reserviors, there were points that fish followed up. Deep road beds leading to spawning bays are good too. Banks come in mind here. Some of these natural lakes are a little tougher to pinpoint. Weedlines are good targets.

The fish will also follow these structures out during post spawn, or they can scatter around feeding on small fry and smaller species starting their spawn. Thats when cranks, topwater and jerkbaits can shine!! Not spinnerbaits though.....dont bother throwing those things....