Hey guys, Michael Neal here with Bassresource.com, and the number one thing to fishing in the wintertime is understanding that this is the time the fish are going to be the most lethargic, and that's simply because they're cold-blooded creatures. When the water temperatures dip down, you know, below 50 degrees, they're going to be way more dormant. They don't have to eat as often. They don't have very much of a metabolism that time of year just because their body temperatures are the water temperatures, and a lot of guys really mess up, number one, by throwing too big of baits.
If you think about it in the wintertime, all you see is the small baits. You have bait fish die-offs and things like that, and those big gizzard shad really don't seem to exist. They get on the small 2 to 4-inch baits at the biggest that time of year, and you really have to slow down fishing too fast. If you're...you know, even if you're throwing moving baits, you really have to slow them down. You change your gear ratios. You get away from a 7 to 1. You might go all the way even down to a 5 to 1 just to keep that bait in front of the fish. They're not going to come from as far a distance to eat, and they're certainly not going to chase it down and near the speed as they do in spring, summer, and fall.
So, probably my number one go-to in the wintertime is a shaky head, and when these fish really get lethargic a lot of them go to the bottom. They don't want to put out any energy to keep you know if they're in current to keep up in a place, or they don't want to put any energy really into anything. They're just like us in the wintertime when it gets really cold outside. You know, there may be a few outdoor activities we do where we really bundle up, like fishing but for the most part, we want to sit somewhere we're comfortable and where we don't have to do a whole lot, and that's what these fish are wanting to do.
They're going to group up really big. That's just a wintertime thing they do. A lot of people kind of quit fishing some in the wintertime, but the schools you find in the winter can often be as big or bigger than those schools that you find offshore in the summertime.
But a shaky head like this right here this is the Big Bite Limit Maker in an eighth ounce. I really go light in the in the wintertime because I have to make myself slow down. I feel like you just want to move this bait as little as you can. I'll talk about inches at a time. You just want to keep it in front of their face and really try and trick them into a bite.
I like super natural colors in the wintertime with one exception, and it's just kind of a trick for me. I'll tell you about that in a second, but this is smoke purple. It's going to be very, very natural to these fish. It's not something that's going to stand out to them and it's just a bite getter and you know some of the biggest bags that I've weighed in in that November, December, January time frame have been on a shaky head and the one exception like I was talking about with color is for some reason when the water's cold I'm talking about in the low 40s and lower, June Bug for me has gotten a lot of big bites and I don't seem to catch as many on it. I don't know if it's something you know how everybody goes with red with hard baits and vibrating jigs if that's kind of the same purpose, but for a bottom bait, I really like June Bug that time of year.
I don't really throw it any other time of year besides the water being real dirty, but you know in the wintertime those fish are going to be offshore a lot or on bluffy steeper cover, and they're going to be a little bit deeper somewhere in that typically 10 to you know some places they'll get out in winter in 40 and 50 especially smallmouth and spots the largemouth they're probably going to be in that 10 to 25 range wherever the bait is so if you find the bait you know around points they're going to be out off those points if you find them out in creek channels they'll actually get in the bottoms of the creek channels in the wintertime. The whole rest of the year I never fish the bottoms of anything besides in the wintertime.
And the bait goes down there to try and get in as warmer water as you can, so in the winter, the deeper you go, the warmer the water is. The higher you go, the colder it is, and in the summertime it's the exact opposite. The deeper you go the colder it gets, the higher up you are the warmer it is. So the same reason the fish go deep to get in at different temperatures in the summer they go in the winter so the bottoms of things really play.
But again, wherever your bait is, is where they're going to be. They don't want to have to really roam and chase it around that much that time of year. For different lakes, you know, sometimes, if especially like mountainous lakes and really highland reservoirs, they will roam around those bait balls because they don't have that depth of water to sit in all that much. I'm talking about like your Smith lakes, you know Dale Hollows, Cumberlands, those super deep lakes like that, they'll suspend around those bait balls.
