During his club-tournament days, Lester was practicing for a wintertime tournament, with the water temperature hovering in the low 40s. He was fishing parallel to bluff walls, a typical wintertime pattern for waters near his Fayetteville, TN home, when he hooked a bass, and the rod popped out of his wet and numbed hands. Instinctively, he lunged for the rod, which slowly was sinking out of sight, only to lose his balance and tumble into the lake.
After the initial shock, he knew he had to get out of the water.
"It's tough to get back in a bass boat," said Lester. "So I swam to a nearby dock and pulled myself from the water. Luckily, the owners of a nearby home were there, and they allowed me to come in, dry off, and warm up. The bass boat I run today has a boarding ladder, making it more manageable to get back in the boat if I ever fall overboard again."
That, however, is just one change Lester has made to become more efficient when fishing cold water. He also adjusts his locations and lures. Understanding why those changes are needed is essential to putting more bass in your boat during the year's coldest months.
Wintertime bass fishing starts when water temperatures fall into the lower 40s and upper 30s. In the South, that means slowly fishing with smaller lures and light line. In the North, you can fish slightly larger lures a little faster. And in both regions, even a slight bump in water temperature can activate bass.
"During the summer," said Lester, "I don't even look at my water-temperature gauge. In winter, I study it. Only one or two degrees can make a big difference."
You don't have to look any further than the 2015 Bassmaster Classic to see that proven. It was Lester's first trip to the world's most prominent bass tournament, and it lived up to its billing as a test of the best. On the first morning, the air temperature was 9 degrees, the coldest Anderson, SC had been on that date in more than 60 years. It was so frigid that municipal trucks spread salt and sand across the boat launch, and emergency officials delayed the blast off by an hour. Like many other competitors, it was the coldest weather Lester ever had fished.
Many were fishing deep docks, brush piles, and points in the lower lake, where water temperatures were in the mid-to-high 30s that day. Some more protected coves and pockets were covered in skim ice until lunchtime. Lester went in the other direction. He ran up the Seneca River with the Tugaloo and Hartwell's two largest tributaries. There he found water in the mid-50s, thanks to a power-plant discharge, and enough willing bass to help propel him to a 19th-place finish.
Wintertime is an in-between season for bass. They've left the shallows, where they spent fall corralling and feasting on baitfish, and they are waiting for spring and its longer and warmer days to arrive before returning there to spawn. The spots they choose to spend winter are defined by depth and cover.
Lester seeks outbreaks that fall into the lake at 45 or more degrees.
"It's essential that these near-vertical drops are near a creek or river channel, too," he said. "The sharp drops can be along a bank. They can form the end of a point or a channel ledge far from shore. The exact depths will depend on the lake's topography."
There is one type of cover he prefers on these breaks.
"I'm looking for rock," he said. "Rock absorbs solar energy and discharges it as heat into the surrounding water, which attracts bass like steel filings to a magnet. This combination of cover and structure will yield the highest percentage of spots for catching wintertime bass. Concentrate on finding and fishing until you find the areas the bass are using."
Lester starts his search for rock-infused drops in the main lake. He will explore creeks but will only go halfway back. That's usually where they run out of water deep enough to hold wintertime bass. But there is one exception. He'll explore the back if he knows warmer water enters the lake.
Warm-water inflows, however, aren't the only situations that can make shallow fishing good in winter.
"People think wintertime fish are deep," Lester said. "There also are still fish up shallow, though. After a few consecutive warm days, the bass will move as shallow as a couple of feet. They won't travel distances to take advantage of it, so concentrate your exploration on flats and pockets that are near the drops where you have been catching them.
"In winter, the best lures are those that allow you to fish both fast and slowly," he continued. "While that may seem like an oxymoron at first glance, it's not. You need a lure that can comb water quickly to isolate the best spots, yet has enough action, when slowly retrieved, to entice strikes from lethargic bass. One of the best is a crankbait."
In winter, Lester stores the big, wide-wobbling ones he throws from late spring through summer and chooses sleek and slender ones with a tight wobble. One of the most popular is a Rapala Shad Rap. He grinds them along rock bottoms. Bites are often subtle. When your lure feels heavy or stops vibrating, set the hook.
Once he has found a few spots that hold a concentration of bass, Lester switches lures to work them over. Jigs--both bucktail and skirted--are good choices. So are jigging spoons, which can be fished vertically if you can hold your boat above the bass without spooking them, or cast and retrieved with short hops, like how larger structure spoons are fished in early summer. Blade baits, such as a Silver Buddy, and tail-spinners, such as Mann's Little George, produce when fished similarly.
Lure choices aren't limited to hard baits. Historically, soft-plastic lures have been reserved for warmer water, but compact ones have a place in wintertime fishing. A simple grub threaded on a lead-head jig is probably the best. Sickle-tail grubs produce, but ones with flat, spade-like tails can sometimes be better. Traditionally rigged tubes and small worms fished on a drop-shot rig will have their days, too.
"You'll need lighter line and a lighter action and power rod to handle these lures," said Lester. "A fluorocarbon line is the best choice for moving baits. It sinks, which keeps your lure down and in the strike zone. Use braid for slower-moving lures. It's more sensitive than fluorocarbon, which will help you feel the softest bites. Braid works with spoons and blade baits, too. Even the slightest movement of your rod tip will be reflected in the lure because the line has no stretch."
Lester went on to note that keeping your head in the game is one of the most important aspects of finding wintertime bass.
"You won't catch many bass in the boat-ramp parking lot, sitting in your running truck, trying to keep warm. The same goes for toughing it out on the water, shivering and thinking about being in your warm truck.
"Dress for the conditions by wearing insulating layers, such as fleece, covered with a rain suit, which will keep the wind out and trap warm air inside. Tuck hand warmers in your pockets for your fingers, but also put a few between layers. They will help keep your core and extremities warm. Bring several pairs of gloves, including fingerless ones, for fishing and full ones for running. That also will allow you to swap a wet pair for a dry one."
Lester noted that keeping ice from forming in your rods' line guides and reels can be difficult on the coldest days. While some folks spray things on their equipment, he has yet to find anything better than dipping your rod in the water and then shaking off the water. However, he does advise anglers to avoid rods with micro guides. Their small openings freeze closed with only a tiny amount of water.
To care for his boat during cold weather, Lester lets his outboard warm up for about five minutes before racing down the lake. He also works the steering back and forth and ensures the compartment lids and trolling motor aren't frozen. For those who remove the drain plug between trips, he urges checking the opening for ice, which may have to be removed before the plug can be inserted.
Lester knows from personal experience that the most critical part of wintertime bass fishing is wearing a personal flotation device. Most anglers take it off when they stop to fish, but leaving it on during the winter can be a matter of survival.
No comments:
Post a Comment