The first constant is to fish in the afternoon.
As he explained, "Unless there's a cold front moving in, the warmest hours of the day are between 1 and 4 p.m. That's when the crayfish, baitfish and nearly everything else that lives in the water becomes the most active.
"I know it's tempting to fish at daybreak," he continued. "However, things are calm, and on most days, you won't see many other anglers. The thing is that early morning is the coldest time of the day, and it's usually when the water is at its coldest, too.
"If you have to launch your boat at sunrise, pack a sandwich, and stay until almost dark. You'll catch more fish if you do that."
The second constant is to fish hard bottoms.
For reasons Zaldain doesn't pretend to fully understand, winter bass like to hang out in areas with a hard bottom. He offers one caution, though: "Avoid anything that's silty whenever possible. The best hard-bottom areas are those with a steep drop. Day in and day out, they'll outproduce any other place on the lake. They're not hard to find, either. The water's clear, so that helps somewhat, but the most important thing is to watch your sonar for places where the hydrographic lines are close together. That marks a steep drop."
Zaldain says he's a sight angler, which means he likes to look around and visualize. His favorite places are around riprap banks, dams and bridges. Most of them are surrounded by hard bottoms, and they tend to drop off fast.
The third constant is to fish slow or fast.
"It's best to start your presentation by working your bait slow, and when I say slow, I mean really slow," said Zaldain. "What you should be doing is giving the bass all the time in the world to find your bait and move in to eat it. As a general rule, you should move your lure no more than a third as fast as usual...a fourth is even better."
Most of Zaldain's presentations are with jigs and trailers.
"Pick the head design you like the best and the skirt material you like best," he said. "At times, those things make a difference, but it's impossible to give you a general rule for when to use one over the other.
"The other way to fish in the winter is the exact opposite of what I just said. Move your lures fast, and I mean really fast.
"Don't buy into the nonsense that winter bass rarely eat," he continued. "They're fat in the winter. They don't get that way by not eating. And don't buy into the nonsense that bass in cold water are too sluggish to catch a lure that's moving fast. You can't move one quick enough that a feeding bass can't catch if he or she wants it. They have tremendous survival skills."
Zaldain went on to explain that the lures he uses are ones that have been around forever, including the legendary Silver Buddy, the age-old Rat-L-Trap, and a hard jerkbait.
"Snap the Silver Buddy up as fast as you can, and then let it fall back down," he advised. "Work a Rat-L-Trap the same way. Think about a yo-yo, and snap your jerkbait a couple of times, let it sit for no more than two seconds, and then repeat. Long, motionless pauses don't get it."
In closing, Zaldain said, "I don't pretend to know all the answers, but experience has taught me that these three things work for me anywhere in the country during the wintertime. I hope they do the same thing for you."
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