A shaky head you can still get bites on for those suspended fish but to me, that's where a drop shot really comes into play, and you know again the same bait will work for that as well as a 5-inch Skinny Stick again, smoke purple you want to mimic those bait fish and you can even cut this thing down a little bit you know if you wanted to take it and right here at the egg sack just rip it apart and put it back on there then you've got you know a lot smaller still really bait fish profile imitating bait. That's more of the size for wintertime that you're looking for with those shad they're going to be about that size so I've caught a lot of fish doing that just breaking it in half and re-threading it back on there.
This is the Gamakatsu G-finesse drop shot hook. It's a size number one. That's just really my go-to for any kind of fishing out offshore or with a drop shot in general whether it's smallmouth, largemouth, or spots.
The Denali Kovert tungsten drop shot weight I like light again. You don't want something that's going to fall really fast and get by those fish. In the wintertime especially, if you get underneath a fish you're not going to get that fish to bite. You have to keep it eye level or above and get it really close to their fish that's when the forward-facing sonar really comes into play if you have that on your boat. If not, I would just make a bunch of repeated casts around those bait balls or even get straight on top of them and drop straight below, but to me, you want as light a weight as you can get away with. You know, if there's no wind, the eighth ounce is probably my go-to. If I've got some wind where I have to make sure that it's not just drifting my bait away I'll go up to a quarter, but that's as heavy as I want to go in the wintertime.
And the line to me that's probably when I use the smallest is the wintertime. It's a time where really the water can be super clear and especially if we've not had any rain. So, on my drop shot and my shaky head I'll use 10 pound braid SX1 as my main line on my spinning reel, and then I'll go to 7 pound Sunline Shooter for my leader. I like somewhere you know a 15 to 20 foot leader where I don't have to retie it. I can fish two or three days on the same one, but if you're a guy that you know ties an Alberto or something like that doesn't come through the guides as well, you know, a 6-foot leader does plenty fine. They're not going to be worried about what's above them. They're just going to be worried about what your bait is and if they can see your line at your bait, and you want it to be as perfectly imitating to those bait fish as you can get.
So again, whether that's with, you know, a piece of a Skinny Stick or, you know, a smaller baitfish profile drop shot bait, that's a great option as well. You can catch them pretty much from the end of fall all the way up until pre-spawn they're just going to be centered around bait. If you're not around the bait you're for sure not going to be around the fish.
So, that's the number one thing is find the bait, and you're going to find the fish. In the wintertime, you can often look for seagulls and birds. They're a big tell on where the bait is if you're not sure, but if the bait's down deeper you know the birds aren't going to be that big a tell for you. Rely on your electronics.
The bait balls will be big enough where you can actually see them running. So if you've just got a regular 2D transducer that just tells you the depth just you know run around in areas deeper areas and look for that bait and try and get a good idea of where those fish are going to be.
And then number two, again, those fish are lethargic. They're going to be the slowest they're going to move all year is in the wintertime. They're going to be the most bunched up that they're going to be all year so just keep your bait in the strike zone. Let it fall as slow as possible and even you know if you want to throw other baits as well too like a jig or...a jig is a good example. If you want it to fall you want to go really light like a quarter ounce of five sixteenths where you might typically throw a half or a three quarter. You want to go down to that size just to keep it in front of that fish's face a little bit longer.
Same thing with jerkbaits and this all transitions back to these finesse style baits but with a jerkbait you have to let it sit there and that's because that fish is just that lethargic. They're used to that bait fish not moving as fast. So your bait has to mimic what those bait fish are doing just as well as you can that time of year and find those big schools, look for where they're going to be transitioning in the late winter. They're going to be moving towards the banks and the late winter they're going to get more on certain types of structure so I'd vary it as two different things.
I have structure which are points, drops, channel swings, humps things like that and then cover which is rocks, stumps, brush piles, things like that. So, they're going to be looking more for that structure whether it's a creek channel leading into a spawning flat. You know a channel swing on a point the late winter. Those are going to be your places they're going to look to transition to the first deep water outside of those spawning areas is where they're going to go to.
So, it's kind of it's the same thing that you want to look for post spawn is really the same thing that you want to look for in the late winter just a little bit deeper out in front of those spawning areas. So make sure you check out these tips for, you know, 365 days a year, spinning rods, finesse tactics, great way to go especially in the wintertime. Check out bassresource.com for all your fishing needs.
