You know, the month or six weeks between the end of deer season and the time that bass start to move shallow is a long time to stay inside in front of the TV set. Like a lot of you, I get the itch to get on the water, and since I like to do more than just ride around and fish aimlessly, I’ve developed several strategies that might get you some fish in February, which is probably one of the hardest months of the year for fishermen in the Carolinas.
First, February is cold, especially from the first of the month to the middle of the month. By the end of the month, you can get a little bit of warm weather. And February is unpredictable. You can have 70-degree weather, and you can also have days when the high temperature is 20.
When it’s cold, you typically have to fish deep to have a chance to catch any bass. They tend to be schooled up, hanging around the outside edges of creek channels. Except that they’re down in the channel instead of up on top of the drop-off or on the flat.
I have three things I like to do in February, and they’re somewhat related in the fact that you’re fishing in deep water on the bottom.
You can use your electronics to find fish anywhere from 20- to 40-feet deep, depending on how cold it is and the water clarity on the lake you’re fishing.
If the surface temperature is in the low 40s, I’m going to be bumping a spoon on the bottom. My favorite is a Berry Flex-It spoon, which is made in my hometown of Ninety Six. I never knew that until just a few months ago after I moved here. I’d seen them and bought them all over.
I use a ¾-ounce spoon. The neat thing about a Flex-It spoon is that you can bend the spoon. You can keep it straight, the way it comes in the package, and it’ll fall down real fast, or you can bend it a little, make it look like the Little Cleo we all used to use, and it’ll want to kick out to one side or the other when it falls.
Most of the major manufacturers have depth-finders good enough that you can actually see watch your spoon falling, watch the fish, watch the bait fall right in front of him.
I happen to use a Lowrance, and since I have the transducer right on the trolling motor, I can be pretty sure that I’m bumping that spoon right in front of the nose of a fish I’m looking at on the screen.
If I put a spoon in front of fish and they don’t hit it, I’ll go to a drop-shot rig. I know, I know; I’ve got to be a little humble and admit I use a drop-shot, but it will work.
I rig it with a 1/4- to 3/8-ounce bell sinker on the bottom, with my hook and bait up 12 to 18 inches, depending on what I’m looking at on the depth-finder.
I’ll use a little straight Finesse worm or a Berkley Power Bass Minnow.
Sometimes if you don’t get hits with a spoon, it takes a little piece of plastic to get them going, and I use colors like olive-shad or pearl/blue shad. I use a No. 1 Owner hook — a straight-shank if I’m just going to hook it through the head the way you’d hook a live minnow, or an offset hook if I’m fishing around brush or something else and want to rig it weedless.
With a drop shot, you keep the bait in front of the bass’s nose even more than you do with a spoon. You just wiggle it a little bit, just bump it a little. You don’t want a lot of action, but just enough.
The third thing I do is fish a Berkley Power Jerk Shad with a 1/4-ounce leadhead. I’ll do this maybe when it’s a little warmer or when I’m searching for fish.
When you’re jigging or fishing a drop-shot, you’re not covering much water. If you fish a Jerk Shad, you can cover a little more water, and maybe if you get a bite or two, you can stay in that area and catch more fish on a spoon or drop shot.
I just make a long cast with the Jerk Shad, and I fish it the same way every bass fisherman knows to hop a pig’n’jig during the summer. I hop it off the water and let it flutter back down. It doesn’t get far off the water, and you keep it in front of the fish.
Fishing like this can be like pulling teeth, but when you get on a little group of fish and get them going, you can get well in a hurry. Or you can fish eight hours and not catch anything — but that’s still better than sitting inside.
I fish a Flex-It spoon on a 6-1/2-foot medium or medium-heavy action All-Star bait-casting rod with a Pfleuger President casting reel. I spool it with 12- to 14-pound Trilene XT mono.
If I’m fishing a drop-shot, I use spinning tackle: a 6 1/2-foot medium-action All-Star with a Pfleuger President, but I drop down and use 8-pound Berkley Vanish flourocarbon. I think the flourocarbon is important to use with a drop-shot since it’s so sensitive and 9 out of 10 times you get a bite on a drop-shot, you really just feel something heavy — not like the little thump you’ll get with a spoon.
Davy Hite is a 40-year-old native of Saluda, S.C., who now resides in Ninety Six, S.C. He has fished professionally since 1993, when he qualified for his first Bassmasters Classic. He was the BASS Angler of the Year in 1997 and 2002, and he has won the 1999 Bassmasters Classic and the 1998 FLW Tour Championship. He is sponsored by Triton boats, Evinrude outboards, All-Star rods, Pfleuger reels, Pure Fishing (Berkeley), Owner hooks and Solar-Bat sunglasses.
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