It’s getting cold! Help me stay on the bass

[10,000 lakes Bassin]

It’s getting chilly up here! We’ve had a few nights down into the twenties and almost all of the leaves are on the ground. I was on the water a week ago and the water was around 55 so I’m sure it will be much colder now. I’d love some general advice on how to stay on the largemouth as the temp keeps dropping. I’ve had decent luck around some scattered green grass, but I’m sure lots of that will be dying off soon if it’s not already dead. Where do I look now? I’d assume around hard cover of some sort but that can be few and far between in lots of the lakes around me. What depth zone should I focus on? Will they still be up shallow or are they starting to move out deep? What could be some key baits?

Thanks!

[TnRiver46]

Small paddle tail, slow roll it as deep as you can 

[Swamp Girl]

I had some success last night, catching 15 cold bass on the surface. I used a Yo-Zuri popper and had the best success on a windblown shore, both tight to the shore and up to 15' from it. I'm in Maine and we'd had a hard frost that morning. On the other hand, I couldn't coax a single hit at dropoffs and in holes, slow rolling a spinnerbait and using a fluke too. 

[king fisher]

Follow the ducks.  They will stop in Mexico, and you should too.

[softwateronly]

@August do you have gizzard shad?  emerald shiners?  I fish a cold area, natural lake with gizzard shad, and my bass relate to bait heavily this time year.  I'm finding that the bait still migrates daily, nighttime seems to be spent in the cover of the weeds, then a move to more open water.  My only consistent spots are the choke points between these two types of areas and they are most productive for the first few hours of daybreak and the last hour and a half of daylight.  Mid day, I do more searching of the large 20-30' deep flats, hoping for birds or fish busting to clue me in.  I'm not working with anything other than a flasher, so I rarely if ever mark fish, just bottom comp and depth.

 

On these maps, I'm marking in yellow where I find bass ambushing shad at daybreak and nightfall and the red areas are where I'm finding shad eaters the further from night it is.  The darker it is, the more time I spend throwing shallow.  Now this doesn't hold true all the time, but it's a starting point for the shad eaters mid july till ice.  Now that we're post turnover, mid column to bottom bouncing is my best depth range, though I still have no confidence fishing deeper than 30' down in a 55' deep lake.  One other nugget gleaned, is I do better fishing the direction that the shad are migrating, meaning I sit in deeper water in the am and cast toward the nighttime haunts.  Flip it at the end of the day.

 

As the water gets into the 40's, I feel like some of the bass make a home at the "shallow" edges of the red or the deep portion of the yellow and don't travel as much.  I agree with @TnRiver46 that a small underspin is a great choice.  Heavy compact spinnerbaits, deep diving jerkbaits, deep cranks, A-rigs, and metal jigs do most of the damage for me.

 

scott

 

ps - side note; bass are probably always corralling bait in some ways in depths I can't see, but this is the time of year when a school of bass can pin bait dirt shallow and just go on a frenzy, some of the best fishing I've ever experienced.  I always watch for signs, hoping

 

 

[gim]

11 minutes ago, softwateronly said:

do you have gizzard shad?  emerald shiners?

 

No, and no.  The primary forage in the lakes he's fishing is sunfish.

 

I haven't had much success bass fishing in these frigid temps (my cut off is usually 50), but I'd be snapping a jerk bait with long pauses in between if I was going to continue to bass fish in MN.  Whatever presentation I used, I'd be fishing it slow.  The largemouth are getting to be quite lethargic in this cold water.

[softwateronly]

1 minute ago, gimruis said:

 

No, and no.  The primary forage in the lakes he's fishing is sunfish.

 

I haven't had much success fishing in these frigid temps (my cut off is usually 50), but I'd be snapping a jerk bait with long pauses in between if I was going to continue to bass fish in MN.

What do your walleye, sunfish and crappie eat?  A schooling pelagic fish?  If so, this might apply.  

 

scott

[gim]

Some of the bigger walleye/smallmouth lakes have perch and tulibee/cisco.  He's not fishing big lakes though, he's fishing smaller natural weed-oriented largemouth lakes and the primary forage base is sunfish.

 

Hate to say it, but he might just have to accept the fact that the largemouth are not going to winningly bite anymore.  I've always had trouble catching them up north here when the water temps dropped below 50 degrees.  As long as it stays at 50 or above, I could catch them.

