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During the regular season,
you have identifiable structure to fish, vegetation is in bloom and
the sun offers
you shaded areas, which will produce fish during the heat of the day.
Winter however does not give you any
of those visible signs. So what do you do? Well once again, you must
turn to your understanding of the bass
and its lifestyle during these "lean months". When I use the
word lean, I am referring to the food chain which
can be drastically reduced by the elements.
Exceptionally cold
weather can kill smaller fish and aquatic life leaving the a bass only a
limited diet for 3
or 4 months. You will often hear bass fishermen talking about the
"big feed" prior to winter, when bass will eat
anything and everything to carry them through till Spring.
Bait selection at this
time is critical. A bass when in very cold water, will move only a
minimal distance for
food, so the bait of choice has to be something that is equal or greater
than the energy expended. Compare
your own lifestyle during the winter months, you store up food and fuel
for the winter, to avoid unnecessary
trips to the store, and you really hate clearing the driveway and
brushing the snow off your vehicle if its not
absolutely necessary. Right? Well it's the same for a bass. Why should
the fish dash around for small items
of food, when it will not compensate for the energy required to chase it
down and catch it?
Large, slow moving
baits are the key. Don't be afraid to throw a 10" or 12" worm
where you once threw a
4" offering. Slowly retrieve the larger bait along the bottom,
inching it slowly back to shore. Large jigs tipped
with either plastic or pork trailers moved in a similar fashion to the
worm will produce fish, you just have to be
patient. During summer, that same bait should be in and out of the water
in 30 seconds, however with the
winters climactic changes, you must now leave that very same bait in the
water for maybe 3 minutes!
A good tip here is to
keep your soft plastic baits warm. I place a few worms or crawfish
imitations into
a plastic bag and keep them in my pocket, this keeps the bait flexible
and it will work well in frigid water
temperatures. The same practice works for live bait. I will put
mealworms, night crawlers or maggots into a
small container and keep them in a pocket near to my body to keep them
from freezing. Remember that it's
small attention to detail like that, which will separate you from the
rest of the fishermen and you will catch
more fish.
The key to winter bass
fishing is patience. That's not an easy thing for us New Yorkers! But
give it a try.
Bring some hot coffee and plenty of food for your energy. Remember to
dress in layers. Hypothermia is very
nasty, a condition which from first hand experience, I do not recommend! |
