Cold Water Fishing, Just Learn to Slow Way Down
by Ken Sturdivant
Southern Fishing Schools Inc.
The cold waters
of winter requires a lot more patience when fishing for bass. The body
temperature
of the fish is always the same as it environment. And the angler that
is aware of this fact can still make effective presentations for these
fish.
Food sources are always smaller because there are not as many shad hatches
during the cold winter months. Anglers will find huge schools of shad
roaming the lake and depths may be to 50 feet or more.
And these small
shad make
up the winter diet for almost all the bass, spots and largemouth
included.
The spoon jigging technique is the deadliest way to get to
these winter
fish. With a medium heavy action rod, 12 to 14 pound test line
and some metal spoons anglers can get started.
One other piece of equipment
that
is required for this technique is a high quality depth finder.
Adjusting
the depth finder to manual settings will allow anglers to see
more schools of bait fish and the game fish at great depths. Turn off
the fish identification
feature on the unit. Turn the sensitivity up as much as 90% in
deep water so the spoons can the shad can be seen.
Schools of shad
can
be
found
all over the lake and using the trolling motor and the depth
finder makes finding
this forage much easier. Many anglers will use the big engine
and idle over large areas and this can cover a lot of water quickly.
As
soon as the deep water structure and the shad are located, get out
the spoons.
Once the combinations are there, drop the spoons straight down
to the
fish. Lifting the rods in shorts jerks of only a few inches
will imitate the
action of a dying shad. Cold water in the winter kill of lots
of shad and the bass can simply wait under the schools for an easy
meal. Strikes
will
always occur on the fall of the spoon and high visibility line
can help
anglers see the strikes.
All the game fish will be under the
schools
of shad and in or around the deep standing timber. They will
spend all day
waiting for the shad schools to pass over. Once the spoon
is dropped into the schools of bait fish, drop the lure under the shad
and lift it slowly.
It's important to keep these lures over the fish because
they
will
not follow a spoon after it passes under them. Spoons are great
winter time
lures and even on the coldest days of winter, schools of
fish can be caught.
