5 Easy Steps to Catch More Bass This Winter

You're going to improve your chances of success this winter if you follow these five easy steps. The 1st is you got to dress for success. Here during the winter time, the coldest time of the month. I'm telling you what if you're cold, you're shivering and you're wet, you're not going to be focused. You're going to be thinking about getting out of the out of the water, out of the boat, getting back inside next to a warm fire and warming up. During the winter time, the bites are few and far between, and they're often very subtle and you've got to be on point the entire time. So staying warm and dry is absolutely critical to your success.

There's a lot of great outfits out there you can get nowadays. The winter apparel for fishing has really improved over the past years. Start with the base layer. That's thermal underwear. There's a variety out there, but typically they come in your your thin, medium and heavyweight or light medium and heavyweight underwear, depending on the how cold it is out there. I've got all three different types. And you don't have to necessarily go to a manufacturer that makes fishing gear, although you know Sims and others. Make really good base layers, but look outside of the industry. Look at ski apparel. Hilly Hanson makes some really good throw onto our for example.

And then your next layer is going to be your genes. Typically I wear insulated pants or sweats. Good fleece sweatshirt, a hoodie, something like that. It'll keep you nice and warm and then your outer layer. I like to use insulated bibs. Insulated jacket. This is very, very warm, very comfortable and lightweight. The key thing here is that it's a waterproof gear. Waterproof, not water resistant. You want waterproof. Why waterproof? What's the difference is? Because it's also wind resistant and that's critical. And when it's really cold out and you get that wind, it can suck all that heat away from you if you don't have wind resistant apparel. So something that's 100% waterproof is also wind resistant. If you don't have an insulated jacket like that, then just wear your rain gear over the top of it and that will suffice.

We're not done yet. You got to keep your feet, hands and head warm too. So your feet, wool socks, Merlino socks is that's the key. You got to do that again. Waterproof boots. I like to have that with a thicker sole. It gives a little bit of distance between the cold deck of the boat or the cold ground and your foot. So a thicker boot with some insulation properties. Waterproof wool socks. There you go, hands. Fingerless gloves go a long way. They make them for fishing for good reason. They keep your hands nice and warm. If you're casting and you're trying to tie knots and all that, you got to have your dexterity in your hands. I'm telling you what, it gets very, very cold and it's very difficult. Your fingers start to hurt, especially when you're running down the lake and it's 25° out, 30° out. It can hurt and that's why I have full fingered insulated waterproof gloves that I wear when I run it down the lake with my boat. Keeps my hands nice and toasty. So put those on when you're running, take them off where your fingerless while you're fishing, and then finally your hat. I just wear, I got a cap, an insulated cap again, it's windproof as well. I just wear it over the top of my hat right. It's. It's not very fashionable, but I don't care. I had Fashion Police aren't going to come after me. I'm looking for function, something that keeps my head nice and warm and dry and I can fish throughout the day with that outfit and not think about how cold I am. If you get in the setup like that, yeah, it's a little pricey, but when it's really cold out and you're warm and comfortable, you're not thinking about how much money you spent on it. I promise you.

Next is you gotta fish slow. It's not because the fish are really lethargic and lazy this time of year, it's because the forage is very slow. A lot of times when you get to the coldest part of the year, the forage is just trying to survive. And in order to do that, they have to conserve energy. And so they move very slowly. OK, Now bass. Yeah, bass, they're cold blooded creature they are. Controlled by the water temperature. Their metabolism is controlled by the water temperature, so they don't eat as much. So that's true, right? That slows down, but it's, they can still move fast if they want to, but they, they're also conserving energy too, but they can still move fast. That's kind of a misconception that bass can't move fast in cold water. They can't. I just want to clarify that.

But the forage, it's moving slow. So when you're fishing for bass, you want to match the forage. So they need to move very, very slow. This, you know, bottom hugging lures like. Jags and Ned Riggs craws, things like that, that crawl along the bottom. You're not hopping and jumping along right now. Very slow movements, split shot and drop shots, those same thing. And with long pauses in between, really long pauses, a minute, 2 minutes, sometimes longer, real long pause, and sometimes when it's just sitting there, not moving at all. That's when the bass picks it up. So be on it. Be aware it's they don't always hit it while it's moving. So that's why you guys stay on point. Your concentration has to be on high alert the entire time because the strike can come anytime.

