I’m not sure who gets colder in the dead of winter, the fish or me, but one thing I’ve found over the years is we’re both looking for warmer areas of the lake on cold winter days.
This isn’t something that took a lot of careful calculation on my part, finding them was out of necessity to keep warm. It just so happens that sometimes the bass and I decide to occupy the same territory at the same time, seeking the same warmth. The last few times I’ve gone fishing on warm sunny winter afternoons, I’ve gravitated toward rocky points facing the southwest afternoon sun.
Our creek on the reservoir runs east to west and is lined with hilly pines, so just looking at the shadows lining the north-facing shoreline in late afternoon gives me chills. Now, it’s a different story on the south-facing shoreline; it’s like a sunny oasis over there. That’s where I want to spend my afternoons.
The first time I tried a crankbait on these shallow rocky areas during the winter, I wasn’t expecting much, but it didn’t take long for the first bass to jump on my little crankbait. When I released the fish, I noticed he was hacking up crawfish as he swam away. A few minutes later I landed another solid bass off the shallow rocks. This fish had two crawfish sticking out of its throat. I got out needle nose pliers and carefully removed one of the crawfish from the fish’s throat. The crawfish color wasn’t too far off from the blue-over-chartreuse crankbait I was using. I put two and two together. These fish were up on the warmer rocky areas with the crawfish.
My new favorite crankbait has some loud rattles, and working it down rocky outcroppings, rattling and banging against the rocks is just what the bass are looking for. In the cold of winter, I like working my crankbait more like a jerkbait over the rocks. The idea is to mimic a foraging baitfish or a moving crawfish rather than a steadily swimming bait. Try and visualize the crankbait picking its way along the rocky bottom. Sometimes I find the bass as shallow as just a few feet in the late afternoon. Judging from the size of their bellies, eating has been good in the neighborhood.
Fishing deeper timber is always a good bet for a few nice winter bass. I’ve got plenty of deeper brushpiles I check on a regular basis, looking for active fish during the winter months. I’ll sit over these areas like a mother hen. But chances are, if it’s sunny out and the middle of the afternoon, you can find me on the sunny bank, soaking up some heat and catching some really fat winter bass.
Jim Farmer is an avid fisherman and is the owner of Cast Away Baits, a custom tackle shop located just off the shores of Lake Lanier in North Georgia.