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| Species | Sunday | Today | Tomorrow | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Night11° | Dawn11° | Mid15° | Eve14° | Night13° | Dawn12° | Mid16° | Eve16° | Night14° | |
| ★Perch | 65 | 80 | 87 | 85 | 72 | 83 | 85 | 85 | 65 |
| ★Pike | 75 | 88 | 88 | 90 | 78 | 88 | 86 | 86 | 72 |
| ★Crappie | 35 | 49 | 71 | 59 | 44 | 53 | 69 | 71 | 37 |
| ★Largemouth | – | 22 | 29 | 31 | 6 | 23 | 25 | 24 | – |
Northeast shoreline is your first stop. Wind push is stacking perch on that bank right now. Target 18–23ft where the bottom transitions from soft mud to harder substrate, gravel edges, weed margins, or any subtle point. Perch are schooling in larger groups this time of year as they compress before ice-up, and a rising barometer on an overcast day keeps them active and feeding.
Drop a small jigging spoon or a 2–3" paddle tail on a 1/8oz round ball head. Go white, chartreuse, or perch-pattern in these stained bay waters. Jigging spoons in 1/4–3/8oz work as a school-caller, rip it 12–18 inches off bottom to turn heads, then kill it for 3–4 seconds. Once fish are marking on your electronics, downsize to the 1/8oz paddle tail rig and slow your cadence to a 2-inch lift with a 4–6 second deadstick pause. That's when the bites come.
Overcast skies and 10°C air mean the surface is cold but the school is locked to bottom. Keep your bait within 18 inches of the floor, perch this late rarely chase more than that. If you're getting follows but no commits, switch to a 1.5–2" tube on a 1/16oz finesse head in natural/gold and barely twitch it on the bottom. This is prime table-fishing season. These are fat, pre-ice perch eating aggressively. Limit out while you can, Sports licence S-50, Conservation C-25.
Mark the school before you commit to a spot. If you're not marking fish in the first 10 minutes, move 50 yards along the northeast bank and check again. Perch schools are tight and mobile this time of year, you find them or you don't. Once you're on them, anchor or hold position and work that column until they scatter.
Northeast shoreline is your first stop. Light wind pushing bait against that bank means pike are already stacked there in 4–12ft over dying weed edges and transition zones where green gives way to brown. This is a pre-freeze feeding window, these fish are fat, aggressive, and eating big. Don't waste time probing open water.
Throw large profile presentations. A magnum spinnerbait or oversized in-line spinner (1–1.5oz, white or chartreuse blade) burned just above the weed tops at 4–8ft is the highest-percentage play in overcast conditions like today. Overcast sky kills the glare and keeps pike aggressive all day, don't wait for a cloud to move in, you already have the perfect condition. If you want to mix it up, a large paddle tail swimbait (6–8", white or natural shad colour) on a 1/2oz swimbait head retrieved at a medium-fast pace along the outer weed edge at 8–12ft produces the biggest fish of fall. Two cranks of the reel, one-second pause, repeat.
If pike are short-striking, downsize to a 5" paddle tail on a 3/8oz round ball head in a perch or shad pattern and slow your retrieve. Hit points, pockets in the weeds, and any visible current seam. Rising stable barometer means fish are holding near structure but actively feeding, they'll commit if you put it in front of them. Don't rip it, but don't crawl it either, medium-fast, steady, with occasional pauses.
Watch your leader. Pike teeth will cut through fluorocarbon on the first good strike. Use a wire leader, minimum 12 inches. Handle pike carefully in this cold water, their metabolism is slower and they need a proper revival before release.
Black crappie are stacking on the northeast shoreline right now. Rising baro and overcast skies are your best friends, crappie feed aggressively under cloud cover, and the northeast wind push is concentrating baitfish and predators tight to that bank. Work 8–15ft of water along any dock structure, submerged timber, or weed edge you can find on that shoreline. Schools will be suspended mid-column, not pinned to bottom.
Primary setup: a 1/16oz round ball jig head paired with a 2" tube bait or paddle-tail grub in white or light chartreuse. Lower the rig to 10–12ft and work it with a slow lift-pause cadence, 6-inch lift, 3-second pause, let it flutter back down. Crappie in cool water eat on the fall, not the rise. If bites are tentative, dead-stick it for 5 full seconds on the pause. White and pearl are your first call in stained November water; switch to straight chartreuse if the bite goes quiet.
Secondary setup: a small tube jig, 1/8oz in white or smoke glitter, worked horizontally along dock edges. Crappie will hold within 2–3ft of any vertical structure after dark. Cast parallel to the dock face, count down to 10–12ft, and swim it back with a painfully slow 1-turn-per-second retrieve. Dawn and dusk are peak windows today, the overcast will extend that feeding window into midday.
Soft mouths are the #1 crappie killer. Set the hook with a smooth wrist roll, not a hard strip. Keep your drag slightly loose and maintain constant pressure, never let the line go slack. If you're marking fish on sonar but getting no bites, drop down 2–3ft and slow your pause to 5–7 seconds. Late fall crappie metabolism is sluggish, they'll eat, but they won't chase.
