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Tips for Winter Bass in the Northwest
| To: Ask the Pros
I just checked out the new look on your website for 2000 – it’s great! I always check the site for the daily Pro Staff tips. This winter I seem to be catching nothing but smaller bass here in the Northwest. I wonder if there was something I was missing out on or if there were any tips from the Pros that I can use to catch bigger fish? Should I just be fishing slower this time of year?
Thanks,
Mark Byrne |
Stan Scott says:
Mark,
Those of us that are still fishing up here this late in the year may be able to help each other out. At this time of year my experience is that the year class fish will school together more so than at other times of the year. If I get into an area where I'm catching small fish, I simply move to a new area. Over here on the East side of the state (Washington) we have identified some areas that produce the bigger fish and as a result, we rarely catch anything under 2-lbs, or so. In fact a little over a month ago I went out for a couple of hours and only caught 4 fish . . . but the smallest was 4.25 lbs., and the largest was 5.5 lbs.
As you asked in your note, I'm not sure if fishing slower will do any good, but as you are well aware, the fish are rather lethargic this time of year so it might be a good place to start. We've still been doing well dragging our baits in a fairly decent current, so the fish are still willing to move. I've been doing my best on a 4-inch Hula grub, color 196, fished both on a 3/8 oz football head (for anything under 15 ft or so) and on a 1 oz Carolina rig (which I fish on deep drifts 25-50ft). Of course, my old standby is still the 5-inch single tail in color 176. I've also had some success with the new 4-inch lizard in color 297. Next time out, I'm going to try this one with a downshot rig. Good luck.
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