I fish a city lake a lot, and for the last 2 winters I got skunked from about mid november until febuary. The bite is hard there, but still, in wintertime there is a lot less pressure. I fish from the bank.

 

I mostly have tried soft plastics during winter, texas rigs, just like in summer. As well as an occasional jerkbait or crankbait. I don't think I've caught a fish at all either winter. Then, one day I'll be fishing, and bam, I start getting bit and then it's normal again.

 

So what lures should I be considering for this coming winter? I want to become proficient with them now, which is why I am asking now.

Is it because you can't reach with your cast where they live in the cold weather?  Usually, deeper water offers more temp stability and both prey and predator migrate there.  So part of this question is; is it your bait choice or your location?  

 

scott

My understranding is that there are some fish that stay shallow year round. 

I’ve pretty much come to accept that most my winter fish are probably going to come on a crankbait of some kind. A lipless really shines in the winter. I like the 1/4oz red eye shad. The Rapala DT series and Shad Rap series are also excellent. 

Our Winters:

Have used a Berkley Power worm with bulk and scent and use an old school retrieve dragging it T- Rigged slowly, very slowly till ...

Good Fishing

In small ponds the fish don't really have the option of going deep.  They will favor certain areas over others, but they are more than likely in casting distance.

You want to put your time in where the fish are.  Look for rocks, hard bottom, structure thats somewhat close to deeper parts of the pond. 

Always fish on the wind blown side/corner.  I know it gets cold, but trust me, it will pay off.  That wind blows all the warmer surface water to that particular part of the lake.  That can trigger a feed in the afternoon when the water is at its warmest.  That window may be only 15 minutes, but its there. 

As for the baits, go small and very light.  A little 3" swimbait like an easy shiner or Hazedong shad and a 1/16oz head, fished as slow as possible will catch them for sure.

Ned rigs are good choice too if you dont mind fishing the bottom.  Same deal, the lightest head possible 1/20 or 1/16 and fish its as slow as you can.

JBs are one of the only moving baits that will get a consistent bite in frigid water, so long as you find the right JB and use the right cadence.  You can get away with cheaper JBs in warmer water, but when you have 10 or 15 seconds between twitches the bait needs to suspend or have a very very slow rise/fall.  Its a good idea to get some suspend strips to adjust the bouyancy of the bait.  Pointers are good, but my go to winter JBs are MB 110 Jr or a Duo Rozante 77sp.  They arent cheap, but you get what you pay for.

If you want something you can chuck and wind, the IMA SV70 suspending lipless is about impossible to beat.  It really fishes a lot like a JB, except its a slow sink.  For figuring out the mood of the fish a better bait does not exist IMO.

If you have a clean bottom, small football jig with a twin tail are good to use on those cold sunny days.  Picassos lil spotty, Keitechs football and Beast Coasts Sniper jig are all great option.

 

Great suggestions here but in the dead of winter we actually get what's referred to as inverse stratification for most of the winter and the cold water rises to the surface (look it up - why else would lakes freeze top down?) and stays there most of the winter in a thin layer that changes a lot and beneath that the water can be as much as 10+ degrees warmer.

 

It's the opposite of what water does in the summer time.

 

I fish protected areas that are getting lots of sunlight when it's the winter time.

 

And yeah - seems like they're always deeper than I am fishing!

10 hours ago, Bazoo said:

My understranding is that there are some fish that stay shallow year round. 

 

This can certainly be true, but if you've blanked for two winters I'd lean toward they're not shallow in your body of water.  The baits you're using will catch if they are there, some tweaks might give you more bites, but you shouldn't blank if they are around.  Cranks, jerks, blade baits, jigs, jighead minnow, underspins, etc are all productive for me further north.

 

scott

 

 

Cold water fishing is slow and the fish aren't nearly as active as you're used to in the warmer months. 

 

I would try jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, small swimbaits on a jighead or underspin, or even dragging a jig around can be effective. 

 

I'm going to go ahead and add a little bit more outside the box thinking to this thread - I fish a lot during the spawn in a state where bedding fish are visible and shallow. 

 

It is my experience that slowing down works the best when fish are aggressive around their nests and not feeding. 

 

It is my experience that's speeding up and forcing fish to react is your best bet when they're nowhere near their beds and the only thing making them bite is the occasional compulsion to eat. 

