.png)
| Species | Today | Tomorrow | Tuesday | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid16° | Eve13° | Night10° | Dawn10° | Mid14° | Eve14° | Night13° | Dawn12° | Mid16° | Eve16° | Night14° | |
| ★Perch | 84 | 81 | 65 | 81 | 87 | 85 | 72 | 83 | 85 | 85 | 65 |
| ★Pike | 88 | 86 | 75 | 88 | 88 | 90 | 78 | 90 | 87 | 86 | 72 |
| ★Crappie | 57 | 49 | 33 | 47 | 71 | 59 | 44 | 53 | 69 | 71 | 35 |
| ★Largemouth | 27 | 21 | – | 20 | 28 | 30 | 5 | 24 | 24 | 23 | – |
Northeast shoreline is your first stop. Wind push is stacking perch against that bank right now. Target 15–20ft on the edge where the flat transitions to deeper water, this is the perch highway in early November. Cloudy skies keep fish active through midday, so don't wait for evening.
Drop a small jigging spoon or a 2–3" paddle tail on a 1/8oz round ball jig head in a natural perch or white/chartreuse pattern. Perch are schooled tight this time of year, find one, find fifty. Start with 3–4 sharp snaps to pull fish in from range, then kill it for 2–3 seconds. Most strikes come on that pause. If you're getting follows but no commits, downsize to a 1/16oz head with a 2" grub in straight white or yellow, perch can be finicky in 1028 hPa high-pressure air even when the trend is falling.
Barometric pressure is falling off a high, that transition window is prime feeding time. Expect the bite to build through the afternoon as pressure drops. Fish are staging at 15–21ft right now, but if the school goes quiet, kick out to 20–25ft and jig along bottom contours. Perch in late fall are hammering anything that looks like a small minnow or invertebrate near bottom. Keep your presentation within 18 inches of bottom, they are rarely suspended.
Slot check: Yellow Perch season is open. These are prime table-fare fish right now, firm flesh, excellent eating. Know your daily limit before you drop a line and keep only what you'll use. Light 6–8lb monofilament or fluorocarbon leader is the call, perch aren't line-shy, but they'll feel stiff braid on a finesse drop.
Northeast shoreline is your primary target right now. Wind push is stacking pike tight to that bank. Work the dying weed edges in 4–12ft, specifically the outside edge where weeds transition to open bottom. Points and current seams along that shore come second.
Barometer is rising and sky is cloudy, that combo keeps pike active and hunting. Water temp is cooling toward freeze-up, which means these fish are in serious pre-winter feed mode. Cooks Bay pike are fat and aggressive this time of year. Expect reaction strikes.
Lead with a large spoon or magnum-sized spinnerbait, 1–1.5oz in a gold or chartreuse-and-gold finish for the stained water. Burn it fast along the outside weed edge, 0.5–1 meter above the bottom. If that doesn't connect in 20 casts, drop to a 6–8" paddle tail swimbait on a 3/8–1/2oz swimbait head in white or perch pattern, slow-roll it through the same zone at 4–6ft depth, right along the weed face. Trophy-class fish will be on the deepest reachable weed edge in that 10–12ft zone. Keep moving, cover water until you find the school.
Season is open. Pike on Cooks Bay this week can be some of the fattest of the year. Handle fish quickly in the cold water, support the body horizontally, and get them back in fast, post-spawn stress is not a factor now but these fish deserve a clean release.
Black crappie are stacking on the northeast shoreline right now. Rising pressure and cloud cover is your friend, overcast skies keep crappie active through midday instead of just dawn and dusk. Target 10–18ft of water along that wind-pushed shore, focusing on any submerged wood, dock pilings, or soft-bottom transition edges. Schools are tight, so work methodically, if you don't connect in 5 minutes, move 10 feet and try again.
Lead with a 1/16oz jig head paired with a 2" soft plastic grub or tube in white, pink, or chartreuse. That weight keeps you in the 10–18ft zone with a slow, controlled fall, crappie in cold water need a 3–4 second pause between lifts. Drop straight down, lift 6–8 inches, pause, repeat. Don't force a horizontal retrieve; vertical is the percentage play in November. Cloud cover today means slightly brighter colours like chartreuse or pink outperform naturals, push toward glow or UV if the bite slows after noon.
Keep your hookset soft. Crappie mouths tear easily, a firm wrist flick is all you need, then steady pressure all the way to the net. These fish are schooling tight, so once you mark a fish on the sounder or connect, drop a marker and work that exact spot. Don't chase singles, if one is there, five more are within casting distance.
Falling baro trend is fighting your rising pressure reading, this creates an unsettled bite window. Expect short bursts of activity rather than sustained feeding. Hit the northeast bank hard in the first 2 hours on the water, then be ready to relocate. Crappie in late fall school by size, if you're catching small fish, go deeper or farther along the structure to find the bigger slab-class fish sitting lower in the water column.
Northeast shoreline is your first stop. Wind push is stacking fish there right now. Work 3–11ft over weedy transition edges, late fall largemouth compress into the deepest remaining green weed clumps before they go dormant. Find the last living cabbage and you find the fish.
