Tips to Catch More Cold Water Bass
For those of us in the Northeast, cold water bass fishing is a necessity if we want to the season to last as long as possible. Since I live in southern New Hampshire, four to five months of the year is spent fishing in cold water, which I consider to be surface water temperatures of 45 degrees or less. While it isn’t easy, I fully embrace the challenge because I know it will make me a better angler. Anyone can catch bass when the water temperatures climb into the 50s, but it takes patience, time, and (sometimes) more desire than sense to keep catching all season long.
If I had to boil down all the information, tips, and insights I’ve learned over years of cold-water bass fishing into one major point, it would be: Go as slow as you can. Once you think you’re going slow enough, slow down even more. The most common aspect of my success with cold-water bass fishing is the ability to be comfortable fishing uncomfortably slow on a regular basis. There are some days when the bite is much hotter than the air temperature but, more often, it’s the opposite, and I find myself fishing at a snail’s pace to get bites. It may take time and some fishless days to achieve comfort and confidence when fishing glacially slow, but the reward is worth the effort.
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Top Tactics for Cold Water Bass
I use a wide variety of techniques and lures to catch bass in cold water. The three I find most consistently successful are jigs, jerkbaits, and bladed jigs. These come down to personal preference as to what I enjoy using most, so they may not always be the best choices, but they are backed by years of consistent success all over the Northeast throughout the entirety of winter.
Jigs
My first choice for cold-water bass fishing will always be a jig. I prefer a finesse football jig like the Beast Coast Fishing OW Sniper in MB Pumpkin or the Hustler Hybrid Finesse in Dirt Bag or Bruised. The OW Sniper earned its keep as my go-to jig because of a unique combination of features. It has a thinner, 22-strand skirt cut shorter than a traditional jig, a stout 2/0 BKK hook capable of withstanding the abuse of more than 100 angry pre-spawn Lake Champlain smallmouth bass in a single day, and no brush guard.
When paired with a small swimbait or craw-type trailer, it becomes subtly bulky, which I think bass prefer in cold water. Overall, it’s small enough to be easy pickings for them, but big enough to be a meal that warrants the energy to chase down.
On days when I can’t get a bite on the OW Sniper, I downsize to the ¼-ounce Hustler Hybrid Finesse jig because it provides an even smaller profile and tantalizing action thanks to the addition of marabou hair.
I’ve found football jigs to be the easiest bait to fish slowly. The football-shaped head does a phenomenal job of standing up, presenting the trailer as an easy-to-find target. There’s no guesswork as to what the jig is doing (I don’t have to wonder about it like I do a suspended jerkbait), it just sits on the bottom, waiting to be eaten. With a tungsten jig, I can feel the bottom composition much more easily. Knowing what kind of structure I’m dragging the jig through before I catch a fish helps me understand the pattern for that particular day.
For the OW Sniper in the 3/8- or ½ ounce, I prefer a casting setup, using the Douglas Outdoors XMATRIX DXC 715F casting rod paired with a high-gear-ratio reel and 11.6- to 15.5-pound-test Defiant Fishing Heavy Cover fluorocarbon.
The DXC 715F is like the ultimate boxer, light on his feet but packs a mean uppercut. The fast action has the perfect deflection point so that I can cast a 3/8-ounce jig a long distance or sidearm-cast a ½-ounce jig with pinpoint accuracy. However, it also has the power to set the hook on a fish at the end of a 200-foot cast in 50 feet of water—even with straight fluorocarbon—and keep that fish pinned. It has the perfect balance of finesse and power that I look for in a jig rod for year-round fishing, not just the cold months.
For the Hustler Hybrid Finesse jig, I throw the ¼ ounce more often than the 3/8, though the Douglas Outdoors XMATRIX DXS 724XF spinning rod is just right for both. I like this rod for all the same reasons I like the DXC 715F. It’s supple enough to drop the small jig on a dime when I see the perfect boulder at the break of a steep bank, but strong enough to pin and hold big fish from down deep on the longest casts. I always opt for a braid-to-leader combination for my spinning setup, starting with Defiant Fishing’s 18-pound Smooth Casting braid to a 10- to 15-foot leader of Defiant Fishing’s 9.2- or 11.6-pound Heavy Cover fluorocarbon.
