Techniques for Bass Fishing in Cold Water

Bass fishing isn't just for the summer months. Bass fishing in cold water can yield some of the nicest fish of the year. When water temperatures get down between 45 and 50 degrees, an angler must change their tactics a bit. There are several reasons for this. Here are some helpful tips for bass fishing in cold water.

When people get cold, typically they need to move around more to stay warm. Staying active keeps the blood flowing and the body warmer. With bass, cold weather has the opposite affect. When the water gets colder, the bass become less active. This means making some drastic changes to the way you fish them compared to during the warmer months.

Techniques

One thing to remember when bass fishing in cold water is that the fish are much slower moving during this time. This means that they will not be interested in hitting a fast moving bait. You need to fish slowly to give them time to accept the bait. Bass fishing in cold water requires a good bit of patience. You're not going to get nearly as many bites as you would during the warmer months, but your patience may pay off with bigger fish in the end.

When choosing baits for bass fishing in cold water, you want to pick something that you can leave in one place on the bottom. Move it very slowly and twitch it when you hit some type of cover. Basically, any type of bait that you can crawl across the bottom should work pretty well. You'll also want to fish as deep as you can. Bass will move to the deeper waters when winter hits. The fish will also tend to move up and down at short distances during the winter, so fishing steep banks and drop offs is also a good idea.

Another technique that is often overlooked is dressing for the weather. You're not going to be able to put the time into catching these slow moving fish if you are not warm enough to stay out there. Dressing in layers will allow you some options when the weather changes as well.

The most difficult part of bass fishing in cold water is remembering to think like the fish think. It's easy to become impatient and frustrated when you're not getting any bites. Knowing what you are getting into will help. If you know you aren't going to get many bites, you won't get frustrated when you don't.