Keep in mind I'm a shore angler at this point. I don't catch doodly squat during December and January normally.

 

I know to fish the sunny spots instead of the shady spots. I know to slow down.

 

I don't know exactly where to fish in wintertime. In summer, I know submergent creek channels, submergent grass, bushes, docks, shade, but in winter do I target the same things? Is there other places I should target, or of these places, that I should not target?

 

I normally use the same lures in winter. Beetle spins, texas rigs, crankbaits, split shots. However, in the previous winters I didn't use lures that I now have confidence in, flukes, roostertails, jigs, which I will be using this winter.

 

I also, in the past, have tried a lot of lures I don't have confidence in. Sort of a try and see mentality. I will stop that, and focus on things I have confidence in, or things I know to be good wintertime producers. While I don't have a lot of confidence in them yet, I am thinking rat'l traps and jerkbaits will do well.

 

I saw my buddy catch a few small bass on a narrow bridge channel that goes into the main lake using a 1/4oz suspending jerkbait. It was a husky jerk in glass minnow color. I've picked up one. I don't fish that area a lot in summer. I have some, but it sees a lot of pressure and I've not had much luck there. He didn't catch anything big there either, not that I would rather get skunked than catch small ones.

 

So we're talking about the city lake I fish, that has a lot of pressure in summer. In winter it has really low pressure. With this lake there is coves that I fish on the main lake, as well 2 ponds that each connect via short channels on the north end.

In times past I've caught a few in February using squarebills and curly tail grubs. The squarebill catches were were a creek channel comes in, and the curly tails were off a laydown. 

I'm not sure what advice to give you.  I think winter fishing requires more confidence.  You don't see fish jumping everywhere.  You don't see lots of other anglers around.  You're just out there alone and it's much more quiet than it was last summer.  You might start to ask yourself why you're there when everyone else has left.

 

I personally love winter fishing. I've had days when I've caught a lot of fish but mostly I seem to catch fewer fish but bigger fish.  I just try to enjoy the peacefulness of a jetski free lake and wait patiently for the big ones to bite.

My top 5 winter baits around the banks are:

 

Suspending lipless cranks

1/4 oz spinnerbaits (white/chartreuse excels in cold water for some reason)

Hula grub on a standup jighead 

4” worm on a 1/16 oz darter head

6” floating worm on a splitshot rig

 

The name of the game in winter is slow, and make it easy for them. 

From the bank I would be using jigs, tubes, Ned rigs, and Arigs.

Texas rig worm and drop shot fished very very very slow has worked for me in the past. One winter excursion I remember well. I set my pole on the ground with a t-rig in the water, next to a lay down in about 5 feet of water(the Max depth of the pond was 7 feet maybe). I ran back to the car for something and it took me maybe 8 minutes. When I got back I picked up the rod and the 1st hop the line started to move sideways but I felt nothing. I set the hook just in case and lo n behold a 4 pounder was on.

Winter pond shore fishing, I target the deeper areas. A T - Rig weightless Stick worm, Fluke crawled painfully slow, and a Finesse jig are good tools.

Fish slowly like the guys already said. I sure wouldn't use a Roostertail. 

See if you can find green vegetation.  Around here it's usually coontail, and it's down deep.

Other winter classics: 

 

Shad Rap - if they won’t chase other cranks, they’ll chase a #7 Shad Rap

 

Little George (or similar tailspin) - casts 2.3 miles, let it hit bottom and bring it in like a jig.

 

Heddon Sonar or Silver Buddy (blade baits in general) - see above. 

51 minutes ago, ElGuapo928 said:

Other winter classics: 

 

Shad Rap - if they won’t chase other cranks, they’ll chase a #7 Shad Rap

 

Little George (or similar tailspin) - casts 2.3 miles, let it hit bottom and bring it in like a jig.

 

Heddon Sonar or Silver Buddy (blade baits in general) - see above. 

Thanks. I had forgotten about tail spins and blade baits. I have a couple of those but forgot about them.

Lipless cranks.  Fished off the bottom similar to a jig

 

bigger swim baits.  Creep them along the bottom.  
 

I have A hundo saved for a TinyKlash for just this purpose.  

Where to fish in the winter?  South.  The further south the better.

22 hours ago, GreenPig said:

Winter pond shore fishing, I target the deeper areas.

I agree.  Either get a map of the lake or experiment with countdown lures to determine the deepest spots accessible to you, and concentrate on them.

Here's something I found for wintertime. I didn't know about this.

 

 

It's only August, 

So I am flattly refusing to even think about Winter.

Especially since for us it's really only 3 months away.

And there's no fishing.

A-Jay

19 hours ago, king fisher said:

Where to fish in the winter?  South.  The further south the better.

 

Here's road to my pond. I'm happy to take you fishing this winter.  We'd actually catch a lot of bass...through the ice:

 

2 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

 

Here's road to my pond. I'm happy to take you fishing this winter.  We'd actually catch a lot of bass...through the ice:

 

I like the picture, but tell me how the white sand from the beach got all over the road?  I see it is even in the trees.  Was there a big wind storm?  This is my lake in the winter.  No ice fishing, very sad.

