Whether you are freshwater winter fishing a southern coastal area or spots where a snowmobile is standard in the driveway, fish go deep in the winter.
To get them requires slowing down and going deep. Regardless of the species sought, deep jigging with lures or soaked bait is best from now through very early spring.
Smallmouth and largemouth bass, crappie, carp, pike, perch, sunfish and everything else head for the depths now to survive through the winter. Often this means fishing from a boat unless the ice is in. Also consider fishing from a pier or bridge, if available.
If fishing bait, use a heavy sinker to hold on the bottom, particularly with any current. Consider a high/low rig that with snelled hooks will hold one bait down while suspending the second off the bottom.
Good baits include live and dead minnows, crab, crayfish, shrimp, cut bait, prepared baits, worms, and for carp and such, dough balls and canned corn. For lure fishing, use heavily weighted lures that allow deep jigging right on the bottom.
Good lures to consider for any fish are appropriately-sized casting spoons such as Hopkins, a heavy Dardevle, Swedish Pimple, Krocodile, Sting Silver, Kastmaster, Crippled Herring, etc.
To cover a little more bottom area, consider weighted blade baits that you can cast, allow to sink to the strike zone and then work slowly along the bottom. Good possibilities are the Heddon Sonar, Reef Runner Cicada, Johnson Thinfish, Cotton Cordell Gay Blade, and the Wolverine Silver Streak. Lots of brands, sizes and colors are available for any fishing at any depth to match any size bait.
For fishing, a revolving spool casting outfit is best, since you can jig easily by dropping up and down to present the lure at different levels in the strike zone. Casting tackle is easier to use to prevent missed strikes on the drop as can occur when using spinning which requires opening the bail repeatedly to drop the lure.
Spool the reel with good braided line that has the sensitivity needed and a thinner diameter for any given line test. For ease with knots and tackle rigging, add a few feet of mono tied to the braid using a good knot such as a blood knot or Albright.
The additional mono creates less likelihood that the rig will be spotted by the fish, and also allows for easy lure or hook changes using simple knots such as a Palomar or improved clinch knot.
If there is a secret to this deep jigging winter fishing, it is to find the best deep spots, preferably using information from temperate season fishing so that you can locate the holes where fish go to hide during their winter vacation.
If possible, use your depth finder to locate schools of fish on or near the bottom where you can concentrate lures or bait. Finding the fish and then working over them regularly with different baits and lures almost always assures catches that others are seeking, but often not finding.
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