By Scott Norton
In life there are always tradeoffs. Bass fishing is one of those examples. Those who dare to venture out in the frozen wonderland can expect some real results. If you prepare ahead, things can go better than for the ones that did not. This time of year can be a bit of a grind with all of your patience being tested. When I say slow down, I mean so slow it is painful.
When making your selection of baits you have to consider the water’s depth, clarity, and temperature. For the clear water you will need those natural patterns because bass will sit and study those baits before deciding to go for it.
When the temperature drops off in the low 40s and high 30s, all fish slow way down due to their metabolism. You will find that the smaller bass will stop biting all together and will tend to hibernate while your larger sizes will still have to feed to maintain their mass. This is where the tradeoff is. You do not catch numbers, but the ones you do catch will be a quality size. You will find most bass in the morning hours in the deeper water. Once the sun hits the water they will position themselves next to wood or rock to warm up. This also makes them predictable of where they will be. You know your odds will increase when you keep your baits in those areas.
Now that you have all the basics down you can work on your retrieval rate and cadence. You will have to painfully drag your baits on the bottom and pause in random spots. Bass will do one or two things. They will go for smaller and easy to get baits or they want an easy larger meal. They do not want to use up to many calories trying to find more calories. Your bait size should be either downsized on a micro level or upsized to the larger variety. Conventional size baits should be avoided at this time. For small baits, you need light line and your rod will be light to moderate action. For big baits you will use lower gear ratios and switching your line to a fluorocarbon will help bass to commit.
I always say, your pre-plan is as important as the fishing. What good is fishing when you have a dead battery. You will find out just how important when you have to fish very slow in the wind.
Before going to the lake make sure you select the lake with warmer water. This is why I play the elevation game this time of year. Your lower elevations will have higher temperatures than the higher elevations. It may be 2 to 3 degrees, but it makes a bigger difference than you realize. Try and explore new things because it is about learning and experiencing new things. Cheers.
Scott Norton is a Western North Carolina native. Born in Asheville, N.C., he is a long-time hunter, angler and weekend warrior.