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| Species | Today | Tomorrow | Tuesday | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eve12° | Night10° | Dawn10° | Mid14° | Eve14° | Night13° | Dawn12° | Mid16° | Eve16° | Night14° | |
| ★Perch | 81 | 65 | 81 | 83 | 85 | 72 | 83 | 85 | 85 | 65 |
| ★Pike | 86 | 75 | 88 | 88 | 90 | 78 | 90 | 87 | 86 | 72 |
| ★Crappie | 48 | 32 | 46 | 51 | 58 | 43 | 53 | 69 | 71 | 34 |
| ★Largemouth | 21 | – | 19 | 27 | 29 | 4 | 23 | 23 | 22 | – |
Northeast shoreline is your first stop. Strong wind fetch is pushing baitfish and perch into that corner, don't fight the wind, fish where it's stacking fish. Target 15–21ft along any hard-bottom or weed-edge transition. Perch are aggregating in bigger schools this time of year ahead of freeze-up, and a rising bar with sunny skies means they'll be active but may need a little coaxing after the initial bite fires.
Lead with a small jigging spoon or blade bait, 1/4oz, gold or chartreuse. Drop to bottom, lift 12 inches sharp, let it flutter back, that flash and thump calls fish in from 20+ feet away. Once you mark the school, switch to a 1/8oz round ball jig head tipped with a 2–3" paddle tail or grub in white or perch-belly yellow. Work it at dead-slow: 2-inch hops with 3–5 second pauses right on bottom. That's what closes the deal on fall perch.
Water depth sweet spot today is 15–20ft. Don't go shallower than 12ft, the sun and clear skies will push fish tight to deeper structure during midday. If the bite dies in 15ft, slide out to 20ft. Perch stack in layers; if you find one, there are 50 more within 10 feet. Use a float or slip bobber rig with a small tungsten jig tipped with a waxworm or minnow head as an alternative, slower presentation, deadly when jigging is too aggressive.
Watch your limit: Yellow Perch season is open. These fish are excellent table fare right now, fat and feeding hard. High-pressure post-front days can produce fast early action that slows by midday, get out before 10am or after 3pm for the best windows.
Northeast shoreline is your first stop. Wind push is stacking baitfish, and pike, tight to that shore right now. Work the dying weed edges in 4–12ft. Outside weed edges and any rock-to-weed transitions are the money spots. Rising pressure after a fall typically slows fish slightly, but late-season pre-freeze aggression overrides that on Cook's Bay pike. These fish are feeding hard. Get there.
Lead with a large spoon or magnum spinnerbait. Silver or white in the sunny, clearer fall water. Size up, 5/8 to 1oz spoon, or a 1oz+ spinnerbait with a big Colorado or tandem blade. Retrieve fast: 4–5 cranks per second on the spoon with a snap-pause every 8–10ft. Pike here are fat on an exceptional forage base and will chase. If they're short-striking, slow to 2–3 cranks per second and add a 2-second pause at the weed edge, let it flutter down.
If the reaction bite stalls, drop an 8–10" swimbait on a heavy swimbait head (3/8–1/2oz) along the weed edge. White or natural shad pattern. Medium-slow retrieve, 1–2 cranks per second, keeping it just above the weed tops in 6–10ft. This is your big-fish play, November on Cook's Bay produces the largest pike of the year. Don't leave a productive edge too quickly; make multiple passes from different angles before moving.
Pike season is open, no size restriction noted, but know your daily limit before you keep anything. With 10 km/h winds from a consistent direction, drift presentations along the weed edge can be extremely effective. Anchor upcurrent and cast parallel to the edge rather than perpendicular, you'll keep the bait in the strike zone 3–4x longer per retrieve.
Northeast shoreline is your first stop. Wind push is stacking crappie tight against that bank right now. Target 10–18ft of water along any dock pilings, submerged timber, or weedline edge you can find. Midday sun will push them slightly deeper, start at 14ft, work shallower if nothing bites in 10 minutes.
Light jig with a small soft plastic is the high-percentage play. A 1/8oz round ball jig head paired with a 2–3" paddle tail or tube in white, chartreuse, or pearl. Stained water from wind chop? Go chartreuse. Clear pockets near structure? White or pearl. Suspend it, twitch once, pause 3–4 seconds, repeat. Crappie in cold fall water are sluggish, that pause is what triggers the bite.
Rising baro under sunny skies slows the bite. 1027 hPa and climbing is not ideal for crappie, which are light-sensitive and pressure-aware. Dawn and the last hour of daylight today will dramatically outperform midday. If you're fishing afternoon, work the deepest edge of that 18ft zone and slow everything down, longer pauses, shorter twitches, 1/16oz if fish are finicky and you can get away with it at that depth.
Soft mouths, set soft. No hard hook sets. Steady upward pressure only or you'll lip-tear and lose fish. Use 4–6lb fluorocarbon to stay invisible in the sunny, clear-pocket conditions you'll find against that northeast bank.
Northeast shoreline is your first stop. Strong wind fetch is pushing baitfish into that corner and largemouth are stacking behind them in 3–10ft. Start shallow, 4–6ft along any weed edge, dock, or hard bottom transition you can find. Sunny skies and rising barometric pressure in late fall can switch off mid-depth fish, so work tight to structure rather than open water.
