Does Water Temperature Matter?

Ask Charlie Weyer, Winner of the 2004 Citgo Bassmaster Tour Stop at Smith Lake if water temperature matters, and he will give you a dissertation of fish activity levels, weather effects and why "run ins" are all important when targeting late Winter or Early Spring bass.

"All during the tournament, we had torrential rains, and the lake level rose 12 feet in four days.  The rain was fairly warm, and the flash floods, (called run ins,) pouring into the lake held warmer water than the actual lake itself."

"As a result, I was able to fish 47 degree water in all of my areas throughout the tournament.  Make no mistake, the fishing was tough and catch 16" keepers was brutal, but, I couldn't catch any keepers when the water was less than 47 degrees."

Going into the final round of six anglers, the over night temperatures fell dramatically and so did the lake water temperatures.  When Weyer arrived at his morning spot, he noticed the temperature gauge on his boat read 45 degrees.  After going fishless for three hours, Weyer decided to run to another area of the lake, but the results were the same.  Sensing his opportunity was slipping through his fingers, Weyer ran back to his first stop of the day, his best spot, a cut in a Chunk rock wall, with several docks and a brush pile out in the middle of the cut.

"The first thing I noticed was that the water had warmed to 47 degrees.  I felt encouraged and felt even better when the first keeper landed on his deck a few minutes later." He caught two more nice keepers, weighed in eight pounds and won the tournament.

Does water temperature matter?  Charlie Weyer thinks so.