 

 

44 minutes ago, king fisher said:

Was there a big wind storm?

 

Yes, the wind blew our beaches into our trees. So what did we do? Why, we spread blankets in the branches and sunbathed! 

 

44 minutes ago, king fisher said:

No ice fishing, very sad.

 

Simply drop some ice cubes into it and voila! 

Have caught a TON of bass on small bodies of water throughout winter over the years from the bank. Top 3 “must haves” for me would be small (3/16 - 1/2 oz) blade baits, Ned, and a jerkbait (Husky’s have been good). Follow the wind with the jerkbait for a shallow bite, Neds any depth, and the little blades for mostly deeper offshore work. One of those three will always produce.

13 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

Have caught a TON of bass on small bodies of water throughout winter over the years from the bank. Top 3 “must haves” for me would be small (3/16 - 1/2 oz) blade baits, Ned, and a jerkbait (Husky’s have been good). Follow the wind with the jerkbait for a shallow bite, Neds any depth, and the little blades for mostly deeper offshore work. One of those three will always produce.

KISS, other baits may work, but don’t over complicate it. Finding the fish is the most important thing. A majority of your fish are going to be in a very small portion of the water. A Ned, small blade bait, and small, suspending jerkbait is really all you need. Sometimes, I’ll bring a rod with a float-n-fly and let it bob around while I fish the other stuff and pick up some bonus fish doing that. Flat sided cranks are great if you have some weeds you can fish them over. Lipless cranks or single Colorado bladed spinnerbaits would probably be my choice if I was just chasing a bigger bite. 

We don't have hard water here except on a rare occasion. Plenty of times I've fished with ice in my guides. I learned not to fish braid that way, as it gets balls of ice in the line and then the line explodes off the reel.

 

 

1 hour ago, Team9nine said:

Have caught a TON of bass on small bodies of water throughout winter over the years from the bank. Top 3 “must haves” for me would be small (3/16 - 1/2 oz) blade baits, Ned, and a jerkbait (Husky’s have been good). Follow the wind with the jerkbait for a shallow bite, Neds any depth, and the little blades for mostly deeper offshore work. One of those three will always produce.

Thank you very much for those suggestsion. Neds have flown below my radar. I'll have to work with them some.

1 hour ago, Bluebasser86 said:

KISS, other baits may work, but don’t over complicate it. Finding the fish is the most important thing. A majority of your fish are going to be in a very small portion of the water. A Ned, small blade bait, and small, suspending jerkbait is really all you need. Sometimes, I’ll bring a rod with a float-n-fly and let it bob around while I fish the other stuff and pick up some bonus fish doing that. Flat sided cranks are great if you have some weeds you can fish them over. Lipless cranks or single Colorado bladed spinnerbaits would probably be my choice if I was just chasing a bigger bite. 

Good suggestions here too, thank you very much.

I started fishing early here in Iowa this year. About the 2nd week of march. I was literally the only one out anywhere I went except one day I bumped into one guy. I knew it was too early but ice had thawed and we were in the high 30s temp wise. If I  fished a rapala x rap jerk bait slow.  I mean slow. Pop pop and pause 20-30 seconds probably. They would hit it on the pause. Or a jig fished incredibly slow on the bottom. So slow you had to really watch the slack line. I enjoyed it. New challenge out by myself kinda deal. 
 

that said fishing a jerk bait up hill sucks lol. I was constantly cleaning dead and decaying vegetation off the treble hooks. But it produced. 

I did one winter fishing slow and one winter fishing fast.  I caught piles of fish and huge ones fishing fast and skunked for two months fishing slow.

 

I recommend moving lures and covering lots of water and not worrying too much about water temp or depth.

4 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

I did one winter fishing slow and one winter fishing fast.  I caught piles of fish and huge ones fishing fast and skunked for two months fishing slow.

 

I recommend moving lures and covering lots of water and not worrying too much about water temp or depth.

This is an approach I've not heard before. Is this a thing? Or is it something you came up on?

 

What lures? Traps and squarebills?

5 hours ago, Bazoo said:

This is an approach I've not heard before. Is this a thing? Or is it something you came up on?

 

What lures? Traps and squarebills?

 

It seems like every other video I see about winter fishing is talking about how it’s a myth that you slow down and that has been my experience.

 

I do really well with jerk baits and lipless cranks and heavy jigs in the winter time.

 

when it gets really cold, the goal is to make the fish react.

 

I heard recently on a podcast that the way we think about the relationship between lower and higher metabolic activity with regards to cold water is kind of incorrect and inverted as anglers.

 

 During the summertime you run your heat more and it kind of stresses the HVAC system out - this is kind of how Bass operate in the summertime and they do their best to lay low and save a lot more energy when it’s hot - this is why fish mortality is highest in the summer - you do a lot better with big slow presentations when it’s hot.
 

When it’s cold, Bass are able conserve tons of energy and are able to move around much more freely and put on weight when they eat much more efficiently. This is the time to speed up.