lately I have been having a hard time catching bass. Maybe due to the cold weather/ fishing too late/.

Last year I would use a chatter bait this time of the year and catch them but it has been little to no success. I know the bluegill are there because if I switch to small crank bait I will catch them. I usually go fishing around 5-6, do you think the temps are cold around that time making them shut down?

any advice

Max water temps should occur from 3-5 pm. The problem may just be that the bass are gorging on the real thing. There are about a million lures I could suggest here, but I'll stick to a couple: the Koppers or Bagley cranks that look super-realistic like bluegill (I believe you mentioned 'gills as a main forage). it's funny you mentioned the chatterbait. 2 years ago the chatterbait was a guaranteed producer in my best local pond. Some people saw me slaying them on the chatterbait, and threw them relentlessly (with little success I might add) for months, and now the bass in that pond won't touch a chatterbait.

Try smaller moving baits. Like the ones for crappie.

Try a drop shot, wacky Senko and shaky head.

A drop shot may work, too.

As stated above, as the water gets colder the bass realize winter is upon them and they will feed on bream and bluegills to fatten up.

When you find the pattern you can start to upsize your baits to see if they will be productive.

You can think about this while sitting in NOVA traffic!!!!

How to catch em is about all I think about in the traffic

I think a lot of water around here is in the process of turnover. Might be a bit tough for a while keep trying, once you find them your likely to stomp them real good!

I'm hopefully going out this weekend. It was been getting cooler the past week. I'll bring my ultralite rods just in case it gets tough and catch some slabs.

Yeah also trying to get out once or twice this week. Water temps have seemed ok.

Have a new bunch of Northstar jigs and spinner baits that I am dying to use. Anyone having any luck on a topwater bite?

I've had luck lately with small jigs with craw trailers in 6 to 8 feet of water. In the Potamac it depends a lot on the tides. in non tidal waters I've had more luck late morning to early afternoon. Hope this helps.

i'm going to try and hit up hemlock tomorrow. water levels looked low and water temp was in the 50s i'd guess and i didn't see any visible fish, we'll see how it goes!

Wanted to get a trip in, especially before the front moved in Monday, so got out Sunday and the little lady decided she wanted to come with. Decided to skip the boat and went to Mercer for some shore casting. Water felt like it might still be in the low 60's or high 50's. No luck on the dam end but had some action in the stumps. Was a real nice day to get out, which I am sure will be hard to come by here soon.

Here is my better half with her first ever largemouth bass. This little guy sure put up one heck of a fight. Had another hook in his mouth, so looks like he snapped somebody else off not too long ago. Guess he fought his way outta being caught once before. Was caught on a purple Senko.