Jerkbaits
As much as I love throwing a jig, in my opinion, the undisputed champion for cold-water bass fishing is a jerkbait. To be as effective as possible in cold-water endeavors, you must be comfortable and confident fishing a suspended jerkbait. Its ability to stay at a specific depth for an extended period is important for cold-water bass that are not always interested in expending energy on their meal. The jerkbait’s subtle but erratic action will get their attention, but its ability to stay perfectly still—or nearly so—is what ultimately helps catch these fish. Presenting itself as a struggling baitfish, a jerkbait looks like an easy and hearty meal that bass just can’t resist.
My favorite jerkbait is the Megabass Vision OneTen because I never have to guess if it’s going to suspend. Without fail, it works perfectly right out of the box every time, and the color selections are second to none. My go-to color choices are the GP Pro Perch and the GP Pro Blue 2. There’s something about a darker blue jerkbait that always works in cold, stained water. And, with perch being highly active in cold water since they are spring spawners, it’s an easy choice to mimic their main forage. When the water temperature is in the 30s, the bass are lethargic, moving slowly, eventually nosing up to the bait before deciding if they will eat it or not.
For my smaller and lighter jerkbaits, I use the Douglas Outdoors XMATRIX DXC 684F or the similar LRS C684F. I have more control with this rod on lighter jerkbaits, especially when dealing with a moderate amount of wind. The power and action are ideally suited for a lighter bait. For bigger and heavier jerkbaits, I opt for the XMATRIX DXC 704M or the similar LRS C704M. These have a little more backbone for controlled casts with a heavier bait, but the moderate action has enough give to it that I’m not going to rip the smaller and thinner hooks free I’m a little overzealous on the hookset. I keep it very simple with the reel and line choices on jerkbait setups, opting for a 6.3:1 gear-ratio reel, like a Daiwa Tatula 150, paired with Defiant Fishing’s Soft Casting 9.2-pound-test fluorocarbon.
Bladed Jigs
When the weather is in your favor on the day you finally get out on the water, and the fish are a little shallower (or at least in a more active mood), a bladed jig is hard to beat. There are myriad varieties of bladed jigs on the market, and they all have their pros and cons. For cold-water bass fishing, the Z-Man Evergreen Chatterbait JackHammer has been my top choice for the primary reason that it starts vibrating very fast and with very little effort. This is extremely important in early season cold water because I can achieve an erratic action from the bait even when retrieving it very slowly. That matters when the weather is in my favor, and the baitfish and bass have pushed up closer to or on top of shallow flats with the warmest water. With a 3/8-ounce Jack Hammer, I can retrieve it slowly over the top of dead vegetation in shallow water where the bass are waiting to ambush. I work in a pause to give the fish time to commit to the bait, without it immediately sinking to the bottom. After that brief pause, it will start vibrating immediately, continuing to keep the bait at the optimal position for the bass to strike.
There are two schools of thought for choosing a rod to fish bladed jigs. Some anglers prefer a supple rod that has more give, which some believe helps impart even more action to the bladed jigs. Other anglers prefer something with more backbone to really drive the hook home. I like throwing a bladed jig on fluorocarbon, so I want a little more power than usual to ensure I’m getting a solid hookset even at the end of the furthest casts. I have had plenty of days when a bass has bitten within a few feet of the bait hitting the water on an extra-long cast. My preference is the Douglas Outdoors XMATRIX 746XF or the LRS C746XF for those very reasons. Regardless of the rod choice, similar to my jerkbait setup, I keep my bladed jig setup very simple. I pair a 6.3:1 gear-ratio reel with Defiant Fishing’s 18.4-pound Heavy Cover Fluorocarbon.
Honorable Mentions
These three techniques are just a few of the options available for catching bass in cold water. Honorable mentions include blade baits, hair jigs, flat-sided crankbaits, the Damiki rig, and the Ned rig. Most of these are fished the same way as the techniques I mentioned, except for the flat-sided crankbait and the Damiki rig.
When the fish have pushed up due to an abrupt stretch of unseasonable warmth, the flat-sided crankbait covers water efficiently and triggers fierce reaction bites. On deeper bodies of water, when the fish are pinned to the bottom during cold days, the Damiki rig excels at pulling fish up because they find it hard to resist a small minnow presentation dangling over their heads.
Finding Cold Bass in Small Waters
Knowing what baits and techniques to use is only part of being successful with cold-water bass fishing. Understanding where to use them is the real challenge. Fortunately, once you find the bass, they usually stack up in that area, and you may catch multiple fish. The bad part is that you will have to eliminate a lot of water before you find the best spots.
