Cold fronts continue to make it difficult for fishermen to establish a consistent pattern. Some people think that lure type and color is the key to a successful day on the water but it’s more about location.

No matter the lure, you can’t catch what’s not there. In December some fish will hold deep, some shallow and some will suspend over deep water. This week was a warm one until today.

Highs in the low 80s warmed the shallow water and the baitfish moved up. We enjoyed spring-like weather and a good shallow water bite but that’s about to change, again.

With air temps in the 30s you can expect the shallow water bite to taper off a bit and the deep-water fishing to improve.

You can still pick off some thin water fish by banging the banks, but if the lake you’re fishing has some deep water that’s where the best fishing should be.

Good reports on the crappie are coming from the Saline/Larto Complex south of Jonesville. On Larto Lake the colder the water the better the bite.

For big slab perch, try hair jigs and live shiners around the man-made brush piles. The wind will probably be blowing behind this front. If you can’t hold on the open water brush piles try the bayous and man-made canals that connect Larto with Saline Lake.

The Black River/Horseshoe Lake Complex is producing some nice crappie as well. Horseshow is a shallow water lake and those fish will turn off behind a cold front.

Your best bet for crappie after a cold front is the deeper water of Black River Lake. Fish the man-made brush piles and floating docks with jigs and shiners.

Black River Lake offers some great cold-water bass fishing. Try deep diving crankbaits, jigs and jigging spoons for the bass. Over the next two or three months the bass on this lake will receive very little fishing pressure.

The landlocked oxbow lakes, Concordia, St. John and Lake Bruin, are in great shape for bass. This cold front should move more fish to the deep-water brush piles and ledges on Bruin.

Try heavy jigs, soft plastics and jigging spoons. Some fish will stay near the cypress trees but the larger bass should be deep this coming week.

Lake Concordia is producing some nice bass. You may not catch numbers but the ones you stick will usually be big. Bomber 7A crankbaits and heavy jigs fished around the outside cypress trees is the way to go on Concordia and Lake St. John.

Franklin County’s Lake Okhissa is still the hot subject among the bass fishermen so you may have these lakes to yourself. Expect to find a good deep-water bite on Okhissa over the next few days.

Eddie Roberts writes a weekly fishing column for The Democrat. He can be reached at fishingwitheddie@cox.net.