Take advantage of the bass bite

Get bass when the getting’s good — or weird

Usually I write about seasonal approaches to bass fishing this time of year, but all too often we tend to get caught up in what the fish should be doing instead of what they are actually doing.

We have all seen it, while getting beat in a local derby or having happened across a weird group of fish that is in an odd spot — at least by the bass-fishing rule book. This is to get you to think outside the box and maybe shed some light on why fish tend to surprise us more often than not.

I like to fish shallow water, so I’m always hunting that shallow bite, many times to my own peril. But I’ve caught some fish in some very unusual places and baits at all times of the year as a result. Take January for example; we all tend to think jerkbaits, jigs and crankbaits. What about 10-inch worms?  Did the fish stop biting them in the summer? Don’t think so. What about topwater? Is the water still relatively warm or stable, about 50 degrees? What I’m trying to get across is, don’t get boxed in. Yes, those jerkbaits, jigs and crankbaits are going to be the best most of the time, but other things can still work.

Here’s an example. A friend and I have a Christmas Eve tradition to go fishing, and a couple of years in a row, we fished a shallow lake during a warming trend. The first year, we noticed the bass kept spooking as soon as our baits hit the water, so about an hour of scaring fish, I said enough is enough and tied on a popper — yes, a topwater popper on Christmas Eve. You talk about a nice Christmas gift when a first cast gets a huge explosion. It was on after that; we caught 20 or 30 fish that afternoon. The next year, same thing, except we could see it coming and were rigged from the get-go. Last year, the lake was frozen when we arrived, and we busted them on frogs coming up through the ice — just kidding.

One of the biggest opportunities we tend to miss are rain-driven opportunities, since most of us don’t like to fish in the rain, except my crazy brother — he prefers it. Rainfall can really group up the fish in ditches and creeks ,even in the winter. When the rain comes, it brings in nutrient-rich water that the baitfish like, and the bait tends to concentrate the bass in the same spots.

In the winter, if you get a warm rain event that flushes out a pond or comes into a nice creek, there is a great chance to get on a group of fish. Sometimes, you would think the rain would make places muddy when they actually can do the opposite. Sometimes, a whole lake can be muddy and tough in the winter, but the very upper end can get clean in a hurry, so good spots to look can be bends and pools way up the river.  Generally, the upper end of lakes that have a lake upstream see this scenario.

Other times we miss are when the fishing is outstanding and we think we can do it day after day.  Well, conditions change, and the hot spot or pattern will be gone soon enough. My advice is you better catch all you can while you can because they will soon be gone, and finding the same group of fish is unlikely. This happened to me this past fall. We got on a huge group of fish on a little gravely, hardbottom spot on a big flat in about 6 feet of water, and it was raining. I thought these fish would stay on this spot, no matter what, since it was out of the way and such a prime feeding spot. Well, it rained all day and all night, and the lake shot up 4 feet. There were no fish to be found on that spot again. Better get ’em when the getting is good.

Groups of fish in out-of-the-way places are not only found in the shallow water that I prefer. Years back, I discovered tons of fish hanging around 20 feet at Shearon Harris lake, and it stayed good for about two weeks, and then they were gone. Out of desperation, I started going deeper and deeper until I was at nearly 40 feet, and Wham! I was suddenly catching wads of giant fish at a depth I thought bass did not use. I’ve heard tails of guys getting on fish down to 60 and even 100 feet on some western waters.

My point again is to keep an open mind. It really does not take that long to check dramatically different depths.  If you go super-deep, just fish with really heavy lures like jigs or spoons an ounce or heavier; these heavy baits make you feel like you are fishing much-shallower water than you actually are.

Fish at those depths are generally not pressured, so they tend to bite whatever you get to them. I would advise checking really likely spots like the bends of channels or road beds at those depths.  Don’t just randomly fish super deep, or you will surely waste a lot of time.

Keep an open mind this winter and throughout the year for you best chances to get em while the getting is good!