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| Species | Today | Tomorrow | Wednesday | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dawn12° | Mid15° | Eve14° | Night13° | Dawn13° | Mid16° | Eve16° | Night15° | Dawn14° | Mid17° | Eve15° | Night15° | |
| ★Perch | 83 | 87 | 88 | 77 | 85 | 85 | 88 | 72 | 88 | 85 | 83 | 74 |
| ★Pike | 84 | 88 | 90 | 78 | 88 | 86 | 90 | 72 | 90 | 86 | 84 | 75 |
| ★Crappie | 64 | 71 | 77 | 68 | 71 | 69 | 77 | 60 | 77 | 69 | 68 | 65 |
| ★Largemouth | 19 | 34 | 35 | 12 | 27 | 26 | 39 | 4 | 33 | 26 | 24 | 6 |
Fall perch in Cook's Bay are schooling up hard right now and that northeast shoreline is your starting point. Wind push is stacking bait and fish tight to that bank, work 10–20ft over soft bottom transitions where the flat meets any subtle edge. Overcast sky pulls perch shallower and extends the feed window, so don't sleep past mid-morning.
Lead with a small jigging spoon in the 1/8–1/4oz range, gold or chartreuse in stained water, silver or natural in clearer sections. Drop to bottom, rip it hard 2–3 times to call fish in from distance, then kill it for 3–5 seconds. That fall on the pause is when they eat. If you're marking fish but getting short-strikes, drop down to a 1/16–1/8oz jig head paired with a 2–3" paddle tail in perch or shad colour, finesse them with a slow 0.5ft/sec lift-and-drop.
Rising barometer locks in at stable today, perch should be active but deliberate, not frantic. Schools may be suspended 2–4ft off bottom, so dial in your depth on the sonar before committing to a presentation. If the spoon isn't producing after 10 minutes, don't move the boat, swap the presentation, not the spot. These fish are already grouped for pre-ice staging and a school can be 50-fish deep.
Daily limit is S-4 / C-2 per licence type. These are quality eating fish right now, firm, cold-water flesh. Keep what you'll use and get them on ice fast.
Northeast shoreline is your first stop. Wind push has been stacking baitfish against that shore all day, pike follow the food. Work the dying weed edges in 4–12 ft, specifically the outside edge where green transitions to brown and bare bottom begins. Points and current seams along that stretch are secondary ambush spots worth a few casts each.
Rising pressure, overcast sky, 11°C air, this is a top-tier fall pike window. Cooling water has these fish in pre-freeze feeding mode, and an exceptional forage base means the fish coming to the net are fat and aggressive. Overcast kills shadows and keeps pike shallow longer than a bluebird day would. Expect reaction strikes, not passive follows.
Large spoons (3–5 inches, silver or gold with an orange or red accent) are the highest-percentage choice along weed edges, burn them at medium-fast retrieve, pause 2–3 seconds over structure, then rip again. A magnum spinnerbait in white or chartreuse (3/4–1 oz) covers water fast and triggers aggressive fish on that northeast flat. If you want to slow down and pick apart a specific weed edge, a large paddle tail (5–6 inches, white or perch pattern) on a 3/8–1/2 oz swimbait head fished at 4–6 ft works the zone precisely, slow roll it just above the weeds, 1–2 ft off bottom.
Big fish this time of year run the main transition zones, don't waste casts in dead open water. Stay tight to structure. If the weed edge goes quiet, move to the nearest point and work the rock-to-weed transition. These fish are stacked, not scattered.
Black Crappie, Cook's Bay, November 2
Overcast sky is your best friend today. Crappie are light-sensitive and this cloud cover keeps them active through the mid-morning window, not just at first light. Fish the northeast shoreline, wind push is stacking baitfish and crappie right there. Target 8–12 feet over submerged weededges, dock pilings, and any wood structure near marinas or creek mouths. Schools are tight; mark fish on sonar before you drop.
Go small and slow. A 1.5–2" tube or curly tail grub on a 1/16 oz ball-head jig is the highest-percentage presentation. White, chartreuse, or pink in low-light overcast. Lower it to the school depth and deadstick it, crappie in cool November water respond to a 3–5 second pause between micro-lifts of 4–6 inches. Retrieve at roughly 1 foot per 4 seconds on the upswing. Match hook size to plastic: a #2 or #1 light-wire hook keeps soft mouths from tearing.
Set the hook gently, a hard snap tears right through a crappie's paper-thin mouth. Steady, lifting pressure is all you need. Use a light spinning rod, 4–6 lb mono or 6 lb braid with a fluorocarbon leader; the lighter the line, the better the subtle action on a 1/16 oz head. If you mark fish but they won't commit, drop to a 1" micro tube on a 1/32 oz head and fish it completely stationary.
Schools are mobile in late fall, if you don't get bit within 10 minutes, move 20–30 feet along that northeast bank and re-check. Rising pressure locked stable means the bite window is consistent but not explosive. Keep your presentation in the 8–12 foot column and let the cloud cover do the rest.
Where: Hit the northeast shoreline hard, wind push is stacking bait and bass there right now. Work 2–8ft first light, then slide out to 8–10ft as the sun climbs. Look for any remaining weededge, dock pilings, fallen wood, or hard-bottom transitions. Overcast sky kills the glare and keeps fish shallower longer.
