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| Species | Saturday | Today | Tomorrow | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Night6° | Dawn9° | Mid14° | Eve11° | Night10° | Dawn11° | Mid16° | Eve14° | Night13° | |
| ★Perch | 65 | 81 | 81 | 78 | 65 | 81 | 85 | 83 | 69 |
| ★Pike | 72 | 88 | 88 | 86 | 75 | 88 | 90 | 90 | 78 |
| ★Crappie | 21 | 39 | 44 | 42 | 27 | 41 | 55 | 53 | 38 |
| ★Largemouth | – | 6 | 19 | 14 | – | 16 | 27 | 24 | – |
Northeast shoreline is your first stop, wind push is stacking perch right now. Target 18–23ft where the bottom transitions from soft mud to harder substrate near any weed edge or rock. This is their late-fall staging zone before freeze-up, and at 6.8°C they're schooled tight and feeding hard.
Lead with a small jigging spoon, 1/4oz, in gold or chartreuse, tipped with a perch eye or minnow head. Drop to bottom, lift 6 inches, let it flutter back on semi-slack line. That flutter triggers reaction strikes. Once you mark fish on sonar, slow down, 2-second pause between lifts closes the deal. Alternate with a 2–3" paddle tail on a 1/8oz round ball head in white or natural perch pattern. Drag it along bottom at 6–8 inches per second, pause 2 seconds, repeat.
Rising barometer at 1031 hPa means the bite window is open. Perch get active and school vertically when pressure stabilizes after a rise, mark depth on sonar and stay in the zone. If you're jigging and getting short strikes, downsize to a 1/16oz jig with a 2" grub in chartreuse or yellow. Keep your presentation in the bottom 18 inches of the water column, perch will be there.
Yellow Perch season is open. Check your licence type before keeping fish, limits differ between Sports and Conservation.
Northeast shoreline is your first stop. Wind push is stacking pike against that shore right now, baitfish pile up, pike follow. Work the dying weed edges in 4–12ft. Look for the outside edge where weeds transition to open bottom. Rising barometer with stable trend means fish are active and feeding, not suspended.
Throw big and fast. Large spoons (1–2oz, silver or gold) ripped along the weed edge at a medium-fast pace, roughly one crank per second, will trigger reaction strikes from pre-freeze pike. Chartreuse or firetiger if the water has any stain; natural silver or perch patterns in clearer sections. These fish are fat and aggressive right now, building reserves before ice-up. Don't downsize. Go 6–8 inches on swimbaits or big paddle tails paired on a 3/8–1/2oz swimbait head if you want to slow-roll bottom transitions at 8–12ft.
Work the points and current seams along that northeast bank. Any structural pinch point, weed-to-rock transition, point that juts into the fetch, is a pike ambush spot today. Cast parallel to the weed edge, not perpendicular. A large inline spinner with a #5–#6 blade in gold or firetiger retrieved just above the weed tops at a steady medium pace is a proven fall trigger. Pause 2 seconds at every structural break. That's when the big ones eat.
Watch your leader. Run a minimum 12-inch steel or heavy fluorocarbon leader, these fish are toothy and the big ones are out right now. November on Cook's Bay before freeze-up is trophy time. Don't leave early.
Black Crappie, Cook's Bay, November 1
Northeast shoreline is your first stop. Wind push has stacked baitfish and crappie against that bank. Target 8–14ft along any dock piling, submerged weed edge, or marina structure. Rising pressure with a stable baro trend means crappie are holding tight to cover, don't fan-cast, work the structure methodically.
Drop a 1/16oz round ball jig head tipped with a 2" paddle tail or grub in white, pearl, or light chartreuse. Dead-drop it to bottom, lift 6 inches, pause 3 seconds, repeat. Cold 6.8°C water slows their metabolism, if you're retrieving faster than one lift per 4 seconds you're moving too fast. Partly cloudy skies give you a longer window than bluebird sun would; dawn and dusk remain peak, but midday shouldn't be written off today.
Crappie schools are tight right now. Mark fish on sonar, then park directly over them, lateral drifts lose you the school fast. Keep your presentation in the top 3ft of whatever depth you're marking fish. Soft mouths mean a light sweep set, not a hard hookset. Steady pressure all the way to net.
Watch for yellow perch and small walleye mixing into the same structure, both legal, both common in these depths this time of year. Crappie limit in Ontario is S-15, C-10. Downsize to a 1" grub or tube tail in clear-water conditions if bites slow, smaller profile often outperforms in cold, pressured late-fall schools.
Water is cold, 6.8°C means largemouth are sluggish but catchable. Fish are stacking on the northeast shoreline right now thanks to strong wind push. That's your starting point. Work 2–10ft over soft bottom edges, submerged weed edges, and any remaining standing vegetation. Northeast shore, wind-blown points first.
