Wow what a dilemma!!! While out prefishing for my first tourney of the year I noticed the bass suspending at between 17 - 22 feet everywhere. Water temp 42 was the warmest I found. I threw everything in the box at them including lipless crank baits, deep diving jerkbaits, spinner baits, flukes with split shots. Just to name a few things I tried. What would you do in similar conditions, someone throw be a bone here please.

J

Single swimbaits (Keitech EZ Shiner)

Wacky senko

I will have to try the wacky senko. Usually don't pull out the senko's till closer to the spawn. Thanks Tartan.

J

We have the same conditions here...the bass are even at the same depth.

Try strolling an Alabama rig or a double A-rig thru the schools of bait and bass..it works

 

 

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q141/SamnVa/20140308_115416_zps26fb349c.jpg

I would recommend a drop shot small senko rigged wacky.

A-Rig

I would try the dropshot but that would have to have a 5-9 foot leader and that would wouldn't be doable I don't think.

I would recommend a drop shot small senko rigged wacky.

A-Rig

 

Yep...The Rig

Try throwing a suspending jerk bait 4 ft depth, spots will come up and hit it.. Take long pauses between twitches, 5 10 15 seconds. Sometimes that is key. Try some bright colors like hot pink or chartreuse if the more subtle colors are not working. As others said also, A-rig!!!! Just make sure your throwing it above the fish not below them. Make multiple casts to the same spot to. If you haven't bought one yet, I recommend a smaller one with blades on it. Good luck

A small swimbait like a Damiki armour shad on a jig head and verticle jig it just above them on graph

Suspended bass I like to use suspending baits and countdown baits if nothing else grabs their fancy , but the really tough ones I love the float and fly , one of the best cold water / stubborn fish tactics , works really well , a little difficult to get used to at first but very affective indeed !!

Yes I have , although I have not used it enough to master it , I have used it enough to know how effective it can be , hair jigs are one of my favorites in cold water where the fish are very tough to catch , especially river systems , but this method actually improved my hair jig fishing by leaps , those really subtle bites are never missed anymore , that is unless I make a mistake .

I have used that technique on crappy but never tried it on bass. I will have to give it a try next winter or next time I face those condition. I have to figure out where to get those flies.

Thanks for the tips.

J

Try jigging a buck tail white hair jig

I have used that technique on crappy but never tried it on bass. I will have to give it a try next winter or next time I face those condition. I have to figure out where to get those flies.

Thanks for the tips.

J

 

If you go to Gene's you tube I would be willing to bet he has it on there somewhere , I have not purchased any from the link he provides in the video but they look amazing !!

 

As Bamabassman posted , the white buck tail is pretty good , other suggestions would be RW , he had some killer looking hair jigs from somewhere as well , I will shoot them a PM if I can't find the links today for ya if you would like .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZqtBcZgdRA

 

 

 

 

Nice I will be trying the float and fly next time I see that going on

Nice I will be trying the float and fly next time I see that going on

It's going on now and will be for a couple more weeks if the weather patterns stay like it has been.

I took those images two weeks ago and this past weekend they were like that too.

X2 on the FnF. I would also use a jigging spoon.