dropping water

 as i had mentioned in saturdays post the fish had moved from the prior fishing trip.  previously i had found many of my fish around lay downs and other wood cover. the weather has been stable, cool nights often in the  low 60s or upper 50s had dropped the water temp to 69 making me think the spawn was going to happen any day. the daytime temps although mild seem to have made the water temp climb a bit, back up to 71.5 by saturdays trip. the water level had dropped nearly 4 ft over the 2 weeks and is continuing to drop at the rate of 6 inches a day. the dropping water seems to have been a major factor in where i found the fish on saturday, although the local hot stick seems to have found and fired up some very large peacock bass during the tournament on sunday, i didn't have such luck. its been my experience that bass will find  a comfort zone very close to deep water as the level of the lake drops. for instance steep bluffs or points, somewhere they can still move shallow to feed yet have the comfort of knowing they aren't in danger of being high and dry. they seem to abandon coves and shallow wood cover unless the water level stabilizes. grass beds as well seem to become ghost towns. on the opposite end of that i think the peacock bass will sit just outside the grass lines waiting for the falling water to flush the smaller fish out into the open. we have all seen the pods of little talapia in the muddy shallows being rampaged by hungry tucs! for some reason the bass don't seem to key on this feeding bonanza. hopefully the water will stabilize soon, because temp or not mother nature will start the spawn in ver short order  and without a constant water level the nests will be destroyed.