Winter Bass Fishing

Here in Colorado, just like other parts of the U.S. of A., bass fishing gets really tough over the winter.  The bite shuts down sometime after early to mid-November and doesn't start to pick up again until early March.  But that doesn't mean you can't catch bass over the winter.  You just have to adjust your fishing techniques.

We had a great year with the Rocky Mountain Team Series Bass tournaments.  We awarded around $50,000 dollars in cash and prizes this year with the help of sponsors like TroKar Hooks, Maui Jim Sunglasses and Mustang Survival life vests.  During the cold weather off-season we are preparing for an even better Rocky Mountain Team Series in 2012.

But just because the weather has become much colder doesn’t mean bass fishing is over.  Just a week ago my tournament partner, Herb Turner, was catching bass on top-water and crank-baits; that was right before the first snow storm on a small lake north of Denver.  But it will only get slower from here on through the winter.  Bass are caught year-round, even here in Colorado, but they are not as active, so much fewer fish are caught than the rest of the year and the presentations are different to catch inactive bass.

Along the Front Range lakes and ponds, bass start to get into a negative feeding mood when the air and water temperatures start to plummet.  They have to conserve energy and may remain fairly dormant much of the time.  They don’t want to chase lures, but bass have to eat sometime, and they will bite lures.  Most of the winter an extremely slow presentation, in deep water, must be used to entice a bite.

The best presentation I can recommend for the most inactive times is a black 3” gulp! leech, or a 3” gulp! shiner minnow, 3-6 inches above a drop-shot weight, on 6# Trilene Vanish Transition or 100% Fluorocarbon line.  I use a 7 1/2-foot Fenwick Spinning rod because when you are fishing deeper the longer rod will let you set the hook better with all that line out.  Cast the drop-shot out and let it sink to the bottom.  Take in the slack, but do not move the lure, dead-sticking the presentation and let the fish come to your gulp! scented lure.  You have to be patient and have faith that there are fish in the area you are fishing.  The fish will often nose up to the bait for several minutes before they decide to take it, and if you move the lure away from the bass, it usually will not follow it.  But eventually, if the fish will feed at all, it will take the lure.

There are times, during the winter, when bass will be a little more active.  If we have an extended warming trend, with bright sunny days to put some warmth on the top surface layer of the water column, the fish will react to the warmth.  If the wind blows, even slightly, the warmer surface layer will mix the water column and the wind-blown banks will be better than the calm banks.  For more active times, a slow-moving crank-bait or jerk-bait will catch bass.  My friend Jim Floyd uses a slow-rolling Road Runner all winter in a small pond and he catches bass every month of the year.

You can fish the larger reservoirs, like Pueblo or Horsetooth Lake, in the same manner, but often have to go much deeper than the smaller bodies of water we have around Denver.  A ½ to 1 oz. jig, with a gulp! or Powerbait single tail grub, will catch bass and get your lure down to the bottom faster.  It also helps you control the lure and feel the bottom and the bite better because of the weight of the jig.

I use 15-20# Trilene 100% fluorocarbon line on a heavy Fenwick flipping stick, with a 7:1 fast retrieve Abu Garcia Revo reel so that I can bring all that line up quickly to cast to another spot.  Again, slow presentation.  I will cast along bluff walls, and let the jig fall to 20-40 feet of depth, pulling line off the reel with my hand so that the jig falls straight down the wall.  Watch the line, because if there are suspended bass next to the wall one may hit it on the way down.  When the jig is all the way down, make very slow lifts with the rod to slowly drag the jig across the bottom.  If you feel a bush or tree, stop and pause, then move even slower.  Bass like to relate to something, even if it is just a stick or the tiniest of bushes.

The drop-shot rig will work the same way at the larger lakes, and if I go deeper than 40 feet I almost exclusively use a drop-shot rig or a small spoon, and I fish it straight down below the boat on rock piles.  Let it go to the bottom and every ten seconds or so lift the rod up and feel for resistance.  If there is any resistance, it is a fish, so sweep the rod up and keep the line tight as you reel.

This time of year you never know what will be on the other end when you get a bite.  It could be a trout, yellow perch, walleye, catfish, or a bass.  All of these species eventually move deep and become less active, so when the opportunity to feed is presented right before them, with a slow or dead-stick presentation, any one of them could take it.  The key is to be patient, use small lures in and near deep water, and keep the presentation very, very slow.