Glide Baits in Cold Water? Here's Why It Works

These are glide baits. What is a glide bait? Glide bait is a hard plastic lure that has a single joint in the middle to where the tail swings back and forth like that.

Now, there are a ton of handmade options out there on the market. There are some production models out there like this SPRO Chad Shad. We're going to kind of give you some general ideas on—and I classify these in three different sizes.

This is a medium-sized glide. Yes, it is 7 plus inches long to the tip of the tail, but I'm considering this a medium size glide. There are smaller glides that are in that 5 to 6 inch range. Then there are glides which are in that 8 to 10 inch range, each of those kind of are in a different category as far as I'm concerned.

First of all, we're going to talk about the setup on what we need to be throwing these on with glide baits. In that medium range, I usually use 18 to 20 lbs Sunline FC Sniper. I like that Sniper. It has a little bit of stretch to it. It's a little bit forgiving because we're talking about baits that are two to four oz. With that middle size, with the smaller glides—the five to six inch—I'm going to probably be using 16 or 18 lbs Sunline Sniper. That little bit lighter line allows that bait to be a little bit more free.

Then on the larger glides, only gonna go up to 20 LB test. If you go bigger than that, say 25 LB test, you're gonna start to inhibit your line and your action of the baits. Even with a really big glide bait like a Deps 250—a big, big glide bait—that's gonna have inhibiting action for that. So you don't want that. You want that glide bait to be free and natural and very erratic.

We'll get to the action here in just a few minutes. But as we're going to start fishing that glide bait, the line size is important. The rod and the reel are important as well. I like a high-speed reel. This is a 150 size reel. This is a GS model from Seviin. The 150 size will work for your smaller and medium size glide baits. When you go to that 8 to 10 inch, you might need to go up to a 300 size reel—a little bit bigger reel—so that it can handle that 6 to 8 or even 10 oz glide bait.

That's when you're getting serious, that's when you're getting heavy. And then the rod needs to have that action to where it's a heavier type action. As you can see right there, it's a heavier, but it's moderate. It's moderate, which means that that action bends throughout the rod. It's not just at the tip like you would a flipping stick. You don't really want to throw these baits on a flipping stick. You want to have a swimbait-style rod, which is a heavy action or extra heavy action on those larger baits, but with that more moderate action.

That more moderate action will help you cast the baits better. It'll just kind of pendulum back and swing. You're really just kind of tossing these baits out there because they're so big and heavy. And with that joint, that joint will turn it sideways and the bait will sometimes want to go this way or that way. Not the most accurate baits you'll ever cast—I can promise you that—because of the nature of them. And they can catch the wind and kind of take off a few feet to the left or a few feet to the right.

But just know that you're going to be tossing them. And I'll also pitch my glide baits to the targets that I want to as well. You can pitch these baits because they are so heavy. You can pitch them to where you want them. But as I mentioned earlier, high-speed reel. I like an 8-to-1 gear ratio. You can get away with a 7-to-1, but I don't like anything slower than that because a lot of the action that you're going to impart on that glide bait is with the reel—with the reel handle and the speed of the reel. So you're going to be doing different reel bumps with that reel in order to make that bait go side to side. That's kind of how you want to start to fish it.

So in the wintertime, wintertime is a fantastic—probably my favorite—time of the year to throw glide baits. I'm taking all these realistic-looking glide baits. I very rarely throw a realistic-looking glide bait in the wintertime. I'm going to take those, put them down. I'm going to pick up the brighter and the bigger glide baits in the wintertime.

Now, why would I do that? Well, first of all, let me tell you this: it's not the wintertime right now where we're filming this. I'm just giving you the tips for the wintertime so you know. When it comes to that wintertime, you can see the green trees behind us. It's beautiful here, but we're going to talk about that winter glide bait fishing with those brighter colors and bigger baits.

Why are we going to go bigger? We're going to go medium to large glide baits in the wintertime. Medium—this is Chad Shad. This is kind of a medium size. It's about a 7 1/2 inch bait total length. Anything up to 10 inch—8 and 10 inch—the bigger glide baits, I'm going to throw those more in the wintertime.

Why is that? Do the fish like Big Macs in the winter and not in the spring? No, not necessarily. In that wintertime period the threadfin shad are very small. Those threadfin shad typically go deeper in the water column because they cannot stand colder temperatures. Now this is throughout the middle part of the country—some in the South, some up north just a little bit. But the bigger glide baits really are going to be mimicking more of the gizzard shad.

Gizzard shad can withstand very cold temperatures. They typically don't go very deep. They might go down to 20 feet, but I've seen instances in 30° water when gizzard shad are at the surface and being absolutely crushed by big bass. So they have no problem being shallower in the colder water temperatures because they're—I guess—they're bigger in nature and they can take the colder temperatures better.