 

 

[10,000 lakes Bassin]

28 minutes ago, softwateronly said:

What do your walleye, sunfish and crappie eat?  A schooling pelagic fish?  If so, this might apply.  

 

scott

I know we have a good population of shiners in some lakes around here.

I appreciate your help, I’ll look on a lake map and see if I find some of those key areas you pointed out.

25 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Hate to say it, but he might just have to accept the fact that the largemouth are not going to winningly bite anymore.  I've always had trouble catching them up north here when the water temps dropped below 50 degrees.  As long as it stays at 50 or above, I could catch them.

 

 

I think I’ll stick it out and try to catch them later into the fall this year than I ever have. I might change my mind when I start to freeze my fingers off but for now I’ll keep with it. 

[softwateronly]

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

Some of the bigger walleye/smallmouth lakes have perch and tulibee/cisco.  He's not fishing big lakes though, he's fishing smaller natural weed-oriented largemouth lakes and the primary forage base is sunfish.

 

Hate to say it, but he might just have to accept the fact that the largemouth are not going to winningly bite anymore.  I've always had trouble catching them up north here when the water temps dropped below 50 degrees.  As long as it stays at 50 or above, I could catch them.

 

 

  I get it.  I fish a small weedy lake that ices over every year.  Now that I've gotten better, spent more time, and "lived" on one body of water for 15 years I've learned that cold water bass fishing is my best time for big fish.  Bass don't stop eating in 40 degree water, they can't metabolically afford to hibernate from november to april. 

  This is my second favorite time to fish.  That said, if everything I said about pelagic fish doesn't apply, the simple answer is for the OP to find the juvenile sunfish.  Come ice out, I routinely find and catch healthy chunky LM that have thrived over the course of the winter. Since both prey and predator are cold blooded, the larger mass of the predator offers a metabolic hunting advantage, and that is most pronounced in their pursuit of tiny baitfish / yearling bream.  Bass will eat and big bass need to eat more frequently and/or larger meals than smaller bass.  Maybe give it another shot?

 

scott 

[gim]

7 minutes ago, softwateronly said:

Come ice out, I routinely find and catch healthy chunky LM that have thrived over the course of the winter.

 

Our season is closed until the second Saturday in May.  Can't target them after ice out.

 

They'll soon be locked in an ice box for the next 5 months hibernating...

[MN Fisher]

2 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Our season is closed until the second Saturday in May.

Ummm...LMB season is open until Feb 23 - just like Walleye and Northern.

SMB went C&R only on Sept 9 until Feb 23, then closed like the rest.

 

The way it's going, we might have ice-out before the season closes.

[softwateronly]

1 minute ago, gimruis said:

 

Our season is closed until the second Saturday in May.  Can't target them after ice out.

 

They'll soon be locked in an ice cube for the next 5 months hibernating...

MI changed to C&R only till late April about 10 years ago thanks to Van Dam and others lobbying.  I hope MN will follow at some point because it's a game changer for law abiding conscientious bass anglers.

 

scott

[gim]

3 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Ummm...LMB season is open until Feb 23 - just like Walleye and Northern.

 

That's not what I meant.  I meant after ice out.

 

Ice anglers don't target bass in the winter here.  I've literally never heard someone say they were going ice fishing for bass.

3 minutes ago, softwateronly said:

I hope MN will follow at some point because it's a game changer for law abiding conscientious bass anglers.

 

I think they'll change it by 2026.  Wisconsin just changed that a few years ago too and we're usually several years behind them on this sort of thing.

 

The reason its closed from late February through early May is to protect the sacred walleyes.  Has nothing to do with bass.  They don't want people "bass fishing for walleyes" here out of season.

[10,000 lakes Bassin]

7 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Ice anglers don't target bass in the winter here.  I've literally never heard someone say they were going ice fishing for bass.

I know one guy that says he catches em pretty good on a certain lake on early ice, I’ve never fish out there with him though.

18 minutes ago, softwateronly said:

  I get it.  I fish a small weedy lake that ices over every year.  Now that I've gotten better, spent more time, and "lived" on one body of water for 15 years I've learned that cold water bass fishing is my best time for big fish.  Bass don't stop eating in 40 degree water, they can't metabolically afford to hibernate from november to april. 