Largemouth Bass, Cook's Bay, November 2
Air at 10.4°C means water is right at the largemouth activity threshold. These fish aren't chasing, they're conserving. Northeast shoreline is your primary target where wind push has been stacking baitfish. Work 2–8ft of water over submerged weeds, dock edges, and any remaining green vegetation. This is not a searching day, find the structure and stay on it.
Finesse is the call. Rig a 3–4" paddle tail or grub on a 1/8oz round ball head in natural shad or white. Slow roll it through the strike zone, retrieve speed around 1/4 turn per second, with a 3–5 second deadstick pause every few feet. Overcast skies help, but the rising barometer means fish are less aggressive. Keep the nose right on bottom. Strikes will be subtle, a mushy weight or slow pull, not a thump.
Jerkbait is a secondary option if you want to cover more water first. Use a slender 3–4" suspending jerkbait in natural shiner or white. Work it with a twitch-twitch-pause, extending the pause to 5–8 seconds in cold water. Once you mark a fish or get a follow, drop the finesse rig right on the spot.
Check your Ontario Sport Fishing Regulations for FMZ 17 Largemouth Bass limits before keeping anything this late in the season. Cook's Bay largemouth are valuable, late-fall fish are stressed and slow to recover. Handle quickly and release with care.
| Species | Sunday | Today | Tomorrow | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Night9° | Dawn10° | Mid15° | Eve14° | Night12° | Dawn12° | Mid18° | Eve16° | Night14° | |
| Smallmouth | 1 | 25 | 63 | 63 | 20 | 39 | 63 | 56 | 23 |
| Perch | 55 | 75 | 85 | 85 | 69 | 82 | 85 | 82 | 69 |
| Pike | 61 | 74 | 79 | 79 | 69 | 79 | 79 | 76 | 69 |
| Species | Sunday | Today | Tomorrow | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Night10° | Dawn11° | Mid15° | Eve14° | Night13° | Dawn12° | Mid16° | Eve16° | Night14° | |
| ★Smallmouth | 13 | 36 | 64 | 46 | 20 | 38 | 59 | 60 | 13 |
| ★Perch | 65 | 80 | 87 | 85 | 72 | 83 | 85 | 85 | 65 |
| Pike | 66 | 77 | 77 | 79 | 69 | 77 | 77 | 76 | 63 |
| Largemouth | – | 18 | 24 | 25 | 5 | 19 | 21 | 19 | – |
Northeast shoreline is your first stop. Wind push is stacking smallmouth against that bank right now. Work the rocky points and any submerged structure in 15–20ft, that's where fall fish suspend tight to bottom waiting for an easy meal. The overcast sky and stable high pressure (1026 hPa) are keeping fish from snapping hard, so expect a deliberate, bottom-hugging bite rather than aggressive chasing.
Lead with a football-head jig, 1/4–3/8oz, paired with a 3–4" craw or creature plastic in green pumpkin or brown. Dead-slow drag along rock rubble, move it 6 inches, pause 3–4 seconds, repeat. These fish are cold, heavy, and lethargic, don't rush it. For a second option, a deep-diving crankbait that digs to 12–18ft in a crawfish or natural shad colour worked slowly along the bottom through that rocky structure can trigger reaction strikes from fish that won't commit to a jig.
Target the 15–20ft zone first, then drop to 20–25ft if the bite stalls. November smallmouth in Simcoe are at maximum body weight right now, that cold-water fight is something else. The 7.6–19.6ft depth window given for tonight is valid, but in daylight expect the bigger fish to sit deeper on the outer edges of structure. Transition zones where rock meets softer bottom are productive ambush points.
Overcast skies are a slight edge today, fish will be marginally more willing to feed than on bright days. But rising-then-stable pressure means the window may tighten. Get on structure early. If fish are unresponsive to the craw drag, slow your pause to 5–6 seconds and shorten your drag to 3–4 inches. Cold-water smallmouth often need the bait sitting nearly motionless before they commit.
Northeast shoreline is your first stop. Wind push from the southwest is stacking perch against that bank right now. Target 20–25ft along any hard bottom transition, gravel-to-mud edges hold the most fish this time of year. Schools are tightening up pre-freeze and feeding aggressively. High pressure at 1026 hPa with a stable trend keeps them active and predictable in the lower water column.
Lead with a small jigging spoon in gold or chartreuse, 1/4–3/8oz. Drop it to bottom, rip it 12–18 inches, let it flutter back on 2–3 seconds of slack. That flash and fall triggers the school. Once you mark them or connect, slow your cadence, 1-inch lifts with a 3-second deadstick pause close the deal. Overcast sky keeps perch off the sun-avoidance pattern, so don't be shy about staying mid-column if bottom action goes quiet.
Secondary setup: a 1/8oz round ball jig head paired with a 2–3" paddle tail or grub in white, perch, or chartreuse. Work it at a deadstick or micro-hop retrieve, perch will inhale it. Size the hook to 1/0 and keep the plastic under 3 inches to match what they're feeding on this time of year. When the spoon pulls the school in, this finesse rig converts the followers.
Watch your limit. Perch season is open, check your licence class before keeping fish. Late fall perch are at peak table quality right now, which means pressure on these schools is high. Mark your spot but expect company on that northeast shoreline.