# Cold water clear sky Saugeye Bites



## Southernsaug (May 23, 2019)

One of the most educating threads on this site is "rainy night jerk bite limit". It has been a great thread for a long time. How about we do the opposite and share where we find those pesky Saugeye's when the sky is clear and mid day fishing trips are all you can do. Lets focus on the fall/winter and early spring tactics. Face it, when we get a chance to hit a lake or stream in the cooler months it's not always the predictable scenarios like a rainy night. So where and how do we catch our Saugeye on those days the when it's a lot nicer to get on the lake or stream and frankly when a lot of people have the better chance to go.

I'll start this. When water temps. drop into the 50s and 40s in Late November and December I look for deep wintering holes in streams. I relish some warm sun to sit in. So mid day is my time to fish. I forget everything I ever thought of about Rainy night jerk baits. I find the deepest hole in the area with a hard bottom, preferrably bedrock. Bedrock holds heat and is generally a degree or two warmer. This is time to break out the heavier jig head and slow drift or verticle jig twister tails or Joshys. Also, don't forget Vibes' or stinger spoons. They love falling baits this time of year and a rise and drop presentation is deadly. I also love live minnows on a jig this time of year. Fish will pile up together and finding the sweet spot is key. Sometimes a 50 foot move mean fish or no fish. Mid day in December means shallow mud is warmer, so if you have an adjacent mud flat right close to the deep trench, throw those joshys up in the shallows late afternoon after the waters is warmed. If you find a winter hole it will be good every year as long as it doesn't change.

So someone want to share some mid day Lake tactics?


----------



## Saugeyefisher (Jul 19, 2010)

This time of year for me. Sunny calm days can be just as good as rainy breezy nights.
Yesterday afternoon I got a text from a good friend. ,20+ walking the banks with vibes no big fish but mostly keepers.
I can go to the same spot and blank tomorrow in similar conditions.
I like to cover water with vibes. This time of year I'll start in backwaters,channels,and feeder creeks entering the lake because the shad seem to school up good in these places. Then next work main lake areas.
I use a lot of vibes and lipless cranks looking for reaction bites. I keep moving unless I find a school of active eaters. 
I like looking for and fishing dirtier water in these conditions as well if I'm out during the day.....


----------



## Saugeyefisher (Jul 19, 2010)

Fished yesterday from 5-815. Clear,blue skies,very little wind. 
Had one bite and lost one dink from 5-645 fishing 2 different spots. Went back to first spot at 645 because of all the shad present compared to other spot. Light switched on at 655 and I had fish feeding all around me. At my feet,all up and down the channel going out into the lake. At first I was very slowly twitching and pausing a xr8. One very light bite that got off. 
I steady reeling my xrap with a subtle twitch in between each turn of the reel,and rod tip up hi working the bait just under the surface. an that's what they wanted. Caught 18 but 8 of them was channel cats. 10 eyes from 16-21". From 7ish to 815 when I had to go home. 
I'd occasionally turn on my head lamp and see several catfish literally just skimming the surface eating shad. Every once in awhile sounding like a big blue gill eating a bug on the surface. The saugeye would attack the center of the shad schools very aggressively,scattering the school until they group back up. It was pretty cool to watch. They didn't even care about me shining my light on them. It sounded like a river because of all the shad fleeing along the surface.

Earlier that day my buddy did well at a different part of the lake(to crowded for me,I try to stay away from the community holes) tossing vibes again. But it was pretty stained compared to the water I found them in a couple miles away,and had a hard time getting to bite during the day.


----------



## Saugeyefisher (Jul 19, 2010)

Hoping more people end up seeing this and adding to it. It's a great subject for our bipolar Ohio weather!


----------



## 1basshunter (Mar 27, 2011)

I was out today after work using a vibe got 3 eyes and a really nice perch just slow rolling it in. I suck using a stick bait I’m just going to find someone that can help me out with that.


