Ok, the weekend weather has been rotten for quite sometime now but during the work week the weather is beautiful. What’s the weekend fisherman to do? I am fortunate in the sense that my job understands the fact that I need to go fishing to keep my sanity, the wife understands this about me as well. I usually try and save my vacation time for early spring when the bite really opens up but to avoid “Cabin Fever” from time to time I will request leave to go fishing.
At my job I am the early person so that means that I get off work pretty early in the afternoon so the day before I go fishing I take care of getting everything prepared. Seeing how I have done my preventive maintenance on the boat the list is not all that big. First off I plug in the battery charger to ensure that the batteries are fully charged. Then I’ll load the fishing equipment in the boat. After the batteries are charged I’ll hook up the boat and take it and fill it up with gas as well as the truck. I kinda have this omen about me that I don’t like to touch the gas pump the day I go fishing because I don’t want to get gas on my hands, even though I would wash them after fueling, I try my best to avoid getting fuel the day of the trip. I then park my rig, truck with the boat still connected, in my RV access so I don’t have to hookup in the dark the following morning, just something I like to do.
Now the difficult part, trying to sleep. I don’t know about you all but even though I have been fishing several thousand times I still get excited like a 12 year old kid each time I’m going fishing. I lay there and I think, did I pack the right tackle, where on the lake and what should I try first? Did I remember to pack enough water and sports drinks to avoid getting dehydrated. I picture myself catching fish and of course I make sure that if I do bring along any bananas to be sure to eat them in the truck and not to bring them into the boat, HA!
Morning rolls around and after pouring coffee into the thermos its off I go to pick up my fishing buddy. Then onward we proceed to the lake. Along the way we talk about different strategies and scenarios that we want to try all in preparation of the days trip. We finally arrive at the lake. Launch the boat, Gentlemen, Start Your Engines! and off we to the first spot. LET THE GAMES BEGIN! As your traveling across the water at a high rate of speed you realize that it is allot colder than you anticipated and you wish you would have taken the time to put that beanie and ear muffs on. At least I was smart enough to put gloves on so I’m doing OK.
As you pull upon your first spot you motor down and turn on the electronics to take a quick peak on what’s going on below you. Thanks to today’s technology I have way points marked in my GPS so I can easily locate that rock pile or creek channel with the bend in it. Of course you have to do your home work to locate and mark these spots before hand, either that or have a buddy share the coordinates with you. What your looking for is structure and baitfish. If you can find baitfish on structure you just might have hit the mother load. When you locate this pay attention to the depth, this can assist you in developing a pattern to locate active fish. When you locate this put the trolling motor in the water and commence fishing.
Some of my choices for this time of the year are a drop shot rig, a Hopkins spoon and Ice Jigs for vertical presentations. A slider head or darter head worm, a Texas rigged work or a split shot rig work for more of a horizontal presentation as well as a very deep diving crankbait like a Norman DD22. If I had to pick only one lure this time of the year it would have to be the ever faithful Spider Jig fished on a football head. I like to make my own combinations of skirt and tails here. Yamamoto’s are my favorite and you cant go wrong with a pumpkin type color. I also like to use a “Sluggo” Type lure as well as the Yamamoto Senko’s for a slow rate of fall, all of which are available to Bass Pro Shops.
One thing I do especially this time of the year is use as light of a weight as you can get away with. Yes, when your fishing deeper water you need a little heavier weight to remain in contact with your lure but bass tend to be sluggish this time of the year and they want something slow and easy for them to eat. Most of them are not willing to chase down prey, to exert the energy. I always keep a swim bait tied on as well as a surface lure.
As far as the bites this time of the year goes, at times you will feel the “Tick”, very rarely you will get the “Whack” most of your bites will be soft subtle bites, almost like your pulling it through weeds or something at times you wont even feel that. The following tip is very important at all times of the year but especially this time of the year. Watch your line! If it jumps, twitches, starts to move off or basically do anything you didn’t make it do, reel up the slack until you feel pressure and set the hook. Remember, your lure is NOT alive and it is not capable of doing anything it is not made to do, be if from you, wind or current or Mr. Bass. One of the greatest fishermen I have ever had the pleasure of meeting, Mr. Don Ivino said, “Swings are Free”
Remember, this time of the year you really need to slow down your presentation and most of the time downsize it. There have been times when I have put on a 15 inch plastic worm, also known as a snake, and caught some very large bass but there have also been many times this time of the year I have used 3 inch finesse baits and caught some giant bass as well but it has almost always been a very slow presentation.
Don’t forget to throw that swim bait around some at lakes where they stock trout because you can have one heck of a day throwing this beast around, either slow rolling it deep, “Waking” it just under the surface or even dead sticking a floating one. I have had times when I cast out these “Mondo” baits, then spend a few minutes picking out the backlash I got in my reel from the bait and the lure sat there motionless for about 5 -7 minutes. Then I finally reeled up all the slack, made the bait move ever so slightly and have had bass just blast the snot out of it.
And of course if you lucky enough to come across a school of actively feeding fish busting the surface toss that surface lure out at them. Just because its cold outside does not mean you cant catch fish. Always remember, on any given day on any given lake in the country or world for that matter, there will ALWAYS be actively feeding fish somewhere, its just a matter of finding them and provoking them into biting your offering.
Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!
