Many anglers hang up their rods when the water temps fall. The bite slows for sure, but bass can still be caught in cold water. There are times when the cold water bite can be just as dramatic as any other time of the year. But, you must be on the water to take advantage of these times. Many of the same presentations you use throughout the season will also work in cold water.
Once the water temps fall to 50 and below bass fishing seems to come to a grinding halt. It is true that bass slow down but they still must eat. There are definitely prime times that bass feed during cold water situations but not all bass feed at the same time so you can catch bass between these prime feeding periods as long as you are there with the right presentation. Cold water bass fishing is like all the other seasons, you must put in the time to learn that season just like you learned where to find pre-spawn or post-spawn bass or where to find mid-summer bass and how to catch them. Catching cold water bass can be a challenge but with information and time on the water you too can enjoy bass fishing even when the water is cold.
I want to introduce you to some of "the other ways" to catch cold water bass and stay away from the jigs and spoons and the other cold water techniques that you have probably read about or heard about. These presentations work and I would never eliminate them from my arsenal but there has been plenty written about those techniques and I want to share some other presentations, that catch cold water bass.
CRANKBAITS: A great bait for cold water bassin' is the crankbait. In cold water, bass primarily target dying shad which can be represented well with a crankbait. Crankbaits are so versatile and can be fished slow or fast, deep or shallow. You can pause a crankbait to allow the lethargic bass to strike. Many anglers argue that cold water bass are all deep and you have to slow roll any bait in order to be successful. I have found that slow rolling a crankbait does work but there are times when faster retrieves trigger more strikes during certain situations. You have to experiment and learn how and what triggers cold water bass. You hear so much about the jig and trailer combo. The jig is so effective on so many lakes because of the winter kill of shad leaving bass no option but to feed primarily on crawfish, hence the jig, however, with the abundance of shad on mid-west waters I assure you the shad populations remain high throughout the cold water season and this is why the crankbait can be so effective.
TOPWATER: You say. WHAT! That is exactly what I said to my boss for weeks leading up to a company bass tournament we had in January. He brought in his limit caught on a floating rapala and I think there was one other bass caught and it was not mine. Fishing on top was unorthodox for that time of year, for us at least, but obviously it worked and made a believer out of me. The best presentation I have found, and the same one my boss used to smoke us all in that tournament long ago, is the floating rapala. The trick to fishing top water when the water is cold is to fish it slow. Just fish the same as in the spring or fall but slow way down with long pauses between subtle twitches. This method is especially effective in clear water where the bass can see the lure when fished over deep water. Dying shad sink when they die but shad with a little life left in them will swim erratically without direction and the rapala fished on top mimics this perfectly.
SINKING WORM: Over the last couple seasons I have been using a sinking worm presentation that really works well on cold water bass. This method was something I tried in the summer on main lake points to target suspended bass in the middle of the day. It worked and I thought that it might work on cold water bass as well, and it does. My weapon of choice is the yum dinger but senkos and other sinking worms should work fine as long as the sink rate is slow. You can rig the sinking worm several ways but I prefer the texas rig, even in open water. The texas rig seems to give the bait a more zig and zag along with the erratic movements that make these baits so effective. The texas rig also gives you a little more control over your worm. By adjusting the worm a certain way on the hook you can get an up, or in this case, a down swimming presentation. Give your worm an erratic retrieve, no more than a couple of feet, before allowing the worm to slowly sink for several seconds before the next short retrieve then pause. This method is a great way to search the water column and the erratic movement of the worm drives bass crazy. The pause is where many of the strikes will occur and I keep a slack line and watch for movement. Sometimes the strike is tough to detect but many times there is no problem seeing it, especially on this rig.
Cold water bass fishing can be tough at times but there are plenty of bass still willing to cooperate. I hope this information will get you out there and experimenting with these tips and enjoy a longer season of bass fishing as well as joining many other anglers in dispelling some of the myths surrounding cold water bassin'.
Visit the authors website for more down home fishing information.
Check out my website for more down home fishing information.
Authors website
http://www.ramblingangler.com
Authors website
http://www.ramblingangler.com
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