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Winter 2018
page 64
HAIR JIGS OUT DEEP
After experimenting with real hair jigs and synthetic hair jigs, the latter certainly doesn’t have the natural “flow” that real hair encompasses; but, it’s much more durable and comes in an array of colors not found with real hair.
While the type of hair is completely up to the angler, fishing these lures on braided main line and a fluorocarbon leader is absolutely a must. Straight fluorocarbon just does not allow the degree of sensitivity you need to detect the “tension” bites.
Smaller fish will usually alarm you with a “tap”, but larger fish will inhale hair jigs completely. After fishing these lures much too aggressively for two years, I found limited success by targeting 20-foot depths and deeper. Think of casting, letting the hair jig fall to the bottom, and slowly, but constantly moving the lure across the bottom. To compare the retrieve, it would be similar to a spinbait, but with some ground game.
TUBES ON WEEDLINES
One of the greatest baits of all time is the tube. It is no different during the wintertime and to be quite honest, there’s not much change that you’ll need to pay attention to when it comes to smallmouth and largemouth bass.
Much like the football jig, I’ve had great success along the edges of weedlines. The key here is to use a lighter jig head to ensure a slower fall so that the fish located in and around emergent vegetation have time to follow the tube to the bottom. Green Pumpkin or Smoke are both great
colors for water in the high 30s and are my two confidence choices.
SWIMBAITS FOR BAIT BALLS
Four-inch swimbaits are a near perfect size to replicate baitfish in our lakes and rivers. The Strike King Rage Swimmer in Pearl Flash or Ghost are both great colors, but the paddle tail swimbait can often turn fish away with their aggressive thump from side to side.
Since these baits are soft, anglers can trim the paddle tail down to help tighten the action of the swimbait while reeling. One of the keys here is to find balls of baitfish such as perch, crappie or bluegill. Matching the size of those fish will greatly increase your catch ratio, but color patterns don’t necessarily need to replicate the school. Size seems to be the most important feature from my experience.
MAKE IT EASY
Last; but not least, there are a few things that can turn a decent day of fishing into a disaster. Double check that your rods and reels are spooled correctly (don’t overfill spinning reels), keep your boat clean and organized to avoid frustration, dress warm and keep plenty of food and water on-hand.
Battling the cold wind can be hard on your body and your willingness to challenge yourself as an angler. By keeping warm and staying safe, you and your friends don’t have to sit home on the weekends and wait for ice-off. There are still plenty of fish to be caught throughout winter. •