Late winter Bass fishing

Question
Hi, i am an avid fishermen and am currently facing a controversy. My lake has ice on it that will soon be gone and when it is i will surely be fishing. My fear is that i will not have much luck because it is cold and i can only fish off the shore because i am afraid of going out in the cold water on my only boat which is a canoe. What do you suggest i use to catch bass?     thanks

Answer
Sam; I agree with you about not going out in a canoe in recently Ice out water. However I am pretty blind about fishing from shore.  First what kind of shoreline does your lake have?  Mine does not ice up (Thank God) but there are very few places on this 37,500 acre lake that one can fish from shore.  It is possible on a couple of points but very limited.  About all I can tell you is to look around for places where you can cast reasonably freely into water without a lot of heavy cover.  Otherwise you will spend more time breaking off and tieing new lures on than fishing.  

One method I might suggest that might work for you is to use a jig or small swimbait or perhaps a plastic critter bait.  Go to the tackle shop and buy some little "bobber stops" which are little spring like things you slide on your line and then stretch out a bit.  These usually come with a small bead that you slip on below the wire stopper.  Then slip on a slip bobber.  Below that tie on your lure.  Set the bobber stop wire thing at about 2/3 to 1/2 the depth of the water at your furthest casting distance.  Start casting to your left (or right) fairly close to shore.  Allow the lure to sink and retrieve by giving your bobber a sharp short jerk.  This will cause your lure to jump and then let it settle.  Give another jerk and let the lure settle.  Always be ready for your bobber to take off.  After five or six such jerks reel slowly with twitches of the bobber and pauses to let the lure sink again.  Next try a cast about 5 degrees more to the center of a semicircle around yourself. This is called "fan casting"
Keep making these casts until you complete the semicircle or start catching fish.  Of course if you hook a fish try to throw back into the same area again as there may be several there.  Once you have made two half circles in a spot move to the next one you are able to locate. Perhaps on the second half circle you could drop your depth to about 4/5 the depth or if the bottom is relatively clean even deeper. Be sure you know the area around the lake as many lakes have swampy areas around one end and this is often a difficult place to get out of.

Another choice would be to make a deal with people who have docks around the lake to let you fish off their docks in return for letting them fish off yours if you have one.  Use the same method as above.

Work slowly and when you think you are working your lure slowly work it half as fast on the next cast.  SLOW spells fishing in cold water for bass most of the time.  There are exceptions, of course, so if slow doesn't work speed up but mostly slow down.

Not having fished from shore for many many years this is about the best I can do short of saying use live bait.  I hope this will be of some help and catch you some bass until it gets warm enough to go out in that canoe.

Thanks for calling on me to answer your question.  If I can be of further aid in some way don't hesitate to ask.

I am
Jack L. Gaither  (JackfromSeminole)
Lake Seminole, Georgia