Wintertime bass fishing makes it hard to deal with the cold, but easier to select lures for catching cold-water bass. Muted chartreuse, orange, blue, and yellow are good colors for this time of year. Mid Winter Here, turbulent mixing of formerly independent flows can create an area substantially deeper than the surroundings. Casey Ashley. Winter has arrived and believe it or not, it is one of the best times of the year to catch big bass on big swimbaits. Give that topwater jerkbait tip a try this winter, but be sure to give it some time. shares ; Folks at Home! I learned this technique after getting beat (well, we all did) by our boss with a limit of good-size smallmouth bass. Fall is actually a time when you want to make sure you keep a good selection of baits handy. The action of these dying shad is dictated usually by the water temp. Here's a look at the latest shotguns, loads, calls, clothing and more. Mastering these five coldwater bass baits will help you catch more bass when the water turns cold. READ MORE. Delvisco offers that, “a good paper map will help you find these breaklines, but in reality, an accurate digital map card for your boat’s sonar/GPS unit is a necessity. In 2014 he won the Cup on Lake Murray, and in 2013 he won the FLW Tour event on Lake Eufala. Plan your next fishing and boating adventure here. High 30’s low 40’s water temp, Bass are starting to dive deeper, looking for warmer spots away from moving water. It’s definitely one of the things that sets this bait apart from other blade baits.” But, the best line for this is monofilament because it floats. What lures work best to catch pre-spawn bass? In general terms, at this time of year, my key depth zone will be 15 to 25 feet.”. Buyer's Guide: Best Dropshot Baits and Gear! By Posted on ... the Rebound has this fancy fiberglass that’s way more sensitive than regular stuff, and is best-suited for fishing squarebills of all weights, 1/4- to 3/4-oz lipless cranks AND spinnerbaits and bladed jigs. The weight allows you to feel the bottom of the pond and reduce the chance of getting a snag. Cold fronts bearing wind, rain, sleet and snow roll down across the plains, increasing the angler misery index and causing many to abandon rod and reel for bow or rifle. Choose Best Winter Bass Baits. This forage is easy to imitate with a crankbait. Contact Us, Magazine The pause is usually determined by the water temp, but sometimes you just have to experiment and let the bass tell you what they want. It not only produces some great bass, but is a fun way to chase them in the winter. Make sure to be stealthy around the shallow, clear water. Indeed, a year-long telemetry study conducted by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources found that Mississippi River smallies made distinct fall movements of up to 27 kilometers—17 miles—to reach suitable wintering habitat. Yet, bass need a steady stream of calories to not only maintain overall health and body condition but also to develop reproductive tissues in preparation for the spring breeding season. 0 CommentsTempt Winter Bass with ‘Dessert’ to Earn Tough Bites. The bass will move up and down vertically on the wall with changing conditions. The 26th season of FLW’s top professional circuit will feature six regular-season tournaments showcasing the best 150 anglers in the world competing for as much as $135,000 in a five-biggest-fish format on top bass fisheries at peak times. When the water is colder, the shad suspend in the water column and if I see shad dying and gulls diving on them, that tells me the suspending jerkbait is the best choice. That's the combination that'll work best. Denny Brauer. After a fall of testing new 2021 Mathews products on the road as he filmed new episodes for Bowhunter Magazine's television program, editor Curt Wells had an exciting visit with Mark Hayes, Mathews design engineer, as the pair looked at the new V3 27 and V3 31 bows. Working the jerkbait above the baitfish will attract hungry bass. Bass fishing in the winter can be challenging, but, with the lake to yourself, it’s a great time to enjoy the solitude and silence while possibly catching the biggest bass of the season. Just cast your wacky worm out and let it fall. Remember, food is harder to come by in winter, and smallies need to invest those calories to support the development of their reproductive tissues. An approaching warm front is one of the very best conditions to get the bass moving during the winter. Sight Savvy: Different styles of bow sights each have their strengths—and weaknesses. Bluegill are less colorful in the winter, but bass still feed on them. The water is often clear where this presentation shines. Bass are focused on shad during the winter, and I prefer a suspending jerkbait for fishing around vertical structure, like main lake bluffs and bridges, this time of year. However, the bass are still biting and choosing to fish water in the 40s gives you a chance to have some of the best days on the water you'll have all year. Those are the colors you want to use. You will see a twitch or maybe the line just stops before it hits bottom. Many small northern ponds with fewer than 10 feet of water contain large bass which resist fighting in the cold water. Early