WiNter smallmouths
the time in the winter, you must deliver their meal to them. remember you are unlikely to invoke a reaction bite in the winter due to the slow metabolism. ideally your bait should be at the exact height as the mouth of the bass, or even more precisely, just slightly above the mouth of the bass. The eyes on a bass are on the top side of their head, so a lure presented inches above the bass is silhouetted against the lighter water surface, making it easy to see. Bait just above a bass is also easy to attack with a high success rate and minimal energy cost by a quick wag of their caudal fin.
Feeding efficiently is critical in the winter for smallmouth bass to survive. a dropshot rig is one of the few presentations that allow an angler to fish deep water, and maintain lure position at a height above the bass. experiment with different leader lengths until you find the one that is most productive, and then use that length the majority of the time, winter after winter, on the same body of water.
When deciding which technique to fish in the winter, consider the direction or path the technique will move your lure (vertical or horizontal), and intensity with which your lure moves (amount of action). remember, cold water reduces the ability of cold-blooded prey to move.
Vertical techniques such as jigging spoons and ice jigs work great in warmer waters like those in California where
shad reside. rigorous vertical movements imitate dying shad, and the spotted bass, largemouths, and smallmouths take notice and eat them. in the Pacific Northwest the water is colder, and shad are not present since they can’t survive the winter. Vertical movements may work great during other seasons, but in the winter in the Pacific Northwest you will boat more bass by working your lures horizontally.
Horizontal techniques with subtle lure action succeed in cold water because they imitate sculpin and other prey slowly gliding across the rocky bottom. Football head jigs dressed with Yamamoto #176 single tail grubs do a great job of imitating sculpin. to produce the proper horizontal movement necessary to entice smallmouths, keep your jig crawling on the bottom. Point your rod tip down at the water’s surface, and let the wind (or your electric motor) slowly move your jig in a straight line. Pauses improve your success rate, but remember not to twitch or jerk your lure abnormally considering the
cold water.
even when fishing a dropshot rig, a horizontal
approach will produce more fish. another reason
you have more success with a horizontal
approach in the winter is because it is easier
to detect when a bass has grabbed
your lure.
In the summer a bass literally attacks your lure , and swims off with it. detecting
the strike is easy when
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