hey fellas the local lake i fish here in ny just opened up and all the ice is off. read the water temp at 39 degrees 3 days ago. im gonna check again tomorrow but its sposed to be 64 on sunday. so im gonna head out. heres my question----

    what temps do you start hittng the water if it gets that cold and is it worth hittin it if its in the low 40's? im thinking senkos and shakey head worms.

    what would u do?

t rage

I would try dragging a spinerbait on the bottom, or a crank pretty much anything that will maintain contact with the bottom.

what is the deepest part of it?

memo

really deep its pretty much like a big bowl with the deepest at about 120 feet haha.

When I read the water temp the other day here it was 38. We have had a few nights below freezing scince then. I have been going to the river lately after smallmouths and been doin well.

If I was you I would try jigs for sure, and maybe some jerkbaits, deep cranks, and tubes. Try the shakey head also .

                                                             Ian

DROP SHOT! Drop shot at about 35-40 feet!  

Any time I have cold water, I almost always go big and slow.  LBH (I think it was him...) always says when you think you're going slow enough, slow it down even more.

When the water is cold, the bass are going to be VERY sluggish.  You basically have to put the bait right in its face and then be super slow with the retrieve.  Remember, bass are basically cold-blooded animals, so they aren't going to want to use any more energy than they have to.

lipless crankbaits The sk red eye shad in black and silver the white perch one. rollin it medium speed with a 6:1 off wind blown points. cast deep reel in shallow i caught three the other day in 38 down here in RI.

My first choice would be a jig and pig for sure. I would also drag texas rigged plastics on the bottom VERY SLOOOOOOOWLY!

I would fan cast a deep water spot. Pick any spot that you know has fish and structure. Fan cast either a shakey head or other finesse plastic. Spend at least a couple minutes per cast. Yes, a couple minutes. Then cast again to a spot just a little to the side of the previous cast. Like everyone else has been saying fish it SLOW. It doesn't hurt to let a shakey head deadstick for half a minute or more.