The air temperature was in the mid-20s when I met John Yankovich at the Cross Creek County Park boat launch during a recent chilly morning. Despite the cold temperatures the morning was bright, in terms of both the sunrise and our attitudes.

Yankovich, a Washington County resident, has a bit of a love/hate relationship with his local lake. When it’s good, it can be very good, he said. The opposite is also true, he noted.

“Some of the best bass fishing on Cross Creek is when the water is cold,” he stated as we readied the boat and our gear.

After launching, Yankovich motored toward the upper end of the lake, settling in along a section of shoreline that ran between two underwater points. The surface temperature on his sonar registered 41 degrees. We certainly had “cold water conditions.”

While John rotated between a small crankbait, lipless crankbait and a small skirted jig, I alternated between a hair jig and a Z-Man Hula Stickz fished on a 3/16 ounce leadhead jig.

About 15 minutes into the outing, I felt a slight weight on my bucktail jig. When the weight took on some life, it became apparent I had my first largemouth bass of the new year. Soon a 12-incher was swung in the boat.

Just as I was releasing my fish, Yankovich hung his crankbait on a submerged stump. He did the slingshot maneuver which often frees up a snag. In this case, when the lure came free, he found himself hooked up to a nice pound-and-a-half largemouth. A good start to the day with a couple green bass in the boat.

A couple observations here: Bass will bite in frigid water, particularly at this time of the year when the days are getting longer. But don’t expect bites to be aggressive. Often jig bites will be subtle, just a mushy feeling.

If my first bass had been a clump of leaves, the initial feeling would have been the same. Also, it’s not uncommon to catch a bass as soon as a snagged lure becomes free. The fish probably watched the lure twitch from a stationary position as the angler tried to dislodge it. Once successful, the bass reacts by striking the lure.

As the morning continued, the surface temperature gradually rose a couple degrees. Little to no wind was present, a definite plus during early spring fishing. We each picked up a couple more bass, mine on the finesse jigs and John’s on both the lipless and lipped crankbaits. One of John’s bass pushed three pounds.

Yankovich likes small, tight-wobbling crankbaits during the early season. He sees a bait’s ability to stay down in the strike zone as a definite plus, shying away from highly buoyant lures that want to bounce right back toward the surface when paused.

Instead, he goes for ones with more neutral buoyancy. He favors baits with either red or chartreuse in their color pattern. Preferring rods made by IRod Fishing, for crankbait fishing he recommends ones with moderately slow actions, which allow bass more freedom to securely eat the bait and to keep them hooked during the fight.

Cross Creek Lake is relatively new by Pennsylvania reservoir standards, opening in the mid-1980s. The Fish and Boat Commission says it’s 244 acres, but I must question this number. It seems more like the size of Yellow Creek Lake, which is 744 acres.

Currently Cross Creek is managed with both Big Bass Regulations (15-inch minimum size, four bass limit) and Panfish Enhancement Regulations. When last surveyed in 2015, nighttime electrofishing efforts collected bass in numbers well-exceeding that required to maintain Big Bass status, in terms of overall numbers, bass over 12 inches, and ones over 15 inches.

Largemouths up to seven pounds showed up. Trap netting activities revealed quality bluegills, black and white crappies, as well as redear sunfish. The latter is uncommon in Pennsylvania waters and commonly runs to much bigger size than its bluegill cousin.

Unsuccessful attempts to establish both walleye and saugeye were abandoned a few years ago.

During our outing, we fished a variety of habitats. Stump fields, sunken roadbeds, laydowns, beaver lodges and developing weedbeds. John put a couple more bass in the boat by pitching into thick shoreline wood.

We had enough bites to keep things interesting, while fishing at a leisurely pace that included the swapping of plenty of fishing stories.

Boats are limited to 10 hp on Cross Creek Lake. An annual launch permit ($10 for non county residents) is required and can be obtained from the county government. Visit https://www.co.washington.pa.us/ for more information.

In addition to the county park launch that we used, there is also a newer launch located toward the dam at Thompson Hill Park. The latter has a nice handicapped accessible fishing pier.

Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle