Top 5 Ways To Catch Bass In December

Hey, guys, it's December, which means if you're out there fishing, you got to think about how bass react to cold water. Now, it doesn't matter if you're in Florida or up in Michigan, they all react the same way, and that is their metabolism slows down, which means they eat less. And they seek out areas that they feel comfortable and safe, and they don't have to move far or expend a lot of energy to eat, right? In other words, places where they can survive without having to use a whole lot of energy. That's where they're going to set up shop. And so there's five different ways to go after them, depending on what depth they're at and what they're doing.

First one is with jigs. Now, a lot of times what bass will do is they set up where there's a steep bank, a steep drop. That could be a ledge, could be a drop-off. It could be where a creek channel swings in close to the bank. The key thing is a steep drop and if you have weeds on them, little patches of green weeds, maybe some rocks or boulders or some stumps, you're golden. That's the type of area that you're looking for. And jigs are really good area to probe those places. 

The thing about it is a jig imitates a crawdad, and crawdads this time of year are just going to scoot along the bottom very slowly. They're not moving very fast. They don't hibernate, but they do bury up in the mud or up in the rocks and when they come out, they're kind of lethargic. So you don't want to have a fast action here.

What you do is you throw your jig out there, let it hit the bottom, and then slowly drag it on the bottom, pause and reel up your slack, and then do it again. I like to use my rod tip to figure out how far and how fast I'm moving it. So it's a lot easier to tell by watching your rod tip how fast you're moving it and how far rather than you're trying to crank with your reel, and then how many inches per turn do I have and how far did it move? It's just watch your rod tip. How far, how fast you move it, and how long the pauses are in between is going to vary every day.

I wish I could tell you, "Here's the equation, here's the mathematical equation that's going to make it work for you." It changes every day. It actually can change by the hour too. It'd be different in the morning than it is in the afternoon. So you have to experiment and play with that and be ready to change if you're not getting bites or if you were getting bites and now you aren't, you got to change that cadence up. So sometimes it's a faster crawl with shorter pauses. Other times, it's a fast crawl with a long pause. Other times, it's really slow creeping it along the bottom and so on and so forth. But I promise you it does work.

Now, if you're fishing for smallmouth or if you got smallmouth in the area, well you can change that up a little bit, instead of using a jig, you can use a tube or a grub, a little 3-inch grub. Again, you want to crawl it on the bottom, and for this reason, I like to use a split shot outfit because you can Texas rig a tube or Texas rig the grub with a split shot outfit. It's the same concept, though, same kind of presentation, a little bit more compact, smaller baits than you would than a jig. Throw it out there, or you can use a finesse jig. Smallmouth loves finesse jigs. But same thing, throw it out there and drag it on the bottom with those long pauses in between. Experiment with that and you can get a lot of bites.

Now, in some lakes and rivers, the bass will be, we can call it, a mid-depth layer, right? They're going to be within range of crankbaits. Crankbaits actually do work even in cold water. Upper 40s, mid-40s, and sometimes even low 40s, crankbaits can be effective if you can reach them. There's a few nuances though. It's different than what you normally would fish them in the summertime. So you got to think this through. It's really the types of crankbaits that you throw and your cadence on how you fish them. 

So the key thing is, first of all, you want to find those steep areas. Again, look for those remaining patches of green weeds, those creek channels that come up close to the shoreline. Those are the things you want to look for.

Riprap is really good, especially if you had some sun on it for a while, a couple days. The riprap retains that heat. Water temperature is a little bit warmer around there, a little more active. Baitfish are attracted to that and so are the bass. So those are some good areas to throw crankbaits. 

The key thing here is, first of all, you want to throw a crankbait that is neutrally buoyant. One that doesn't float. You want a suspending crankbait. It doesn't mean you have to buy a suspending crankbait if you don't have one. And even if you have one, pay attention to the next tips. There are ways to get it to be perfectly neutrally buoyant, perfectly neutrally buoyant, say that fast, for that day's condition, right?

If the bait is rising just a little bit, size up a little bit, one size up on your treble hook. First, start with the front treble hook, and if that doesn't balance it out, do the back. And if it still rises, then you can add some lead strips on the belly until you figure out what the right weight is so it remains neutrally balanced. Another thing is to use fluorocarbon line. Because fluorocarbon line, it sinks a little bit, but it's pretty well neutrally buoyant. Braid is buoyant, and braid can pull up your crankbait and change the attitude of that crankbait. You won't get down to the depth that you want. So use fluorocarbon line. You also want to use this, it depends on the type of crankbait, we'll get to that in a second.

And the retrieve with these is that you want it to get down, and it's a slow retrieve. Reel it down to the depth as fast as you need to get to the depth and then slow retrieve. Very slow with frequent and long pauses in between. It's not that the bass are lethargic and they can't chase down a fast-moving bait, that's a myth. They can do that in the winter time. It's the baitfish. You're trying to imitate the baitfish, and they are trying to conserve as much energy as possible. So they're moving very slow, lethargic, long pauses, they're trying to conserve that energy, so they're not very active.

So if you burn a crankbait through there, it looks unnatural and the bass are going to probably not bite it. You want it to look natural. So that slow presentation, long pauses, that's why you want a neutral crankbait because you don't want it to float up between those pauses. You want to keep it down the strike zone. Bring it across the tops of those weeds on those steep drops, like I mentioned. Or if there's a stump or some rocks, bring across the tops of that. The riprap, bounce it off that riprap every once in a while and then stop it when it hits that riprap and just freeze it. And a lot of times the bass will come and nail it before you pick it and start moving it again.

There's two different crankbaits to use this on. One is the flat-sided crankbait. Flat-sided crankbaits have a tighter wiggle. You don't want a crankbait with a big wide wobble right now. That's too much action. It looks unnatural. So a tight wiggle is what you want. Flat-sided crankbaits do that. They have a narrower bill. That's what you want to use. The other type of crankbait is a lipless crankbait. Now, they sink. So everything I just told you goes out the window, right? It's not neutrally buoyant, but it's a different type of presentation here.

Instead, when the temps get in the 40s, especially the lower 40s, a lot of baitfish are struggling to survive, and they're starting to die out. And using a rattling or a lipless crankbait, let it sink to the bottom, flutter down to the bottom, and then let it come back up the bottom and flutter back down. It imitates a dying baitfish. But pay attention to how you do this. You don’t want to rip it up off the bottom. That's too much action. Lift it up off the bottom and then use your rod to guide it back down, a slower drop. Now, in the summertime, you'd be a lot faster. Rip it off the bottom, let it fall. But here you're controlling it with your rod, slower action. Those will get more bites this time of year. So crankbaits.

Now, believe it or not, bass in December sometimes can be found real shallow, especially if you have several days of warming weather. It doesn't have to be really warm, but if it's warm rain, even better because that surface temperature will warm up faster than the rest of the lake, especially in those shallow areas. And the baitfish that are struggling to survive are going to naturally gravitate towards that warmer water and the bass will follow. So you can go after those bass. It's a little bit more difficult to go after them because the baitfish are roaming around. They're nomadic. It depends on the wind, the sun. What the temperature is doing in the... So they're going to be kind of scattered. It's tough to stay on top of them even when you find them, even if you have forward-facing sonar.

That said, there's a population of bass that realize this, and they, instead of following the baitfish around, will set up shop and wait for the baitfish to come to them. These bass will be set up on key areas, like at the end of a dock or along the edge of a boat launch or maybe some scattered stumps or rocks that are on a long tapering point that drops off into the main creek channel or a secondary point back in a cove. They're going to be there in relatively shallow water, less than 10 feet. These bass, believe it or not, are susceptible to topwater. Yeah, topwater in December. Amazing, right? But it does work.

You have to fish slower topwaters for the most part, like a Zara Spook or a Pop-R, because you can move them real slow and you can have that long pauses in between. You want to make it look like a baitfish that is struggling to survive and is struggling on the surface. So a slower-moving action, typically, is what does that this time of year. Those bass haven't seen a topwater in a while, so they are susceptible to biting those. 

Sometimes you can force them. You can get a reaction bite out of it, and you can try throwing a buzzbait. I know it seems really weird throwing a buzzbait when the water temps are in the 40s, but it does work.

My favorite story is I caught fish on a buzzbait in 42-degree weather on New Year's Day. Yeah, true story, right? Some bass were actually up shallow and I was surprised by that, but there they were and because we had a little bit of warming trim, that's all it took. Water temp was still 42 degrees, but it was sunny and warm, and the bass were up there chasing baitfish. And I saw some activity and threw a buzzbait right over the top of it and, pow, I caught fish, right? So don't dismiss topwater baits. They can be very effective. If the bass are up there shallow, you might want to give it a go.

Okay. Now, another way to catch bass when they're a little bit deeper back in that kind of mid-depth range or a little bit deeper than that is with umbrella rigs. Now, umbrella rigs come in a variety of different sizes. They can have three hooks, five hooks, what have you, different amount of blades. But the consistent thing about it for this time of year is you want light weights, so those jig heads to be like an eighth ounce or less, and you want the baits to be small, like 3 inches, 3-and-1/2 inches. You don't want these big paddle-tail swim baits right now. The smaller bait size is killer this time of year.

You can experiment with three or five and with how many bait blades you want. I find the clearer water there is, a little bit of warming trend, the more blades work better and vice versa. If it's cloudy, windy, I might cut back on the amount of blades. Here's the thing, though, these are tough to throw, and it's hard to throw it way out there and wind them back in. Especially, you got to get it down there deep. Again, those steep areas with weeds on them, you want maybe a windblown point is a great place to throw. Or say, you got two points that come together. Maybe it's an island that comes close to the land or whatever. It forms a funnel area, right? A funnel point. That's where the bass are going to set up. Maybe you've got a bridge that goes across the lake and there's two points that come up where the bridge connects to, that's another funnel point. Those are the kind of things you want to look for. 

I target those areas with an umbrella rig. Instead of using an umbrella rig to cover water and wear myself out cranking and winding, I instead target those specific areas with an umbrella rig, throw it out there, let it get down towards the bottom, and crank it real slow.

One of the key things guys do wrong this time of year with an umbrella rig is they fish it too fast, it moves up off away from the cover and now you're out. You're not going to get a strike. You have to slow roll it almost. So very slow presentation. Pay attention. It's easy to forget and start speeding up your retrieve. You've got to fish it slow. It's hard for us bass anglers to do that, but that's the key to getting bit is get along those areas where those weeds are, those windblown points, those areas I just told you about, and crank it really slow. That's going to be the key to getting bit with an umbrella rig this time of year.

And then, finally, there are some bass that are going to be deep. I mean 30 foot or deeper. And when you get a good front that comes through or they're not very active, it's going to be tough. It's going to be a tough bite. And it's going to be tough to get a bait down there and to stay down there. So this is when you want something heavy that's going to stay down there and you can work it. That's where you start using metal baits, things like tail spinners and vibrating blade baits and spoons. These are the things that get down there and stay down there.

You fish them a little bit differently. First of all, all three of them are target baits. Again, you're not going to cover a lot of water with them, so you've got to use your electronics. You want to find those key areas that bass are sitting up on. These areas are probably going to be void of any kind of weeds. All three of these baits have open hooks, so you have to worry about getting snagged on any weeds. But you might find a log pile or brush pile. You might find some stumps, things like that. Be careful of that. You might get snagged up on those areas, but if you can find rocks or boulder field or an area where there's a nice steep drop that drops off into the main creek or main river, those are areas to target. Those are the things that you can target with these baits.

And you work that area meticulously with the bait. So with a spoon, you let it flutter down. You've got to use a swivel on this, a snap. Use a snap on it, because if you let it drop too fast, it can come up and the hooks can foul up in their line. You have to control it with your rod but get to that area where, like, say, some boulders and work it. Lift it up and let it flutter back down. Lift it up and let it flutter back down, pretty much the same way I just told you with the lipless crankbaits. It's the same kind of action. You're just in deeper water now and you're using a spoon. You can do the same thing with those blade baits, same presentation. Lift it up and let it flutter back down.

The difference here is that with a blade bait, they have a lot of vibration to them, an awful lot. So you don't have to lift fast. Lift it really slow to get that vibration. You'll feel it in your rod. You just want to lift it enough where you start to feel that vibration and then let it flutter back down. So it's a slower presentation than you would with, say, a lipless crankbait. And then with the tail spinners, they have a lot of action built in because of the tail spin. A lot of times you get that spinner will flash and vibrate and get a lot of bites that way. You'll get bit as it falls.

So the key with that is to lift it up off the bottom as high as you can and then let it slowly go back down and wait for that bite as it falls. And that's, again, all three of those, you're targeting specific areas, not covering a lot of water. It can seem boring until you hook onto a lunker because this time of year, usually when you get a bite, it's a big one, and it's worth doing it. So try those out this month. I hope you catch a big one. And boy, go out there and enjoy it.