----------



## Saugeyefisher (Jul 19, 2010)

Yesterday cold water clear skies next to no wind. 
Caught 2 at about 530 pm on a blade bait in a channel with bait. 
Caught one on a stick bait right at dark. 
Then caught 4 on stick baits after 10pm. 
It was slow ...
Omw out now to try again. Same conditions.


----------



## 1basshunter (Mar 27, 2011)

I did a canal today and did really good on redeye shad and vibes lost a dink off a big joshy green glow perch. Fish are eating for winter now


----------



## Workingman (Jan 21, 2016)

How are you guys casting and retrieving the blades without snagging them up. I love them for vertical jigging but when I cast, snag city, also happens with the lipless cranks. Maybe because I mostly fish alum??? (Zebra mussels galore!)


----------



## Saugeyefisher (Jul 19, 2010)

Workingman said:


> How are you guys casting and retrieving the blades without snagging them up. I love them for vertical jigging but when I cast, snag city, also happens with the lipless cranks. Maybe because I mostly fish alum??? (Zebra mussels galore!)


I'm usually casting blades in 12"-4' of water. 
Some times I cast and slowly retrieve it back in steady. Other times its a SLOW hop(maybe like 2 or 3 flutters then drop) back to the bank/boat. In my case 95% bank this time of year. Or a yo-yo retrieve back to the bank.
The only time I ever tie a leader to my braid is when I know I'm going to be working blade baits a lot. The stiffer then braid leader materials prevents the hooks from hooking/tangling with the line on the drop.
I like to use a med light 7' quality rod. And I mainly use 3/16 oz blades for the water depth I'm in. Some times 1/8 or 1/4. 
Same with applies with lipless cranks for me. 
It takes a lot of patience and time to learn how to run them over rocks without snagging to often. And then it boils down to knowing the difference in feel from a snag and a bite(quality rod and braid really help this). 
I still hang up my bait in rocks/snags. But if I can stop myself from setting the hook into a snag and either driving the hooks into it deep or getting it wedged into rocks to deel I can get that bait back 9 times out of 10 with a light flick of the line. And vibe hooks break/bend easier then my line breaks. So I carry some spare hooks on me. 
I cast my blade baits 99% of the time over vertical jigging them. All the way up to ice up. There a very fun bait to catch fish on. A lot of times when they bite your line will just go slack all of a sudden. They like to bite them swimming towards a lot it seems.


----------



## promag (Aug 21, 2011)

So once it gets cold, for me I see a clear sky day as a opportunity for mid day saugeye. Yes there can be more of a challenge to get them but that’s part of the fun. I generally focus my efforts in the spillways. I like to go with the lightest jig heads I can get away with. Sometimes that’s 1/16oz heads. I like using a tandem setup with two jigs and twister tails. Sometimes one twister and one small kietech swim bait. The clearer the water the more natural I want to go with in color. So I’ll try that first off and have another rod rigged with a jerk bait and switch up from the jigs and try to get any reaction bites. I like to fish at night sometimes but I don’t generally get to. So mid day can produce just have to be paitent.


----------



## Southernsaug (May 23, 2019)

Saugeyefisher said:


> I'm usually casting blades in 12"-4' of water.
> Some times I cast and slowly retrieve it back in steady. Other times its a SLOW hop(maybe like 2 or 3 flutters then drop) back to the bank/boat. In my case 95% bank this time of year. Or a yo-yo retrieve back to the bank.
> The only time I ever tie a leader to my braid is when I know I'm going to be working blade baits a lot. The stiffer then braid leader materials prevents the hooks from hooking/tangling with the line on the drop.
> I like to use a med light 7' quality rod. And I mainly use 3/16 oz blades for the water depth I'm in. Some times 1/8 or 1/4.
> ...