Cover water first with a lipless crankbait or jerkbait. Both are proven fall search tools when bass are chasing baitfish. A 1/2oz lipless in a shad or natural baitfish colour, worked on a rip-and-pause retrieve, 3 cranks, 2-second pause, triggers reaction strikes from fish that aren't fully committed. Water temps near 10°C mean the bite window is narrow; cover water until you get a hit, then slow down.
Once you mark a cluster, drop down to a finesse jig. A 3–4" craw or creature plastic on a 3/16–1/4oz jig head, natural green-pumpkin or brown colour. Drag it slow, painfully slow, right along the weed edge at 8–11ft. Rising barometer with cloud cover is a legitimate feeding window, but cooling water keeps their metabolism sluggish. Let the bait sit 4–5 seconds dead on the bottom between drags. That pause does the work.
One check before you go: confirm you're in the correct Fisheries Management Zone (FMZ) for Cook's Bay. Largemouth season is open, but limit and possession rules vary by zone, verify your FMZ-specific regs for daily limit and size before keeping anything. November largemouth are heavy with fall fat; handle quickly and return carefully.
| Species | Today | Tomorrow | Tuesday | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid18° | Eve12° | Night9° | Dawn10° | Mid15° | Eve14° | Night12° | Dawn12° | Mid18° | Eve17° | Night15° | |
| Smallmouth | 60 | 51 | 9 | 24 | 60 | 56 | 19 | 39 | 56 | 63 | 21 |
| Perch | 84 | 78 | 62 | 73 | 84 | 82 | 69 | 82 | 82 | 85 | 69 |
| Pike | 77 | 72 | 66 | 74 | 77 | 77 | 69 | 79 | 77 | 79 | 69 |
| Species | Today | Tomorrow | Tuesday | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid16° | Eve13° | Night10° | Dawn10° | Mid14° | Eve14° | Night13° | Dawn12° | Mid16° | Eve16° | Night14° | |
| ★Smallmouth | 42 | 35 | 11 | 34 | 41 | 39 | 19 | 37 | 59 | 60 | 11 |
| ★Perch | 83 | 81 | 65 | 81 | 83 | 83 | 72 | 83 | 85 | 85 | 65 |
| Pike | 77 | 76 | 66 | 77 | 77 | 77 | 69 | 79 | 77 | 79 | 63 |
| Largemouth | 22 | 17 | – | 16 | 21 | 20 | 3 | 20 | 20 | 25 | – |
Smallmouth Bass, Strawberry Island, November 1
Northeast shoreline is your starting point. Wind push is stacking fish there right now. Work the rocky points and reef edges on the wind-blown side, targeting 15–21ft of water. The falling baro trend tightens smallmouth to the bottom, they won't be chasing, so precision matters more than covering water.
Football-head jig, 1/4oz, tipped with a 3–4" craw-style or chunk plastic in natural brown, green pumpkin, or goby pattern. Drag it dead-slow across rock rubble, one drag, 3-second pause, repeat. Count every pause. Cold water means cold metabolism; anything faster gets ignored. Keep the line tight on the fall, bites often come on the drop and feel like nothing more than a slight tick.
Deep-diving crankbait is your second call, particularly if you want to cover structure efficiently before committing. A billed crankbait that runs 12–20ft digging through rocky bottom contact on a slow-to-medium retrieve, roughly 1 full rotation per second, will trigger reaction strikes from neutral fish. Deflection off rock is the trigger; grind it into the bottom intentionally. Natural shad, perch, or craw colour works well in clear Simcoe water under overcast skies.
One caution: the rising pressure reading conflicts with the noted falling baro trend, that crossover period can slow the bite noticeably. Don't mistake a slow hour for a dead bite. Stay methodical, stay slow, and keep contact with the bottom. The fish are there.
Northeast shoreline is your primary zone right now. Wind push is stacking baitfish and perch against that bank. Start in 15–20ft and slide deeper to 20–35ft as the afternoon progresses, late fall schools are consolidating hard at depth ahead of freeze-up. Rising pressure on a cloudy sky is a solid combination; perch are active but may want a moment to commit.
Drop a small jig tipped with a soft plastic into the strike zone. A 1/8oz round ball jig head paired with a 2–3" paddle tail or grub in perch/goby natural patterns is the bread-and-butter setup for clear Simcoe water. White, yellow, or a subtle chartreuse belly all produce. Hit bottom, rip it hard two or three times to pull fish off the mud and attract the school, then slow to a 1–2 second pause and a 6-inch lift. That closing move is what loads the hook. If you're jigging a small spoon, 1/4oz gold or silver in the 2" range, same cadence applies: bang it, pause, let it flutter.
Horizontal presentations at mid-column can also trigger suspended fish. If the school is hanging 5–8ft off bottom, a small jigging spoon on a slow, rhythmic flutter, rather than a hard bottom-contact thump, keeps you in the zone longer. Vary your pause from 2 seconds up to 5 seconds until you find what they want today. When you mark fish on sonar and they ignore the drop, slow everything down and hold steady.
Baro trend is showing falling, watch for the bite window to tighten. Falling pressure after a high often compresses the active feed period into a shorter burst rather than spreading it across the afternoon. Be on the water and dialled in for the early afternoon window. Use 4–6lb monofilament or 6lb fluorocarbon leader, Simcoe perch are line-shy in clear conditions. Keep a landing net handy; fall perch are fat and worth every trip to the box.