In Ohio, the change of weather happens quickly, sometimes too quickly. During these temperature changes, along with the rainfall, storms and wind, fishing can be challenging. Most of the reservoirs, lakes and ponds have a good population of gamefish ranging from largemouth, smallmouth, white bass, walleye, stripers, crappie, perch and bluegills. How do you target all these different species?
The largemouth bass are the easiest to figure out when the temps drop and the weather changes. They will eat just about anything that looks good. Now with trout-stocking programs going on at some of these locations, the largemouth and striped bass will be going after “those sluggish, concrete-pond-raised morsels,” and they will eat their share. Using larger swim baits resembling stocked trout is the best overall approach to going after these big lunkers, but it is not the only option. Since these monster bass feel the weather change, nature takes over and tells them to eat as much as they can to fatten up for the long, cold winter. So, throwing out anything that looks like a good meal is a great idea.
White bass and walleye are other types of pelagic fish, meaning they roam in schools throughout lakes and reservoirs. You will hear anglers say, “Yeah, we got lucky and ran into a school.” Small spinners resembling shad work the best, and using grubs and other drop-shot techniques while sitting on top of a school of fish is a fun way to spend the next hour or so until they move on. Trolling works well for the pelagic school-bound fish, so using lead core line with a dropper will bring in results.
Crappie on the other hand are not so much a roaming fish as they are a stationary schooling type of fish. They really don’t move from the points where you find them, and they tend to stay in that area. So, drop-shotting grubs, live minnows and shad are always going to be the best methods for going after these tasty slabs. Crappie seem to be the most affected by weather changes due to their shallow water hiding spots.
Ohio offers some great fishing year-round, and the fall season is one of the most interesting times, for several reasons. With large trout stocking programs in place, rainfall increasing water levels and many smaller baitfish now schooling up towards the surface, these indicators offer the informed angler more success when out on the water.
