Cold Weather (For Arizona) Fishing

First off. There are a couple things that need to be defined.

Yuma Verison:
Cold Weather - Water temps in the low 50s
Deep Water - Four to Nine feet.
Really Deep Water - Over eight feet.

I went out with Manny Garcia on saturday. We hit the water around first
light and didn't stop until after sunset.

We hammered the water starting with some areas that always have warmer
water. In that area it was in the mid 60s. Nothing. We saw a couple fish
hanging next to the current in the channel on our way back in there, but
they wouldn't hit anything we threw at them. No big deal. Those fish get
hammered pretty hard as every boat that goes upt hat channel see them. Then
we worked the deep water along the cliff face, and the trees standing
underwater. For this area that really was deep water running 8-10 feet. I
didn't see any fish on the chart either. Neither along the cliff face or
around the trees. I was beginning to doubt that my sounders were working
properly. Mostly we tried slow cranking in that area, but I also slow
rolled a spinnerbait and fluttered a spoon in the area. Nothing.

We headed further back towards the warm water and tried wacky worming some
semi protected pockets that always seem to hold a few small fish. Nothing.
We did see some spawning beds, but no fish on them. I am guessing tilapia
or carp, becases we saw a lot of movement back in the tulies. So we worked
our way back flipping and pitching the tulies. Nothing. We might have had
a hit or two, but I'm not good enough with a jig to say for sure. Manyy
tossed a brush hog, and I used a blue black jig.

We spent half a day playing in this area before we decided to run a few
miles up river and try some different circumstances.

We worked a couple lakes off the lower Arizona Channel. We dropped worms in
trees. We flipped the steep bank. We flipped the shallow bank. Nothing.
In the second back lake we hit we did havea nice surprised. As we motored
around the corner to get in we saw about 70 or 80 ducks take flight and as
many mud hens go paddling back into the brush.


Off to Ferguson Lake to pitch some of Manny's favorite banks, and then
cranked and spinner baited some tree fields in 3-6 feet of water. Manny had
one solid hit in the brush.

I still had not seen any fish on my chart. It did show some cluter from
dieing grass beds, but no fish.

On our way out of that area we went across a point. I charted several fish
suspended over one side of the point. No hits though. We cranked it, but
I'm not sure that we really hit them with the right bait, or at the right
speed. I am thinking I should go back and anchor just off that point. Then
work it with a jigging spoon or slow crawl it with a carolina rig.

We hit a channel off the main river after that. We pitched the banks for no
good results, and cranked the channel. There was an amazing amount of grass
still growing in that shallow channel. It certainly should have held some
fish.

Finally I decided to show Manny a place that had produced fish for me all
summer and into November. Its a large relatively flat bottom area that tend
to get a fair number of underwater weed beds. Based on what came back on my
baits there was still a foot or so of them left on the bottom, but it was
basically featureless. What makes this area interesting is that it is a
fairly large are that averages 9 feet deep with some points off to either
side. When shad are running they seem to get funneled up into this area.
During the summer you can get a topwater bite here quite often, and later it
works pretty good with drop shots and spoons worked with a pull and flutter
down retrieve. Nothing showed on the chart. No clutter and no fish. What
got my attention was actually just off the area. I crossed over one of the
points and spotted a sole small rock on the chart in about 6 feet of water.
Otherwise the bottom was basically featureless. There were two fish hanging
over that rock. I cranked the area a bit, and threw a spinner bait to drag
it along the bottom near the rock. I am thinking that I need to go back and
work that solo rock carefully with a carolina rig or jigging spoon. I'm
also thinking I might want to gather up some large rocks and four or five
more down in that same area to maybe hold a couple more fish.

Now, a lot fof areas we fished had tree stumps and stading trees under
water. Lots of them. We really didn't find any fish on them. I did chart
fish on a lone rock on a realtively featureless bottom.

So my conclusion is that the fish were structure oriented, but not in areas
with lots of structure, but in areas with no structure.

I'll try and get out again later in the week and try out my ideas. Any
suggestions?

--
Bob La Londe
www.YumaBassMan.com
All about fishing in Yuma, Arizona
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