It’s winter, some guys are still fishin. Hope we don’t get ice in MA this year! 
When I see winter posts it’s about what baits. So I want to ask something different. 
Or just open topic about the other factors of winter fishin. I’m talking about water below 50. You southern folk don’t get winter! 

What kind of areas are you fishin? Shallow lakes/ponds vs deep lakes/ponds. Are you looking for inflows? Timber? Crawling ledges deep in 25 feet of water? 
Are you switching up gear? Using lighter line. Using smaller baits? 
 

There’s no bad info

I am in Virginia and water temps were in the mid 40's last weekend surprisingly.  For me I fish all those types you mentioned but generally it is smaller lakes or larger lakes that are shallower aka 15' or so max depth.  

 

Many times as far as areas to target are ones I have done well at in the past winter fishing but it all usually starts cruising around and looking at my sidescan to see promising areas or fish.  A couple of the lakes I fish have underwater logs/laydowns in deeper water and they always hold fish.  Last time out, the fish were moved up a little shallower on laydowns but those laydowns extended off points into 10-14' FOW but the fish I caught were up shallow in under 4'.  Water temp makes a difference as well which is another reason I cruise around as a degree or two higher can make a difference in my experience.

 

As far as gear goes in winter if I am conventional fishing i have a jig, jerkbait and a soft paddle tail on 99% of the time.  Those three baits allow me to cover any part of the water column I need to and once I figure out where they are that particular day, I can adjust accordingly.

@flyfisher great info. I’m still trying to get this winter game down. I have 2 spots I do well at that I figured out where they sit. One is deep clear. 20 ish feet max, they love to sit in the deeper green grass near this flat. It’s a good area where they can move up to feed shallow if they want. The other is just a small pond with a decent current. They love sitting on the deeper side but it’s no more then 5 feet 

I have so many other places I fish in the warmer months. I need to start checking them out in the cold.  

I haven’t had to many good days fishing in the winter outside my usual places. I’ll scratch up a fish or 2 but that’s it even smallies but not having electronics and fishing 99% of the time in a kayak is tough in the winter 

Jighead/minnow (gulp/tiny fluke/bobby garland)

My river is cold enough to have a crust of ice along the bank.

Time to switch to walleye and pike 

19 minutes ago, PaulVE64 said:

My river is cold enough to have a crust of ice along the bank.

Time to switch to walleye and pike 

Wish I had those fish around