Surface temps today were 44°.  My lake pretty much skipped the 50s.  Went from 60 to 40s in a week or so.  Jerkbaits played for 2 days.  This past week has been all metal.  I have been spending an hour or more looking for bait before ever making a cast.  Except yesterday..lol.  I was idling out of my creek and saw some especially nervous water.  I shut off the motor, jumped on the front and threw a flutter spoon in the middle.  5 1/2 pounds on first cast.  Today the good ones were in the middle on bait with spoons, and on long points with blade bait.  I did have fun catching a bunch of dinks vertically jigging a spoon in deep trees (26-35').  No dead sticking for me.  I don't have the patience unless I'm positive there are bass close.  It has been a week since I caught anything with plastic.  (Couple days in early Dec where I cast a Mayor into middle of pockets and did ok just letting it drop, sit, and slow drag.)  But that bite has disappeared. 

  I'd say 90% of my casts in winter are hunks of metal.  I think I've lost 4 blade baits already.

Awesome @Choporoz - I committed a lot of time to blade bait today fishing it about every place and way I could think of during the time I had available and couldn’t get a single bite!

 

I did enjoy the blade bait because of how far I could cast - that alone made the trip productive because I mapped out even more of the bottom at the grass pond I am fishing at.

 

I don’t want to dead stick ever but there’s times when it works and they seem to be the times usually when nothing else works - I completely agree that it’s a tall order without absolute certainty of fish nearby but it has worked for me at times when nothing else would.

 

Honestly the slowest I can usually muster it a drag stop drag drag stop cadence at best and even then I’m usually burning it in after a few feet retrieving the bait - but I have been surprised enough times picking backlashes out or checking my phone or helping my son rerig to warrant considering it a viable presentation sometimes - there’s lots of presentations that aren’t my absolute favorite but I like them all plenty when they work.  🙂

 

Unfortunately nothing is working for me - blade bait was fun and I will definitely throw it in lieu of the lipless more this winter - maybe tomorrow I’ll try a spinnerbait - those have certainly worked for me in the 40s during frontal stuff.

 

Maybe I’ll bring my ultralight and my inline spinners and my underspins and my jig head minnow baits and go back to crappie fishing for them - it was working before the cold snap.

On 12/18/2025 at 5:59 PM, Pat Brown said:

Awesome @Choporoz - I committed a lot of time to blade bait today fishing it about every place and way I could think of during the time I had available and couldn’t get a single bite!

 

I did enjoy the blade bait because of how far I could cast - that alone made the trip productive because I mapped out even more of the bottom at the grass pond I am fishing at.

 

I don’t want to dead stick ever but there’s times when it works and they seem to be the times usually when nothing else works - I completely agree that it’s a tall order without absolute certainty of fish nearby but it has worked for me at times when nothing else would.

 

Honestly the slowest I can usually muster it a drag stop drag drag stop cadence at best and even then I’m usually burning it in after a few feet retrieving the bait - but I have been surprised enough times picking backlashes out or checking my phone or helping my son rerig to warrant considering it a viable presentation sometimes - there’s lots of presentations that aren’t my absolute favorite but I like them all plenty when they work.  🙂

 

Unfortunately nothing is working for me - blade bait was fun and I will definitely throw it in lieu of the lipless more this winter - maybe tomorrow I’ll try a spinnerbait - those have certainly worked for me in the 40s during frontal stuff.

 

Maybe I’ll bring my ultralight and my inline spinners and my underspins and my jig head minnow baits and go back to crappie fishing for them - it was working before the cold snap.

crappie fishing for them is the best way to catch them right now. find small ditches and hang a damiki rig about 1 foot off the bottom. they really do not even have to be ditches, more like small depressions. ----  x  ---- kinda like how people will build a trench to protect theirself from the wind.  i know the current fad is 'shaking' a minnow, but you need not shake. simply hold off side of boat with your rod tip about 10:00 and wait. you don't need advanced electronics to do this, turn on the a-scope feature on your downscan. when water temp is 40-47 this is the way. not uncommon for me to catch smallmouth with red clay on their bellies. lots of times you will not see any fish on your electronics prior to dropping down. 3 1/2 inch jerk shad in gussys glimmer blue will get ya bit, guaranteed  

Awesome advice @jermination2.0 - how heavy of a jig head do you typically like for that 6-8 foot range?

6-8 is on the very shallow end for this technique i'd be weary of your boat spooking them that shallow but anything under 12 feet i'm using a 3/16.  i would look for at least 12-14 fow. If that's the deepest your lake gets tie on a 1/2 oz bladed jig or evo and fish it super slow, mainly with your rod, yoyoing it just enough to get the blade clackin.