 

Winter time for me is about reaction strikes when I'm doing it right.  I've never done well going slow in the winter time but I've done extremely well fishing jerk baits and lipless crank baits at normal old fast speeds. 

 

The key is definitely timing and area and both of those things can be so tricky to figure out when there's nothing really keeping them in one place for very long.

I went weeks in Jan and Feb catching on only three lures: flutter spoon, blade bait and jigging spoon.  None of which are great options from the bank if you have any wood around.

  I also had long stretches where every single fish was caught in 26+ FOW.

  Lipless didn't become a player until surface temps got to low 40s.  Then lipless was lights out for a few weeks.

I appreciate the replies and ideas.

 

I've seen my buddy catch a few in winter using a Rapala Husky Jerk in glass minnow color. He and I fish differently though, and I've not used a jerkbait much.

 

The lake in question is 130 acres, so it's not huge and it has 2 divided, but attached, ponds of about 1.5 acres each. I mostly fish the ponds, these are each attached to the main lake via a channel. Here is a map picture of it where you can see the ponds at the top. The connecting area is only about 20' for each.

 

 

The whole western edge of the lake is accessible via parking areas, and has a lot of the brush removed (not all of it), and is pretty shallow. The whole eastern side is not accessible except for a walking trail. I've not fished most of that, though I have fished some spots.

 

Those holding ponds see a huge amount of pressure during the summer months due to convenience. I fish it because of the challenge. I usually get skunked 2 out of 3 times when fishing there as a result. But I've met people that say they have never caught a fish there, or that they've never seen anyone catch a fish.

 

Another piece of information that might be of help, is that in winter, I stop by this place for an hour normally. So I fish an hour before wussing out due to the cold or rain. I know that if I spent 4 hours, I'd have a lot better chance of catching something.

Gettin to be that time!

Can you fish from the dam?

I start looking for the deepest water and start there. If you have the luxury of a couple day warming trend, that is a plus. 
 

I recommend starting with a small rapala Shad rap and bounce it off rocks or tick the tops of any existing weeds. I think I use the SR04 for ponds, but it all depends how deep your pond is. The retrieve should be really slow and pause anytime you make contact with a hard object. 
 

I would also try a small 3” swimbait on an underspin or jig head. I grind these off the bottom in winter if possible. 
 

Lastly, and especially on a sunny day, I’ll try a small rapala husky jerk. I use the smaller 3.5” size. This time of the year is goofy trying to get your bait to suspend, so bring some suspend dots to help keep your bait in the strike zone. 
 

Go out with the expectation that you may only get 1 bite, or none at all, over 2-3 hours. 

36 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

Can you fish from the dam?

Yes, but I haven't. It's a bit longer walk than I normally want to make. It's riprap, and I'm not sure how to fish riprap. I'll have to look up how to best fish it.

 

I thought maybe earthen from satellite view.  Anyway,  oftentimes the deepest parts of a man-made pond are within casting distance of the dam....or maybe 2-3 cast-lengths.  Rip rap can be good on sunny days in winter because the rocks heat up better than other shore...though maybe less so for north-facing riprap.  Jerkbait worked mostly parallel to dam could be good.

Ned and weightless senko might workable through the rock without losing too many.

Blade baits like the old school Silver Buddy.

 

I used the Damiki Vault in late fall with good success.

 

It actually never occurred to me to fish the dam during winter. It's an earthen dam, and it has a flat area at is base so it's easily fished. There isn't a whole lot of people that fish it any time of the year actually because it's probably 1/4 mile walk from the closest parking lot to the beginning of the dam.

The dam was the first place that I thought looking at that map. You'll typically find some of the deepest water in a lake at the dam. While there may always be some fish shallow year round, a majority will go deeper in winter months and the fish that go shallower will not move far to get to that shallow water. So finding deeper water that has shallower feeding areas nearby is key. One of my favorite winter time spots is a shallow flat/point combo with rockpiles that the creek channel swings up against. The deepest portion is only about 8', but it's deep enough to winter in and has quick access to feeding areas. 

 

I fish a lot of small lakes in the winter months that are cold water lakes and one thing that always holds true, rip rap, and rip rap dams, always hold fish. My favorite baits to target them are a suspending jerkbait and a Ned rig. If snags are bad, the old float-n-fly is a great option also.