What: Air temp is 11.4°C but water is cooling fast toward that 10°C shutoff. Bass are still feeding but slowing down. A lipless crankbait or jerkbait in a shad/silver pattern covers water fast and triggers reaction strikes on active fish. Drop to a 3–4" paddle tail on a 1/8–1/4oz swimbait head in white or natural shad colour for fish that won't commit. Rising pressure stabilizing means the bite window is real but narrow.
How: Fan-cast the northeast bank with the search bait first, slow it down to a 2–3ft/s crawl and kill it every 3–4 seconds. If reaction bites dry up by 9am, park on the best piece of wood or weededge and work the paddle tail on a 1/8oz swimbait head at a near-dead-slow roll, 6 inches off bottom. Pauses of 4–6 seconds are not too long right now. Water this cool demands patience between twitches.
Warning: With water approaching 10°C, the largemouth bite can shut off mid-morning with zero notice. If you haven't touched a fish by 10am, the active window has likely closed for the day. Perch and pike are sharing this same northeast shoreline, keep a rod rigged for bonus species so the morning isn't wasted.
| Species | Today | Tomorrow | Wednesday | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dawn11° | Mid16° | Eve14° | Night13° | Dawn13° | Mid17° | Eve18° | Night15° | Dawn14° | Mid18° | Eve16° | Night16° | |
| Smallmouth | 53 | 63 | 56 | 47 | 63 | 56 | 63 | 47 | 63 | 55 | 55 | 40 |
| Perch | 80 | 85 | 82 | 74 | 85 | 82 | 85 | 74 | 85 | 82 | 82 | 71 |
| Pike | 74 | 79 | 76 | 69 | 79 | 77 | 79 | 69 | 79 | 76 | 76 | 66 |
| Species | Today | Tomorrow | Wednesday | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dawn12° | Mid15° | Eve14° | Night13° | Dawn13° | Mid16° | Eve16° | Night15° | Dawn14° | Mid17° | Eve15° | Night15° | |
| ★Smallmouth | 56 | 64 | 67 | 50 | 60 | 60 | 67 | 40 | 60 | 59 | 56 | 43 |
| ★Perch | 83 | 87 | 88 | 77 | 85 | 85 | 88 | 72 | 85 | 85 | 83 | 74 |
| Pike | 74 | 77 | 79 | 69 | 77 | 77 | 79 | 63 | 76 | 76 | 74 | 66 |
| Largemouth | 16 | 28 | 29 | 10 | 22 | 21 | 30 | 3 | 20 | 21 | 20 | 5 |
Smallmouth Bass, Strawberry Island, November 2
Rising pressure and 11°C air means smallmouth are locked tight to bottom structure in 15–20ft. Northeast shoreline is your first stop, wind-pushed baitfish stack there and bass follow. Target main-basin rocky points and humps where 8–20ft rock transitions to deeper water. Dawn window opens in 7.6–19.6ft; start shallow on the break and work deeper as light builds.
Lead with a football-head jig in 1/4–3/8oz matched to a 3–4" craw-style plastic in natural brown, green pumpkin, or goby pattern. Drag it dead-slow across rock rubble, 1 foot per 3–4 seconds, with 4–5 second dead pauses every rod length. These fish are not chasing in cold water; you're putting it on their nose. A deep-diving crankbait (reaches 12–18ft) in natural shad or perch colour is a strong second option, slow roll it through rock structure at the pace you'd work it in 10°C water, roughly half your summer speed.
Overcast sky is a mild positive, diffuse light pulls fish slightly shallower on the structure, so don't ignore the 8–12ft rock shelves. Stable baro means they're not locked down hard but not actively roaming either. Expect short strikes; size down to a 3" plastic on a 1/4oz head if you're getting taps without hookups. Finesse matters more than flash today.
Stable barometer with falling temperatures means fish are transitioning, the bite window is real but short. Best action is typically within 90 minutes of first light on cold fall mornings. Don't oversell the day; one productive reef at depth is worth more than covering water.
Northeast shoreline is your first stop. Wind push is stacking perch against that bank right now. Target 10–20ft of water along any hard bottom, rock, or weed edge transition. Perch are schooling up pre-ice in bigger groups than you'll see all year, find one, find fifty.
Drop a small jigging spoon or a 2–3" paddle tail on a 1/8oz round ball head in perch/goby natural patterns, olive, yellow-green, or white. Clear Lake Simcoe water means go natural first. Work it at 10–15ft to start, then step deeper toward 20ft if the school has moved off the flat. Jig it hard three or four times to pull fish in, sharp 6–8" pops, then dead-stop it for 2–3 seconds. Most strikes come on that pause.
Barometric pressure is stable at 1025 and rising slightly. That's a neutral-to-positive bite window, not a shutdown. Overcast sky kills the glare and keeps perch in the water column instead of buried on bottom, work mid-column, not just the deck. If the school goes quiet, drop a tiny 1/16oz finesse jig with a 1–2" grub tail and slow your cadence right down: one short pop, 4-second hang.
Today's big risk is crowds, not fish. November perch on Simcoe draws local regulars who know exactly what's happening right now. Hit the northeast bank early. These fish are aggressive feeders heading into freeze-up, this is the best table-fish window of the year. Limit for a Sports licence is 50 perch; Conservation licence is 25. Dial in your depth and stay mobile until you mark fish, don't anchor and hope.