Cold Water Tips

Before choosing which bait to use, you need to understand bass and their winter habits. In the cold winter temperatures, use a topographic map to identify if there are any underwater springs. The springs emit significantly warmer water, attracting most varieties of fish. Not only will you find large congregations of fish, they will tend to be more active than fish elsewhere. The hot spots can produce better than average results in the winter.

Fishing in colder temperatures requires patience. Most varieties of fish, become very lethargic as the temperature falls. Begin using some jigs as the water temperature falls under 70 degrees. Then as the water falls even more, say, under 57 degrees, strictly use soft plastic bait. Always keep in mind that your bait or lure must be presented in a way that makes it very easy for them to strike when the temperatures are cool. This means, keep it slow!

Some of the best things to try are floating worms or lizards. They naturally work well when you rig them Texas-Style, slowly twitching them along. If you use very little weight, and a light-weight hook, you can get them to slowly fall, and then a slow crank, crank, pause. Let it fall again. This slow, rise and fall can be very tempting.

Spinner baits also work well. They can be retrieved at an incredibly slow rate, while still keeping the blades spinning. This slow, flashing worm works miracles on the cold winter days, especially when passing the spinnerbait through brush or along a log. For more on choosing a spinnerbait, see our other articles.

Using hard jerkbaits can also be helpful in the early spring and late fall. For instance, Rapala’s jointed minnow, just slowly twitched works well. Every once in a while increase the twitching to attract attention to the eratic movement. Just keep it slow.