As I was swapping out the summer baits for winter baits in my bank fishing bag, it dawned on me that my preferences for cold water baits lean heavily toward winter-appropriate reaction baits: flat sided squarebills, lipless crankbaits, jerkbaits, blade baits. Granted I've only been making a sincere effort at winter fishing the last couple of seasons. 

 

So that leads me to ask: what slow-down/non-reaction baits do you use in cold water? I do throw a jig with a slow moving trailer (like a Zoom chunk), and a Ned rig. Anything else I should be throwing when the reaction baits aren't doing the trick?

Drag a tube 

Tight lining a 3" Easy Shiner on the lightest jighead possible is a great way to get numbers and or see if the fish in a given area are willing to hit a moving bait.

Depending on the depth of the water slow roll a 1/2, 5/8, or 3/4 oz. spinnerbait along the bottom. That has been very effective for me for many years.

El Jig.

My favorites are Jig, Tube, jerkbait.

   I use a 1/4 oz.Trout Weight Dardevle from Eppinger. With the correct twitch, that thing will almost dance-in-place. Very effective in cold water.     jj

All bottom contact lures/baits fished slower work.

Structure spoons are ideal but not from shore worked up hill!

Slip shot/finesse C-rig using 4” to 5” hand pour worms and soft plastic craws works.

Tom

 

A swinging football head with a beaver is my main winter time dragging bait the last few years. I think the fish see a lot of jigs during the winter so it gives them something similar but different. A shakyhead and Ned are top options also.

I had good luck the other morning switching from a chatterbait to a swim jig with a paddletail that I brought back SLOWWWWWW,  like a couple turns of the handle real slow then a slight pause, repeat.  That finally got me some bites on very non aggressive bass.   Half of the bites I wasn't even sure I had a fish on at first. 

I fish a moon eye jig with a fluke jr/minnow type bait

Damiki style where you drop right on them after you mark them on your graph

Or cast and short hops or just lifting the rod tip and letting the bait move a little at a time

 

 

Thanks everyone for the responses. I have loaded my bank bag accordingly. Thankfully my "cold" water here is still in jerkbait/lipless range, so I'm enjoying it for now. I'll be prepared with the dragging soft baits now as well as it gets colder.