Bass with Cool Temperatures, Breeze from North

Arrived to 71 degree-temperature and steady breeze from the north. Sky overhead partly sunny, not the mile high dread of a cold front, I yet had my reservations about any bass being on the prowl with this cool weather. I don't like a breeze from the north during summer. If I'm walleye and hybrid striper fishing during October, OK, but despite so much written about slow summer dog days, for bass I like a southern flow and warm temperatures at the least. You have to slow down for bass, but they'll take a plastic worm, at least they often will, even at noon.

I fished as I have been fishing, choosing the bright blue worm to match for the most part a bright sky. I cast, let sink, then usually reel the worm right back to offer an initial descent elsewhere. I do catch some on slow, twitching retrieves, especially if water is deep--not so deep I don't fish weightless--5-15 feet or so, but I fished mostly one to three feet of water more interested in targeting cover and sort of cropping out space where a bass in any direction by four or five feet would close in. There's only so much you can do in an hour when you want to fish most of a 15-acre pond's east side.

I caught the two bass of about two pounds each, the second fish a little under that weight, I think. Those were the only bass to hit. Two sunfish tapped the worm, besides. That got me thinking about how, where I used to often fish, sunfish would, on some days, assault the worm almost constantly. Those were days I never caught bass.

Yes, I switched to the other reel, loaded with Power Pro 15-pound test. No, I don't like using the heavy braid as much as six-pound mono, even though the stuff is at least as low diameter. I prefer mono when I can use it--most of the time--just because I prefer the feel, even though I readily admit you feel a lot more of what's going on, on bottom, taps, and so on, with performance braid. That big bass I lost last week when the line parted really blew a hole in me. And I fished the spot where I lost it coming and going today. I hope someday another bass takes the same way.