I hear ya! Cold water bass fishing is more difficult for me, crappie fishing no biggie!

My canoe is very stable, even more-so with the outriggers. I’ve been on big water with whitecap wind and never felt unsafe. A Sportspal canoe is virtually unsinkable even filled with water and the outriggers makes it almost (almost!) impossible to flip.
Falling in is the danger.
However I don’t stand up in clod and windy weather, don’t want an opportunity to topple in and always, always wear a pfd.

Hair jigs with a menace trailer worked slow and steady 

3 minutes ago, bowhunter63 said:

Hair jigs with a menace trailer worked slow and steady 

What kind of hair jigs? I picked up today a bucktail hair jig underspin.

3 hours ago, bishoptf said:

What kind of hair jigs? I picked up today a bucktail hair jig underspin.

 

3 hours ago, bishoptf said:

What kind of hair jigs? I picked up today a bucktail hair jig underspin.

VMC Dominator. I us the 1/8 ounce on the River with a baby menace 

Wind was whipping today, gusting 20+, tried several things, tail spinner, trap, big swimbait and the only thing that I could get some hits on was a jerkbait. So I threw that a good bit, seems like I was in the wrong place but figured that out towards end of the day, missed a really decent one, jumped and threw the bait and caught some dinks. Funny you tend to catch the dinks and miss the bigger ones, lol. One thing I did notice is I had several followers up to the boat, just not commit but turned back once at the boat. Not sure what I could have done differently they appeared small but the jb was getting attention. I threw a couple different styles, +1 around deeper points and a shallow version, it was the shallow version that was having some luck. Started sunny and ended up very overcast, windy the whole day. I like jerkbaits and have a lot of them so I will try some different colors tomorrow and see how it goes...

On 11/16/2025 at 1:00 PM, Motoboss said:

I hear ya! Cold water bass fishing is more difficult for me, crappie fishing no biggie!

My canoe is very stable, even more-so with the outriggers. I’ve been on big water with whitecap wind and never felt unsafe. A Sportspal canoe is virtually unsinkable even filled with water and the outriggers makes it almost (almost!) impossible to flip.
Falling in is the danger.
However I don’t stand up in clod and windy weather, don’t want an opportunity to topple in and always, always wear a pfd.

I love my Mad River Explorer 16tt. Those Sportspals look like they're well built. The Mad River has a shallow v bottom that glances off stumps and stobs. Especially those just under the surface. I do want to get stabilizers from Spring Creek along with a trolling motor at some point. Right now I'm using a 270cm Bending Branches carbon paddle. I know the purists don't agree with a double bladed paddle but it is the easiest on my shoulders and wrists. I didn't mean to ramble I just wanted to compliment your canoe 

Hair jigs imo offer a natural texture and movement regardless of the water temps. Most anglers revert to hair jigs when nothing works. Why not start with hair jigs as the goal is catching bass?

Tom

4 minutes ago, WRB-2.0 said:

Hair jigs imo offer a natural texture and movement regardless of the water temps. Most anglers revert to hair jigs when nothing works. Why not start with hair jigs as the goal is catching bass?

Tom

Sounds good, not sure I have any...I have some bucktail jigs but nothing like what was mentioned above. The smaller lake is fishing pretty tough, really clear water and at least for me tough to figure out where and what they want. Overcast day with pretty good breeze with a front coming through tonight. I thought jerkbait would be the ticket but nada and I threw multiple versions and just nothing interested. Tried spinner bait, bladed jig, rattle trap (caught one dink), deep flickershad crankbait, and bill lewis deep crankbait, caught a couple in 10ft brush piles and that was it.

 

Lake is not that big and has some deep spots to it (deep for this lake is 30ft or so). I am up for suggestions in regards to hair jigs suggestions. I am going to pick up a couple more blade baits and some additional tail spinners but would be nice to figure out where the bass are, at least the bigger ones, lol.

8 hours ago, WRB-2.0 said:

Hair jigs imo offer a natural texture and movement regardless of the water temps. Most anglers revert to hair jigs when nothing works. Why not start with hair jigs as the goal is catching bass?

Tom

Can't agree more ... Let old be new again  

On 11/15/2025 at 11:18 PM, casts_by_fly said:

 At the same time, every lake is different.

^^This^^

 

I think we get this same question every winter here on BR and if you read through the comments there are half a dozen different answers. With that, here's mine.

 

I break creek channels into thirds and will look down the middle and ledges to see if predators are holding there or if there are balls of baitfish there. I'll work my way into the back of the creek. On the way out I will fish the shallows on the sunny side of the creek channel.

 

But in the winter, often it comes down to timing. I might see a ton of baitfish, but the bass just aren't feeding at that moment. If they are hugging the bottom it can be hard to see them with FFS.

 

The reason that I start with creek channels is that I'm in a kayak and I prefer to stay out of the way of main lake boat traffic. If it's a spotted bass lake I am more likely to start with main lake points and I keep an eye out for big schools of spots chasing baitfish.

 

Last weekend, @FryDog62 and I were out on Hartwell and the spotted bass that I found were in deeper water in a large creek channel along an old creek bed. They were in chase mode. Unfortunately for me, I had lost the gear track mounting bracket for my FFS and without FFS I wasn't able to track the bait of the school of spots to head them off.

 

So, as mentioned above, each lake is different. So the transition for bass from shallower water to deeper water will happen at different times. But I'm of the opinion that you will always find bass shallow. But in the winter, the bite windows are further apart than in the warmer weather.

 

 

10 hours ago, Gonefishing0410 said:

I love my Mad River Explorer 16tt. Those Sportspals look like they're well built. The Mad River has a shallow v bottom that glances off stumps and stobs. Especially those just under the surface. I do want to get stabilizers from Spring Creek along with a trolling motor at some point. Right now I'm using a 270cm Bending Branches carbon paddle. I know the purists don't agree with a double bladed paddle but it is the easiest on my shoulders and wrists. I didn't mean to ramble I just wanted to compliment your canoe 

Thanks, I really like the Sportspal.

You’ll love the addition of the Spring Creek pontoons! I too use a bending branches double paddle at 280cm. Makes it much easier for sure with less impact on the ‘ol body.