So I’m up in Northeast Ohio while I’m home for spring break and I’m having trouble fishing some of the local ponds. Everything is just starting to thaw and the pond I fish is just about half thawed/half ice. I have to fish from the bank and I usually throw a red eye shad lipless crankbait as a search bait but it seems that even my search bait is inefficient. I was out for 2 hours today in the cold and windy snow and not even so much as a bite. I switched to using a ned rig thinking they might prefer a slower presentation but no luck. I also threw a green pumpkin chatter bait for a while and no luck. I was essentially casting to the ice then reeling in and letting my lure drop from the edge of the ice to the bottom where I expect them to be. Planning on going out later this week, can anyone offer any tactics or better lure suggestions so I can catch my first winter bass?

 

If any of you are familiar, I’m fishing the Walter C. Best Wildlife Preserve. It’s got pretty clear water and the shore is shallow for about 5 feet and then has a steep drop off, deep enough that I can’t see the bottom. 

Hello and Welcome to Bass Resource ~ 

 

One word ~ Jerkbait.

Fish it like this  . . . 

 

A-Jay 

Second the jerkbait.  Longer pauses, maybe even go down in size.  XRAP XR6.  I'very heard good things about blade baits on cold.

I've used blade baits in my local lakes in NJ as soon as the ice is gone and have had mixed results.  More often than not they produce but it really depends upon water temp.

The binsky made it big on the east coast and the blade that i fish.  I run both silver and gold depending on the day and swap them if one is not working to see if its a color thing.  Hair jigs and marabou would be a grate choice when its real cold because they have their own action and do not need to be moved to work.  Strange enough the plain white have worked the best for me in the smaller jig sizes.  The float and fly would be my last recommendation.  I have not used it but its a classic cold water presentation.