I'm lookin to hit a reservoir in central virgina in February and I'm sure the water temps will be cold. I haven't had much luck in the winter finding fish here. It's a 187 acres and I think about 30 ft deep at its deepest spot. There are areas of standing trees, and the banks have Lilly pads out about 15 ft in the summer.

What would you look for first? What depths would you try? And what baits would you try in what areas?

The water isn't super clear..colors?

Maybe a book you recommend ?

Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge !

At this time, the fish will be deep and lethargic due to slow metabolism. Id try slow crawling a black/blue football jig and chunk trailer in the deeper water.

At this time, the fish will be deep and lethargic due to slow metabolism. Id try slow crawling a black/blue football jig and chunk trailer in the deeper water.

^^^^

 

Ding, ding, ding ... Winner.  

 

Look for steep dropoffs, ledges etc.

i would look for the bass to be hanging out in the 10-15 foot rang by timber or rock. if you can find green grass thats a plus. slow is key

What everyone's said so far.

 

I've not fished much this winter other than on a local community lake, fairly shallow.

 

But previous winters, I've caught bass off ledges in deeper waters...

 

I've caught on black worms, various and sundry darker colors of soft plastics.

which ever lure you choose make sure you try this technique.  'slow and low'. you can do it with a jig, beetle spin, tube, lipless trap etc.  i'd also use smaller baits and take some nightcrawlers as back up.  dead stick it on the initial fall.  pause from 10-25 seconds to give the lethargic fish time to swim over. experiment with a 12" drag and another 10 second pause.  or small 12" hop with a long pause. of course speed up and try different retrieves.  but fishing slow in cold water is very productive and takes serious patience.  good luck and wear ur PDF out there 

Find an area with vertical structure (some kind of sharp dropoff, one with large rock would be best, if it happened to be on the north side of the lake would be even better) and fish it slowly. If the water is clear enough, I'd be twitching a suspending jerkbait very slowly around the cover. Your idea of "not super clear" and my idea of it are probably completely different. I'm going to guess the water has at least a couple feet of visibility which would be plenty for a jerkbait. I let the water clarity and amount of sunlight dictate my color selection but colors like clown and bone are pretty universally good colors no matter the water clarity or amount of sunlight. Give the bait very small twitches and let it sit a long time during the pause, at least 10-20 seconds, longer if you can stand it. I like to count it out in my head and if the fish are hitting at a certain point in my count, then I'll shorten my count to just a couple seconds longer than that.

If the jerkbait isn't working I'd drag a small (1/4oz) brown or black jig with a pork or plastic chunk trailer, slowly around deep drops. A shakyhead with a straight tail worm in green pumpkin would also be something I'd keep handy. 

Thanks guys, I'm gonna write this down and head for the bait shop. I'll keep track of the baits and techniques I use, and I'll give a report!