in keeping your fishing line perfectly straight between your rod tip and your lure, always. Doing so is critical to detect bites when a deep-water bass bites your lure, giving you the best chance to feel the bite and set the hook.
PEAK ACTIVITY
Winter bass are in colder water many degrees lower than peak activity temperatures. This results in a slower metabolism, and less frequent feeding.
A simple rule in predator/prey relationships is that a successful predator must consume more calories than it expends in catching its prey. The winter and colder water do not stop feeding, but they slow everything down. Feeding
®
Winter 2021
strategies of bass shift to hunkering down on the bottom, and waiting for food to swim above them, or fall to the bottom.
Rather than chasing down their food like they
will in shallow water, they
wait for delivery. Then they
open their mouth, vacuum
in the prey, yet remain
relatively still.
Energy Saving Mode
I rarely take beginners
fishing in the winter. Not
because bass won’t bite
(they do), but rather because
most beginners get bites
and never know it, which can
be frustrating. With bass in
“energy-saving mode” new
anglers rarely detect the bite.
Imagine using a
dropshot rig in 50-feet of
water. Your worm drops to
a bass, and without moving
forward, the bass merely
inhales your worm and holds
it still. In order to catch this
bass, you must be able to
detect the bite, despite the
lack of movement of your
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