Cover water fast with a lipless crankbait in a shad or chrome pattern, ¾oz, steady retrieve at roughly one rotation per second, deflecting off any remaining weed tips. If that doesn't draw strikes in the first 30 minutes, it's a slow-down situation. Drop to a 3–4" paddle tail on a 1/8–¼oz swimbait head in white or natural shad colour, crawled along the bottom at 6–10ft in a 5-seconds-forward, 2-second-drop cadence. November 1 water temps are borderline, once you're below 10°C, that slow roll is your highest-percentage play.
Jerkbaits are a strong second option along any dock or laydown in the 4–8ft zone. Long pauses, 3 to 5 seconds dead-still, are key in cold water. Fish are lethargic; the bait needs to sit in their face. Stick with a natural perch or shad colour in the sunshine.
Watch the afternoon light. Largemouth in late fall feed hard during the warmest window, typically 1–4 PM when surface temp peaks. If the bite stalls completely after 4 PM, it's done for the day, pack it in rather than grinding cold water after dark.
| Species | Today | Tomorrow | Tuesday | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eve11° | Night9° | Dawn10° | Mid15° | Eve14° | Night12° | Dawn12° | Mid18° | Eve17° | Night15° | |
| Smallmouth | 23 | 8 | 23 | 53 | 37 | 18 | 38 | 56 | 63 | 20 |
| Perch | 73 | 62 | 73 | 80 | 80 | 69 | 82 | 82 | 85 | 69 |
| Pike | 72 | 66 | 74 | 77 | 77 | 69 | 79 | 77 | 79 | 69 |
| Species | Today | Tomorrow | Tuesday | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eve12° | Night10° | Dawn10° | Mid14° | Eve14° | Night13° | Dawn12° | Mid16° | Eve16° | Night14° | |
| ★Smallmouth | 35 | 10 | 33 | 41 | 38 | 18 | 37 | 59 | 60 | 11 |
| ★Perch | 81 | 65 | 81 | 83 | 83 | 72 | 83 | 85 | 85 | 65 |
| Pike | 76 | 66 | 77 | 77 | 77 | 69 | 79 | 77 | 79 | 63 |
| Largemouth | 16 | – | 16 | 21 | 20 | 3 | 19 | 19 | 25 | – |
Pressure is rising and that's your green light, smallmouth are active and feeding windows are open. With air at 14°C and the lake still in open water, fish have stacked on main-basin rocky structure in 15–20ft. The northeast shoreline is your first stop, wind push is concentrating baitfish there right now. Rocky humps, points, and reef edges in that 8–20ft band are holding the most fish. Don't waste time on soft bottom or weed edges today.
Go with a football-head jig, 1/4oz, paired with a 3–4" craw or creature trailer in green pumpkin or brown. Drag it slow, dead slow, through rock rubble on bottom. One hop every 3–4 seconds, let it sit. Cold water fish don't chase; they eat what's already in front of them. If you want to cover water faster, a deep-diving crankbait in natural perch or goby pattern cranked through 12–18ft of rocky structure will trigger reaction strikes from aggressive fish in that feeding window.
Secondary setup: a 3–4" paddle tail on a 1/4oz swimbait head, white or smoke with silver flake, in clear water conditions like today. Swim it just off bottom at 1–1.5 cranks per second through 15–20ft. Count it down to the bottom, then maintain contact with the rock. That depth band matches what you have right now and the sunny sky drives fish tighter to structure.
Rising pressure on a sunny November day can turn off by mid-afternoon as light penetration peaks, fish your most productive structure hard in the morning and early afternoon. Cold-water November smallmouth are the hardest-fighting fish of the year, pound for pound. Keep them in the water as long as possible for photos, recovery is slower in cold water.
Northeast shoreline is your starting point. Wind push is stacking perch on that shore right now. Target 10–20ft of water over hard bottom, sand, gravel, or rock transitions are where the school holds. A rising bar on a sunny November day means perch are active and feeding, not suspended. Get there early afternoon when light penetrates and triggers the bite.
A small jigging spoon is your highest-percentage presentation. Go 1/8–1/4oz in a gold or perch-pattern finish, matches the forage and lights up in the November sun. Drop to bottom, jig hard 3–4 times to call the school in, then slow to a 1-second lift with a 2-second pause. Let it flutter on the drop, that's when they eat it. If they're tight to bottom, a 2–3" soft plastic grub on a 1/8oz round ball head in chartreuse or white works the same zone with a slower fall.
Keep moving until you mark fish. Perch schools this time of year are tight and dense, if you're not marking them within 10 minutes, relocate 50ft along the same depth contour. Once you're on the school, stay disciplined: drop straight down, keep the presentation in the strike zone (within 12 inches of bottom), and work methodically. Don't burn the spot by fan-casting, vertical presentation keeps the whole school under the boat.
Watch the pressure. You noted baro trend as falling fast, that's contradicting the 1027 rising reading. If pressure is genuinely dropping, the morning bite window may close earlier than expected and perch will get finicky by late afternoon. Drop down to a 1/16oz head with a 1.5–2" plastic in natural perch or white, fish dead slow with a 3-second pause. This is prime eating perch, November fish are fat and clean. Check your daily limit before you go: confirm your licence class and the current S/C limit for Lake Simcoe perch.