winter jerkbait fishing is characterized by three main factors: Bass often relate to transition areas; Bass are often suspended or on the bottom; Bass are scattered—cover as much water as possible! Fished vertically or with a jigging retrieve after a long cast, metal baits and early winter bass pair nicely. But, we aren’t going to talk about them because I like the stick version best, especially during the fall and early winter. For the early winter Lake Wylie bait guide I interviewed professional bass fisherman Bryan New – an angler who has amassed over $160,000.00 in career winnings. Winter bass fishing is a great way to get out of the house and, while it might be cold out there, when you hook into a big bass you tend to forget about it. Winter bass fishing offers a great shot at BIG bass! As the baitfish move away in their defensive ball, your jerkbait emulates a struggling shad that can’t keep up. The wacky worm will catch big bass and it’s a great way to catch the biggest bass in the area when the water is cold. Downsized Smallmouth Lures For Winter Bass Fishing Good choices are grubs , jig and craw, smaller spinnerbaits and crankbaits, Whirley Bee/Jimmy D, Sliders, tube jigs or Texas rigged , 4" straight worms like the Senko, and 1/16 ounce synthetic craft hair or duck feather jigs when Float-n-Fly fishing. Bluegill Imitation Crankbait Colors For Winter Bass. These drop-offs can be on points or ledges, but I prefer ones that are in close proximity to the main channel. Such depressions are top-line targets for the winter smallmouth angler. The bite will be light and often will go undetected, so watch your line. 120 Views. Get the bait down to the depth it’s designed, then start a jerk-jerk-pause retrieve. Neither did my partner. Creeks seem to attract bass early. in Bluegill Fishing. Avoid frogs in the early morning. © 2021 Outdoor Sportsman Group. December 7, 2018. Bass will strike topwater baits in really cold water late in the year. This can be a great time to throw a soft-plastic swimbait. I didn’t get to fish my jig much in the first few hours because I was too busy netting James’ nice smallmouths. Casey Ashley . The pump action is where you slowly raise the blade bait off the bottom, or school of bass. The best case scenario is when these fronts linger for two or three days. It’s definitely one of the things that sets this bait apart from other blade baits.” Naturally, color choice relies heavily on water clarity, but silver and shad patterns are good places to start. But, once the pattern is established, you can find one or two good bass in those transition zones in spawning areas. Winter is a great time to catch White Bass. Early winter bass collected along steep breaklines can be targeted with finesse techniques, but presentations provoking reaction strikes are often more productive and definitely more fun. You will get more bites if you stick with the bass’ surroundings by “matching the hatch.”. For this reason, the suspending jerkbait wins as one of my top winter bass baits. However, the bass are still biting and choosing to fish water in the 40s gives you a chance to have some of the best days on the water you'll have all year. They love to move up on transition areas such as points and flats to capture the sun’s rays on those clear winter days. Confluence areas are typically larger than the small depressions associated with current-deflecting cover and will hold substantially more fish, many dozens or hundreds, rather than singles and pairs. When this happens, the predators that follow the shad will race to be the first to grab it. Here are 5 confidence baits for late winter bass fishing, and where to fish them: 1. Hard Jerkbaits Feed your bait some line so that it falls straight down through the water column, imparting its subtle action until it hits the bottom. Choose Best Winter Bass Baits. Episode 1 reviews some company history to explain how this all came about. Make long casts to keep from spooking the bass you plan to catch. In many large lakes, nothing beats shiners for smallmouth bass in the cold winter months. In rivers, high flows from cold fall rains concentrate fish in areas with reduced current and some measure of thermal stability, frequently into holes. 1. You'll catch 'em. Discover the best time of day to catch bass, trout, catfish, panfish, walleye, carp, and many more depending on the season, moon phases, and weather. Spinnerbait . Courtesy Jeff Gustafson. But then, after just a little while, they’ll drop down in the watercolumn. Winter Fishing Best Big Swimbait Choices for Wintertime Bass Fishing. Jerkbaits work best in clear water because they are so erratic … Winter has arrived and believe it or not, it is one of the best times of the year to catch big bass on big swimbaits. A blade bait is a dynamite lure for stair-stepping down steep 45 degree banks into the zones bass are holding. Shad Imitation Crankbait Colors Work Well in Winter. December 20, 2012. Winter bass fishing is also a great time to locate some of those secret stumps or boulders that are underwater when spring rolls around and the bass move up to spawn. There is little boat traffic and less plankton and other organisms that usually color the water in lakes. Rapala Skitter V – Walking Stick. Early bass fishing lures are different from late fall bass fishing lures, and those are different from winter lures. And there’s an easier way to do it than just randomly choosing a lure and hoping it catches a bass. Thus, you have to try different cadences in your presentation until you get a bite. Top Winter Bass Baits Topics 1:05 Rigging. Mueller probes the depths of a Northern lake in search of smallmouth bass. Special late fall/early winter baits and stuff issue! 