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Warm Up to Some Winter LMB
Winter Fishing Tips
By Ron Colby

January 22, 2003

Nine o'clock. That's when Russ Bassdozer, Jason Holt, Satoshi Ito, and myself Ron Colby throttled up the ponies and headed for an area up lake.

Air temperature 35 degrees, water temperature 49. No wind, except that going uplake 32 miles at 65 miles an hour in an open bass boat is going to result in such a wicked brain freeze, and frozen fingers and toes and noses plus anything else connected to them.

Some 30 minutes later we arrive at our chosen destination, chalky white canyon walls reflecting full sun back into the water where it seemed like it was a balmy 100 degrees outside after coming down off pad...but that thawing moment lasted only for a minute. Then it was back to being cold again.

Jason Holt is from Atlanta Georgia, and it was his first fishing trip out West. That's Jason dressed in the heavy Gore-Tex suit. Complete with skimask, facemask, motorcycle face shield and gloves he was ready, or so he thought. A long run for Jason back on his home lake in Georgia is just 5 minutes. Thirty minutes in this cold had him shaking like a leaf, eyelids frozen and ears tingling. “Now I know why those guys wear full motorcycle helmets during the early season tournaments,” Jason said.

But after unbundling and a couple of casts later, the trip was worthwhile. Jason had hooked into a nice largemouth with a few smaller fish chasing. Shortly after Russ hooked a smaller one and then the bite was over. Then it was time to turn tail, bundle up and be back at the office by one o'clock.

As for Satoshi Ito and myself, we spent out time looking for stripers, says Ron Colby. We marked schools of fish but they were inactive. In hindsight, we should have brought some frozen bait. When the wind picked up, it blew us off the fish we had marked, so we decided to go find some largemouth...but no luck. Russ and Jason had already caught them! That's one for them. How about best two out of  three, fellows?

WINTER FISHING TIPS

1) Any sign of life is a good sign in winter, says Russ Bassdozer. Investigate what any water birds are doing, and not just fish-eaters like herons, cormorants or grebes. Ducks, loons and birds that eat vegetation are also important because vegetation is not only a food source for birds but food for crawdads, worms and plenty of baitfish too. Even just the fact that aquatic vegetation can grow somewhere in the dead of winter means there is warmth, sunlight, nutrients - things that all life (bass included) gravitate towards in winter.

2) Lure and color selection can be easiest for me in the dead of winter than at any other time of year, adds Bassdozer. In winter, I prefer lures that don't move too fast, and I prefer to use black, black with red, black with blue, black with brown.

3) Rubber skirted jigs with pork are mid-winter staples, adds Ron Colby. Personally, I use Pepper Jigs and Super Pork (www.superpork.com) says Ron. A favorite cut of mine during chilly winter is the Super Pork Tadpole which has a smaller bulk and less leg action than other cuts of pork. In cold water, less lure action often means more bites. I also use more of a lethargic bottom-crawl in winter and give bass plenty of time to mouth the bait before striking. Bass often fumble the ball in frigid water. They do not seem to be able or willing to take or get the bait back into their mouths so easily. Give them much more time before you set the hook.

4) Relative to the other seasons, wood, logs, flooded trees and brush can tend to lose some of its magnetism as bass cover in deep winter, adds Ron Colby. Bass will come up and use wood and use the shallows at some time during the day, but do not seem to linger there for as long as other times of the year. Catch the right time in winter and you'll score, but most of the time you should look for ledges with deep and variable water depth. Say thirty feet at the bottom of a ledge that stairsteps up and tops off at twelve feet on top of the ledge, then slopes up gradually onto the shoreline. That's an example of what can be a reliable winter location.

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