Slow down everything. At these temps largemouth won't chase, finesse is the play. A 3–4" paddle tail on a 1/8–1/4oz swimbait head in natural shad or white is your highest-percentage search bait. Crawl it at roughly one turn every two seconds, dead-slow, and pause 3–5 seconds on any irregularity. Alternatively, a 3–4" ned-style bait on a 1/8oz finesse head dragged along the bottom in green pumpkin or natural brown will pick off the coldest, most lethargic fish. Let it sit 5–8 seconds between lifts.
Rising pressure and partly cloudy skies favour tighter, slower presentations over reaction baits. A lipless crankbait can still cover water quickly at this stage of fall, but burn it slow, near bottom in 6–10ft, and expect follows more than slams. If fish are visible but unresponsive, downsize to a 2–3" finesse option on a 1/16oz head and drag it painfully slow.
One hard rule today: fish are cold, pressured, and post-season-edge cautious. Keep hooks sharp, cold-water bites are subtle, often just a tick or a weight increase. Don't set hard; sweep low and steady. Season is open, so check your slot size and daily limit before keeping anything, largemouth regulations on Simcoe can differ from general Ontario rules by FMZ.
| Species | Saturday | Today | Tomorrow | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Night5° | Dawn8° | Mid15° | Eve10° | Night9° | Dawn11° | Mid18° | Eve14° | Night14° | |
| Smallmouth | – | 24 | 34 | 28 | – | 18 | 43 | 36 | 11 |
| Perch | 55 | 78 | 80 | 77 | 55 | 73 | 82 | 80 | 66 |
| Pike | 57 | 77 | 77 | 77 | 61 | 74 | 79 | 79 | 69 |
| Species | Saturday | Today | Tomorrow | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Night6° | Dawn9° | Mid14° | Eve11° | Night10° | Dawn11° | Mid16° | Eve14° | Night14° | |
| ★Smallmouth | – | 26 | 33 | 28 | 4 | 30 | 42 | 38 | 13 |
| ★Perch | 65 | 81 | 81 | 78 | 65 | 81 | 85 | 83 | 69 |
| Pike | 63 | 77 | 77 | 76 | 66 | 77 | 79 | 79 | 69 |
| Largemouth | – | 5 | 16 | 11 | – | 13 | 23 | 20 | – |
Northeast shoreline structure is your starting point. Wind push is stacking fish there, don't second-guess it. Target rocky points, humps, and bottom transitions in 15–20ft. Smallmouth are tight to bottom this time of year, cold water slows their metabolism and they won't chase far. Every cast should be dragging bottom.
Lead with a football-head jig in 1/4–3/8oz tipped with a 3–4" craw or creature plastic in natural brown, green pumpkin, or goby. Pair a 3/4oz jig with hook size 1/0–2/0 for the 15–20ft zone, size matters for feel on rock rubble. Drag it dead slow, 2–3 inches per pull, 4–6 second pauses. Cold fish need the bait sitting in their face. A subtle hop-drag-pause cadence outperforms anything aggressive right now.
A deep-diving crankbait through 15–20ft of rock structure is a strong alternative. Dive a crankbait rated to 12–20ft along the northeast shoreline structure. Natural shad, perch, or goby colour. Let it deflect off rock, that erratic contact triggers reaction strikes from otherwise lock-jawed fish. Two to three cranks, pause, feel the bottom, repeat. Don't burn it. These fish are sluggish but they will eat.
Rising pressure stabilizing at 1031 hPa is a short feeding window trigger, fish it now. Stable-rising baro after a system often kicks a brief bite window before fish settle again. 6.8°C air suggests water is already in the 8–11°C range, prime fight-to-the-last range for fall smallmouth. Expect smaller fish to be marginally more active; big fish will be slower but achievable. Check your licence, Smallmouth Bass season is open on Simcoe.
Northeast shoreline is your starting point. Wind push is stacking perch there right now. Target 20–25ft, that's where fall schools are aggregating pre-freeze on Simcoe. If you're not marking fish in 20ft, slide out to 25–30ft before you move location.
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-chartreuse, or natural shad. Water is clear this time of year on Simcoe, so keep it realistic. Start with an aggressive 3–4 sharp jigs to pull the school in, then slow to a 1-second lift, 2-second pause to trigger bites. Perch in 20ft+ water on Simcoe respond hard to flash, a small blade or jigging spoon tipped with a minnow head is a proven secondary option when the plastic bite cools.
Pressure is stable at 1031 and rising, this is a feed window. Partly cloudy skies keep perch active through midday. Cold water slows metabolism slightly, so don't rip the bait. That 1-second lift, 2-second dead drop is your consistent producer. If the school goes quiet, downsize to a 1/16oz head and a 2" natural grub. Perch at this time of year are table-grade, locals are out for a reason. Limits are open under a Sports licence, so this is a full keep day if the school cooperates.
Stay on your electronics. Perch schools on Simcoe in November are tight and mobile, if you're not marking fish within 10 minutes, move 50 yards and re-check. Current is minimal with light wind, so bait will hold vertical and stay in the strike zone. Anchor or use a drift sock to stay over the school once you mark them.