So I think that's why the bigger baits—the 8 and 10 inch—really excel in the wintertime. And I think that's one reason—another reason—why the brighter colors excel in that wintertime period as well.

So even with the bigger baits, we're still going to be throwing that 20lb Sunline Sniper that I typically throw on my glide baits. That same heavier rod that we use for our glide baits and that reel with the high speed so that you can do the reel bumps.

But in the wintertime, similar to the summertime, I very often will weight my glide baits. And I'll put those weights—little sticker or board weights are typically what I use. There's a couple different brands. You can also put a—in the wintertime, I'll do this—I'll put a drop shot sinker. A tungsten drop sinker with the round loop. I'll take and put that on the split ring right there. You can take like a 1/16 oz, put it right on that split ring. You can help weight and get that bait down when you want to get that bait down a little bit more.

Or you can put the board weights if you don't need as much, but those board weights right there—typically between the joint, that first hook hanger, right there along the belly—and then you can have that bait to where it gets down to where those fish are.

In the wintertime, I've had times where I did not weight my Chad Shad or my other glide baits in the wintertime because I'm fishing them a little higher. Fish are higher in the water column. But sometimes you'll go out there—maybe with LiveScope, maybe with your 2D sonar—you find that those gizzard shad, those bigger baitfish, are in that 15 to 20 foot range. So I'll be able to take my weights—whichever style that you want to fish—still pitch or cast my glide bait out there, let it sink down to where those fish are, and then start chopping it.

You're going to get—in that wintertime, don't think that you need to just stay slow. I've had times where a steady reel in the wintertime can be good. The whole deal, in my opinion, is throwing out there to where the fish are. Let it get down to where it's kind of in their range and then you can try the steady reel.

Now, not all glide baits are the same. Some of them you can steady reel and they're big and wide—like the Hinkle Shads are big and wide. The Phonies—they do that as well just on a steady retrieve. That's more how you fish those. Those are fantastic in the wintertime because they're—that's how the shad—they're kind of big and lazy and they just kind of meander around. Those style swimbaits or glide baits really excel in that wintertime period.

The shorter choppier glide baits like the Chad Shad can excel in the wintertime—I have seen it—but typically that is when fish are actively feeding on baitfish. More specifically, actively feeding on gizzard shad.

In the fall, you typically have the threadfin shad that the fish are actively feeding on. That's not when I'm throwing these types of glide baits into the active feeding fish. Typically in wintertime is when I'm going to be throwing a Chad Shad style bait into actively feeding fish—actively feeding bass on those bigger type baitfish. Because like I said, in the wintertime, water temperatures are colder, threadfin shad are down, gizzard shad are typically up still—and that's when you're going to be throwing your glide baits.

So when you want that—when they're actively feeding—you throw the glide bait out there, hit it a couple times, kind of get that bait going, try to get that fish's attention, let it sink down a little bit. Once it gets going, hopefully you get that fish's attention. Then you start getting erratic—even in the wintertime. Even in the wintertime when those fish are actively feeding, you can boom, boom, boom, boom. That glide bait is going to be going crazy. It's going to be darting back and forth—next thing you know—boom, loads up. Biggin'. Got him.

So just because it's wintertime, don't think lazy. Unless you're just trying to draw fish to the bait a lot. If they're actively feeding on those gizzards, those gizzards are running, buddy. They are absolutely trying to get home—get away from what they're doing. They are trying to get out there and not get eaten by those big ol' bass that you're trying to catch.

So there's kind of two different trains of thought in my mind for winter bass. Actively feeding—choppier baits like a Chad Shad. If you're not around active baitfish—or I mean actively feeding bass—then I'm going to go with more of the lazy style swimbaits. I'm going to be throwing them, doing the more let-them-sink-down-a-little-bit and just move with the steady reel. And it's going to be real wide. You can—you can have a Bull Shad glide will do that as well. And they have some bigger sizes that they can draw some bigger strikes.

I feel like those bigger baits also draw fish from further distances. You might have a fish that's down there in 18–20 feet of water. You've got your big glide bait that sinks down 4 to 5 feet. And I mean—that's in the wintertime, right? It's 15—might be 15 feet from the fish to the bait. Yeah, I'm telling you, I've seen it when those fish will come up out of there, come up out of the depths—and next thing you know, you got a big one on. Because that big profile just drew that fish from such a long, long distance.

And don't sleep in the wintertime. Don't hibernate. Get out there, throw some big glide baits in that wintertime and you are very likely to catch some big bass.