But those slow movements, suspending jerk baits, same thing. You give them slight twitches and just let it sit and bake and right in the fish's face, just let it sit there, then give it a little subtle twitch and let it sit for another, you know, 30 seconds, a minute or more. That's the kind of presentation you need this time of year.

cool thing about fishing this time of year is when to go fishing. You know, most of the time of the year we like to get out there, break it down and get that morning bike because it's fun, it's great. And also watching the sun come up and all the bird activity in the coyotes and the other animals are, it's great time and the whole nature's waking up. It's fun. This time of year though, the sun and it's warming and the daylight and daytime, as the temperatures warm up, it's warmest in the afternoon and that's to your advantage. The bite will be better the warmer it is so. Getting that early morning bite isn't there. It's not really worth getting up early in the morning at the break of dawn to fish in the dead of winter. Take your time, get out there later. Late morning, early afternoon, fish a few hours. You can get a few things done in the morning and go fishing for a few hours. Then it starts to cool off. You can go back home and get other things done. It's not a full day of fishing, but if you really want to time your bite it's going to be midday. That's what you want to target and it's also better from ice wise if you're dealing with. Ice. Typically the ice melts a bit more as it warms up in the day. You don't have to deal with ice, so time your bite.

key to your success is finding the bait fish. This time of year, the bass aren't going to be all spread out all over the place. They're going to be concentrated. You can fish a good amount of area in your lake or river and never catch a fish because you're not where they're at. They're going to be where the bait fish are. The bait fish this time of year, school up, they get big balls. It'll be perch or shad, something like that. But that's what you want to look for, somewhere near some kind of sharp drop. That's that's, that's critical. That's the that's the stuff that you're going to want to fish and fish it thoroughly. I would go, you know, again, the jerk baits and with Alabama rig or a swim bait, maybe a minnow and a jig head. There's basically two different ways to go after them. One is to fish above the school. I've bait fish, you want it, you don't want to go through the middle of school. You want to go through the top or the bottom. That's basically the two ways. Once on the top ones on the bottom, you want to look like something that's strayed from the pack, something that's vulnerable, that's susceptible to being eaten. That's going to be what's going to get the most bites. So work a bait across the top of the ball of bait fish and if you're not getting bit there, then work it underneath it.

Ways to find the bait fish. Sure, you can look at your graph if you got forward facing solar sonar and those stuff, you know that's that works, but. A lot of times it's beyond the reach of your sonar or if you're fishing from a bank, you don't have that. So the best way to find the bait fish really is to look for bird activity. Loons and comrades, unfortunately it even blue herring, you know, they feed on bait fish. And so look for that bait that that bird activity, either they're just floating on the surface or maybe dive bombing the surface. You know, that's that's what you want to find because they're going to tell you where the bait fish are and those are the areas that you want to fish.

Now, the last piece of it is dealing with the cold conditions from a safety perspective, right? I mean, yeah, of course when you're on the water you want to wear your life vest. But this is the time of year you want to wear your life best while you're on the water the entire time. Matter of fact, there's some states that require it, and for good reason. Slipping and falling on a slick surface or icy surface on your bone, you fall overboard. It becomes a matter of survival in a heartbeat in frigid temperatures. So a life vest is going to be the difference between coming home or not Seriously, guys. But also I like to wear life vest because they have a little bit more of that windproofing too, kind of helps keep a little bit warm. So it's, you know, the, the full size vest. I don't wear the inflatable ones during this time of year, the full size ones because it helps keep you a little bit warmer.

But the other things you got to keep in mind, it's going to take you more time. Time. Take you more time for everything. For example, launching a boat. Your boat might be frozen to your trailer. So you have to let it soak at the ramp, for example, before it frees itself. Before you launch your boat, check the ramp. The ramp might look wet, but it could be slick and really icy. I've known more than a couple guys who have backed their boat down the the ramp during winter time and in goes the boat and the truck follows. They just, they're on a sheet of ice and slide right into the drink. So just take a moment to get out and check that ramp and make sure it's not super slick. That's going to save you a lot of heartache.

If you got a dock and you're fishing from a dock from the shore or if you got a, your, your boat is moored up on the dock. Be super careful if there's going to be icy conditions that's going to happen on a dock 1st and that's typically when you're not wearing a life vest and it just takes one slip up. You're on the in the water and that could be it guys. It's kind of a dumb way to go, but it happens. So just be super careful when you're around docks and make sure that it's not super slick or icy and getting in and out of the boat. Same thing you can slip your rod lockers if you store your boat outside they can be frozen shut it might take a little bit of time to get them unstuck. Your engine I know a lot of guys start your engine turn around and down the lake you go. Don't do that this time of year. You got to let it warm up it's going to go a long way your maintenance costs. Trust me it’ll make your engine last a lot longer. Just let it idle for like 3 to 5 minutes. Get it to warm up. Run your steering wheel all the way one side to the other. Make sure it's not frozen or kinked up or any obstructions. Make sure you're good to go.

Just takes more time even getting to your lake to fish, whether from the shore or whether you're towing. If you got icy conditions to deal with, you got to go extra slow, especially if you're towing. I personally don't tow if it's icy out. It's just not worth the, you know, wrecking my truck and boat for a day of fishing. I go when it's warmer out or again, like I mentioned earlier, this is a benefit for fishing later in the day when it's warmer out. You don't have to deal with a lot of these icy conditions I just mentioned.

So with all these tips in mind, you're going to put the odds in your favor to catch more fish this winter. Hope that helps. For more tips and tricks like this, visit bassresource.com.