Yeah, this. Good post. Whenever I have new people with me in cold weather the hardest part for them is always knowing a biite from a bump into a snag. Your right, a good rod with good braid makes a huge difference. I once took a friend and he was getting real upset when I had caught maybe 10-15 fish to his one. He was using an old stiff rod with stretchy mono. I handed him my rod and wallah, his first cast resulted in a nice Saugeye. The next trip out he had a brand new medium rod with a live tip and a new reel spooled with braid. He still had a learning curve , but he caught a bunch more fish. Today he is my number one fishing buddy and can catch right along with me.


----------



## Workingman (Jan 21, 2016)

Sounds like I need a better rod... problem is is that I'm pretty cheap! Haha, what's the least expensive rod you guys have that gets it done? Thanks in advance. I'm gonna fish tomorrow during the day. Taking my birthday off from work. I think I'm gonna take advantage of the nice weather and go to hoover in the kayak.


----------



## Saugeyefisher (Jul 19, 2010)

Workingman said:


> Sounds like I need a better rod... problem is is that I'm pretty cheap! Haha, what's the least expensive rod you guys have that gets it done? Thanks in advance. I'm gonna fish tomorrow during the day. Taking my birthday off from work. I think I'm gonna take advantage of the nice weather and go to hoover in the kayak.


No need to break the bank. I've used 15$ rods up to 225$ rods. 
I have personally found a happy medium with the st.croix premier. I can usually find them on sale for about 125 around Christmas. I prefer it over any. But that 100% personal preference. In fact all my saugeye rods are premier's. 
Any of the "cheaper" st.croix work. Triumph,bass x are both good. 
I'd say most any brand rod 75$ and up paired with braid will do the trick. 
They are worth the money,trust me!


----------



## Southernsaug (May 23, 2019)

Hey, I am a life member of the cheap arse stingy club. I do not own a rod that cost $75.00 or more. I have two ugly sticks (Approx. cost 49.95-69.95) one berkly (just bought late summer on sale $49.99 from 79.99) and one abu-garcia heavier rod for trolling. I bought most on sale in off season and saved a good bit. I got my ugly stix at Bass pro one day while just browsing around and here was this rack of rod's marked clearence, 50% off. I found two ugly stix for 30-40 bucks each


----------



## Saugeyefisher (Jul 19, 2010)

A little off topic here,but have any of you noticed stocked trout fish a lot like saugeye. Except I seem to do better with smaller baits for trout 
But they love current/wind swept banks. Especially wind swept rocks.
And they seem to bite better on those nasty cloudy, spitting rain/snow/sleet, decent chop on the water an it just drives them nuts...


----------



## promag (Aug 21, 2011)

Workingman said:


> Sounds like I need a better rod... problem is is that I'm pretty cheap! Haha, what's the least expensive rod you guys have that gets it done? Thanks in advance. I'm gonna fish tomorrow during the day. Taking my birthday off from work. I think I'm gonna take advantage of the nice weather and go to hoover in the kayak.


My favorite rod to use is a Berkley series one 6’6” med light. I got it almost 20years ago for around $80 and it’s held up. Paired with a pfleuger president and nanofil 8-10 lb. I think the best rods that work for me are lightweight and have a lot of guides on them. You can find decent rods for cheap. Fen wick has some good rods that are just under the $100 mark and some that are in that $50 range. The main things are: Is it light weight? Does it have a good number of guides? Jigging I like the lighter rods and for jerks or heavier lures I go with a little more heavier action - medium. But a medium light is a all around go to from 6’6”- 7’. Braid and super lines are also a must in my opinion. The higher end ugly stix will probably work well. I just don’t have much experience with them. (I used one on a charter once and was impressed by how well they handled but we were trolling ) 
The three rods I bring when going saugeye fishing:
6’6” Berkley series one med light, pfleuger president 2000, 10lb nanofil
6’9” falcon low rider light action, pfleuger supreme 2000, 8lb nanofil
7’2” stCroix Rage medium action, pfleuger president 3500, 30lb power pro
What are some of others set ups?


----------