  This is my second favorite time to fish.  That said, if everything I said about pelagic fish doesn't apply, the simple answer is for the OP to find the juvenile sunfish.  Come ice out, I routinely find and catch healthy chunky LM that have thrived over the course of the winter. Since both prey and predator are cold blooded, the larger mass of the predator offers a metabolic hunting advantage, and that is most pronounced in their pursuit of tiny baitfish / yearling bream.  Bass will eat and big bass need to eat more frequently and/or larger meals than smaller bass.  Maybe give it another shot?

 

scott 

Do you have any go-to spots you look for when you’re trying to find those young of the year sunfish? I’d guess they be up pretty shallow? Maybe check big points or bays first?

[softwateronly]

6 minutes ago, August said:

Do you have any go-to spots you look for when you’re trying to find those young of the year sunfish? I’d guess they be up pretty shallow?

Not really, but there are some.  My water is clear, visibility between 8-12', and the end of my pier and boat lift sits in 11 feet.  I look all the time.  There are some bluegill hanging out there right now by the structure, but they're not grouped up consistently.  10-25' is my better water, but it might just be my lake or me because that's almost always my best water depths to target.  If the water is calm, the days pleasant, and the nights cold, the shallows have the most volatile water temp fluctuations.  Think early morning mist coming off the lake.  My guess is they mostly prefer the more stable temps of deeper water or at least deeper water access during the changing seasons.

 

16 minutes ago, August said:

Maybe check big points or bays first?

That sounds like a good idea to me, but also check the open water adjacent.  All those red circles for me were areas I never thought catchable bass lived.  I've now learned differently.

 

scott

[NorthernBasser]

When it hits sub-50 degree water here in WI, I'll primarily throw jerkbaits, neds crawled slooowly on the bottom, and blade baits yo-yo'd off the bottom. 

[Swamp Girl]

I was fishing this morning. My biggest challenge was staying warm. Even with a couple Hot Hands stuffed into my fingerless wool gloves, my hands were cold. I wore three layers up top and two layers on the bottom with neoprene boots. The water and bass were cold too.

 

The fishing wasn't hot, but it was okay with 28 caught up to 4.25 lbs. I rigged six rods and four were worthless: a pink wacky worm, a Sixth Sense crankbait, a chartreuse walking bait, and a Dobyns spinnerbait. All bass were caught on a 6" Depps fluke and a Yo-Zuri popper. The popper was still catching bass in shallow water under a cloudless sky. Go figure, but the fat black and green fluke caught the biggest bass. 

 

I've caught a lot cold water bass on my popper, both in shallow and deep water. 

 

So, here's my advice: Dress warm and toss a popper and fat fluke.

[PaulVE64]

My bass season ends soon. I've never caught a bass locally after the 2nd week of November.

 

[IntroC]

17 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

I was fishing this morning. My biggest challenge was staying warm. Even with a couple Hot Hands stuffed into my fingerless wool gloves, my hands were cold. I wore three layers up top and two layers on the bottom with neoprene boots. The water and bass were cold too.

 

The fishing wasn't hot, but it was okay with 28 caught up to 4.25 lbs. I rigged six rods and four were worthless: a pink wacky worm, a Sixth Sense crankbait, a chartreuse walking bait, and a Dobyns spinnerbait. All bass were caught on a 6" Depps fluke and a Yo-Zuri popper. The popper was still catching bass in shallow water under a cloudless sky. Go figure, but the fat black and green fluke caught the biggest bass. 

 

I've caught a lot cold water bass on my popper, both in shallow and deep water. 

 

So, here's my advice: Dress warm and toss a popper and fat fluke.

Curious what water temps you were fishing? Crazy cold water bass are hitting poppers. Cool

[Swamp Girl]

18 minutes ago, IntroC said:

Curious what water temps you were fishing? Crazy cold water bass are hitting poppers. Cool

 

My thermometer broke and I'm not going to buy another because nothing stays dry in a canoe and the battery corroded and killed the electronics. We have been getting hard frosts and some daytime highs have only reached 50, so the water is cold. I'm guessing low fifties. 

[Bankbeater]

Look for cover around steep drop offs. The drop off doesn't need to be near the shore.  I could be a ways out in the water, or at the end of a point.   I would be fishing around wood, or any green vegetation you can find. If you have coontail in your lake, and the lake is deep enough, it will stay green all winter.  Around here the bass move out into the flats when it warms up enough.  If there are dead lily pads around the flats I would target those first.