5 baits for fall bass fishing. Rather than an aggressive, twitching presentation that I might offer in warm water, my winter jerkbait routine is much more subtle: I crank the lure down to depth with a few turns of the reel handle and then stop, providing a long, strike-provoking delay. The 2020 season culminates in the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit TITLE presented by Toyota, where the top 50 pros will compete for as much as … When you think you’ve waited long enough, wait a little longer, then repeat the sequence until it’s time to cast again. Some of Delvisco’s preferred early winter lures are the SteelShad family of blade baits. He was right, and he made a believer out of me. In the winter, the mood and action in the water slow to a crawl. Catching Winter Bass with KVD Cold Water Fishing with Crankbaits and Jerkbaits 7-time BASS angler-of-the-year, 4-time Bassmaster Classic champion & 2001 FLW angler-of-the-year Kevin VanDam aka KVD has over $6m in career bass fishing tournament earnings. Mike Iaconelli is winter fishing and in a cold front with high pressure. But, it works. To get started, click the link below to visit mymagnow.com and learn how to access your digital magazine. Before we get started let's dispel some common misconceptions about winter bass fishing. Give it a try this winter. Once busy boat lifts are now empty. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. 66 Best Bluegill Tips for Coldwater, Ice Fishing & Winter. You can locate the depth of the shad with your electronics so you know how deep they are schooling. Here’s Jake and some AOY feller talkin ’bout it: 7. The best place to use this technique is on bluff walls near a transition zone. 45 degree water temperature and cold winter air temperature driving it down further can make for a tough day of bass fishing. November 27, 2016 _mg_8900.jpg. Calendar, Privacy Policy Most of the tournaments have either wound down as we work into the winter or haven't started up yet as we move towards the early spring. Typically hiding behind objects, like large rocks. You can’t usually see the action of the dying shad. While some anglers are ready to hang up their rods until next year, we’re teaching you how to fish in winter for bass so you can capitalize while other anglers are sipping hot cocoa. Bryan has been fishing the FLW Tour as a co-angler for four years, and each year he has qualified for the Forrest Wood Cup. Let’s dive right into our cold water bass fishing tips. Posted by Randy January 28, 2020. (Black … And as the water cools, there’s less forage available to them. Instead, fish down deep on the bottom with tubes, drop shots, worms, squarebills, or swimbaits. They can be caught in dam tail waters by tightlining from the bank or wade fishing in the shallows a safe distance from the dam. But don't fret, we've compiled our best tips to make sure those bass will continue to bite all Winter long! That's the combination that'll work best. When the bite is tough and the bass are being picky, a free-falling wacky worm can trigger big bites. In the coldest water of the year, bass often hunker down or even lay on the bottom (you may notice fine silt on their bellies) on structure with sparse cover – relatively snag-free bottom – where the Carolina rig works best. He suggests that, “the SteelShad has a lot of vibration on the way up, but it also has a distinct wobble on the way down. Sometimes small finesse spinnerbaits can work great. Moving baits like chatterbaits, jigs, and swimbaits are awesome for catching a bass off guard, while classic crankbaits and jerkbaits will easily nab a bass looking for a snack. But don't fret, we've compiled our best tips to make sure those bass will continue to bite all Winter long! They do not feed as often but they do feed all winter long, though they eat more in early winter than late winter after food sources and energy reserves have dwindled. But even with the right bait, you need to consider your location, timing, and casting methods. I’m partial to the horizontal presentation and it works best in the fall and early winter, so I’ll talk about it. Bass fishing at Boskop Dam, South Africa (Oct 2020) – TangleWood; 2020 Ohio Bass Nation High school State Championship Mosquito Lake; Messing around Catching Bass on Table Rock Lake, Seadoo Fish Pro Tie one up and give it a rip when you pursue the late-season bass bite. Instead, the jerking motion you create is what attracts the attention of nearby opportunistic bass. Know Your Winter Season Split. Because of the cold temps, late winter bass are also notoriously fickle – and having the right presentation can be the difference between loading the boat or going home with nothing but cold feet. 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