Why Have Fish Stopped Hitting ?

[Escoyondy River Joe]

After a good summer of LM bass fishing on the E. Holland River,(best in years) the past 3 weeks (starting 2nd week of Aug 08) have been bad. I have not been getting ANY action. Not even the lowly Bullfin Catfish are bitting anymore. Lots of small perch, catfish, bluefins and bass were being caught -but it all seemed to stop. The river has dropped abt 1 foot and it may be starting to turn over... but really!

Does anyone have any idea why this is happening? Have you noticed the same, especially if you fish the Holland River south of L. Simcoe? I've tired differnt baits, retreive speeds, colours, lure types etc...and from early morning at sunup to sunset, things have just plain stopped...

Can anyone help with this puzzle. I've never quite noticed this before. It usually seems to slow down on the river late in the year, but it seem a few months early this year.
Any ideas or comments?
thanks

 

[Garry2rs]

Here are my three guesses...

 

[Escoyondy River Joe]

TNX Garry for ur insite...I have tried to follow the effects of weather (WX) and barameter more closly this year, but more by the shorter range,hour by hour/ day-by day effects.

I have been curious how much and how far LMB migrate durring a typical given period- say by the week...especially being on a river like the E. Holland, which seems to have so many differnt areas and characeristics. (Would they ever make the 7Km swim from here up to Cooks Bay?) Oxygen / Temp and Ph have been on my mind and I've thought about starting to monior various depths and various near by areas. Dont know what decvices are available for testing, but will look into it. (I have test Ph using litmus paper and pool tester)

On a follow-up note: today (Sept 2nd), I gave up trying for some "regular" river sized LMBass and used my Ultra Light set-up for some pan fish fun. Now, as I said in my main post, even the pan fish seemd to have shut down. But today was an exception. They were hitting one after another...Blue gills, pumkinseeds, perch and perhpas some of the smallest L.M. Bass fingerlings I've seen since the start of bass season ! (I'm talking TINY- but still hiellarious to catch- they were hitting my 1/16 oz white jig head with 1/8" piece of worm as it hit the water) Of course they were all returned.

I wonder if that panfish experience today had more to do with my change in presentation to VERY SMALL, or the change in WX and water conditions. In the previous weeks even small 1/4 oz jigs and small tube/twisters wern't getting panfish bites. I will see if things improve with the stable hot wx and move up to larger tackle....and keep you posted....maybe there are few large LMB still learking in there after all.

Thanks agn for the feedback!
Joe

 

[David Kearney]

I havent found the bite to be off, I am catching fish left and right. Hmmm!