Winter Expectations
Mention winter and most southern bass anglers tend to groan, grumble and wrinkle their brows. That’s understandable, as the colder months definitely bring some of the south’s toughest bites.
Important to note, “tough” does not mean “non-existent.” In fact, with considerably less boat traffic and conditions that keep all but the serious types at home, you’ll often have a much easier time fishing where you want, when you want. Opportunity levels will definitely vary with the seasonal progression, so stay on top of the weather patterns.
Once we reach the ice-blue depths of winter’s grip, feeding activity takes a distinct downturn, but the early goings often offer longer periods of potential. Those who adjust well can count on enough bites to merit a day on the water.
Fish Gotta Eat, But Not As Much
The biggest consideration for winter bass fishing is the declining need for caloric intake. Having fed voraciously during the fall season, the fish spend a lot of their winter weeks suspending over deeper water or tucking into whatever heat-holding vegetation they can find.
Feeding doesn’t stop entirely, but you’ll find the fish more receptive to slower, smaller presentations. This doesn’t rule out the occasional feisty mood that spurs a winter bass to bite a full-size jig, but modest meals are more common.
Dependable options include:
- A Mustad A-Tak Standup Jig Head with a 4.5- or 5.5-inch LIVETARGET Finesse Worm (coming soon)
- A minnow profile on a Mustad Ball Head Jig.
- A dropshot comprising a 4.5-inch LIVETARGET Straight Tail Worm (coming soon) on a Mustad Apex Dropshot Hook with a Mustad Tungsten TitanX Skinny Dropshot Weight.
Throughout this season, savvy anglers know that flexibility is the name of the game, as you’ll seldom enjoy the same patterns for more than a week this time of year. Approach each day with optimism, but pay close attention to seasonal progression and shift gears as needed.
Bite Windows
The general winter plan often goes: sleep in, eat a good breakfast and hit the lake mid-morning. Once the sun has had time to warm the water, the fish tend to be more active.
That’s not necessarily wrong, but it’s also not the only prudent approach. Particularly following a cold front, stable conditions — a warming trend or just several days of consistently moderate cold — bass may acclimate enough to instinctively leverage low-light morning feeds.
They may be less apt to chase reaction baits as far as they would during the fall, but winding your favorite flat-sided crankbait around heat-holding dark rocks, bumping a squarebill along a riprap bank, or twitching a jerkbait along a bluff wall can prove surprisingly productive.
Start out with a slow, steady retrieve and pick it up a little at a time until you dial in the fish’s preference. Some days it’ll seem like consistency is a vapor — here one minute, gone the next, but that’s winter bass fishing. When you hit those small bite windows, the fish are less demanding, but once they close, it’s a lot of casting and adjusting.
Keep in mind that bass fight considerably less in cold water, so you can often downsize your line to tempt more bites in clear winter shallows. Just make sure your baits carry Mustad KVD Elite Triple Grip Treble Hooks.