Locate the Warmest Water
The smaller the body of water, the faster it will warm up. Here in the northern hemisphere, the sun is on our southern horizon, so the northern end of lakes and ponds ice out and warm up faster in most cases, pending any current and elevation considerations. Inlets with flowing water tend to be colder than outlets when both are present on a body of water. Cold runoff from smaller creeks or streams and melting snow feed the main inlets, but the warmer surface water is carried and collected toward the outlet, providing a larger area of slightly warmer water before it can run out into the next stream or creek. Even a one- or two-degree change in water temperature can make a significant difference in where you will find the baitfish and bass.
Find Permanent Structure
Consider the typical kettle pond that can be found throughout the Northeast. These bodies of water are typically uniformly shallow, offer a variety of structure and cover for both baitfish and bass, and warm up the fastest in early spring. The first thing I look for is hard structure in the form of rock piles and boulders alongside or on steep banks on the northern portion of a pond. The vegetation in shallower kettle ponds doesn’t always survive over the winter, so the baitfish and bass naturally gravitate toward the structure that never moves, which is why I love to find good rock piles and boulders.
Find Steep Shorelines
Bass tend to stage in an area that allows them to take advantage of the warmer water when weather permits, but also provides a quick retreat to deeper water when temperatures drop. Steep, rocky banks are by far the most consistent areas I have fished because they offer everything a bass needs within a short distance. If these rocky areas and larger boulders are on the northern end of the pond, they will get the most sunlight throughout the day, warming the immediate area around them that both the bass and baitfish prefer.
Find the Baitfish
Many kettle ponds are also full of yellow perch, which are spring spawners and typically easy pickings for bass. If I don’t find baitfish or bass on these steeper rocky points or isolated, adjacent boulders, I look for any remaining vegetation that survived the winter and fish along the deeper, outside edges of it. As the weather improves and the water starts to warm up for consecutive days, baitfish and bass start to push up onto shallower flats that have some (albeit dead) vegetation left over from the previous season. In these instances, I look for old lily pad beds as they offer optimal cover for baitfish to hide in and bass to ambush from.
Finding Cold Bass in Big Waters
Moving on to bigger, deeper bodies of water like the glacial lakes found in New Hampshire’s Lakes Region or a giant reservoir like Connecticut’s Candlewood Lake, things become more difficult, but not impossible. These bigger and deeper bodies of water take much longer to warm up, meaning it takes the bass longer to move out of their wintering holes and into easier-to-target areas.
I approach these bigger lakes similarly to how I approach kettle ponds, primarily focusing on steep mainland banks but also on submerged points. As the water warms, the bass move out of the main lake back toward the steep banks. They want to maximize their potential to take advantage of the warmest water they can find, while still being able to easily retreat to more stable water temperatures in deeper water.
I start on the northern end of a lake, first focusing on mainland submerged points before looking along steep banks and the flats at the bottom of them, anywhere from 20 to 60 feet down. Ideally, these have a good number of rocks and boulders as permanent structure for the baitfish to hide behind and the bass to ambush from.
On larger lakes and reservoirs, you can usually find several spots that fit these criteria, so how do you decide where to spend most of your time? Simple. Find the baitfish, and you’ll find the big fish. It’s a silly but incredibly easy-to-follow method I have used for years. If I’m in an area that has everything I’m looking for, but no baitfish, my odds of being successful drop quickly. It’s not foolproof, but it is very consistent, helping to simplify my approach and maximize my time spent looking for bass.
If it’s very close to ice-out and there hasn’t been a good stretch of above-average temperatures, I start out in the deepest areas first, looking at where the steep banks and points flatten out around 40 feet to 60 feet deep, sometimes up to 300 feet away. As the weather improves and the water temperatures climb, I move back toward the very bottom of these areas and continue to fish upward until I can establish the depth where the bass are primarily feeding.
If these steep banks, submerged points, or deeper areas are not productive, it’s usually because the lake has had a couple of weeks to warm up and the bass and baitfish are in areas that I refer to as “dwell depths.” At some point, the baitfish and bass will find a depth and water temperature where they’re happiest, roaming there for an extended period. This could be at 30 feet deep when a rapid warming trend is followed by stable temperatures for a week. A steep bank or submerged point always has some area at that depth, but as it is steep, the area will not be very large. In the previous example, I move to the closest spot that offers an expansive area at 30 feet deep, such as a shelf, ideally positioned between a large shallow flat and the deeper main lake. Spots like this offer everything the fish need—a large area of consistent depth where they are happy and can dwell, while still being close to shallow and deep water where they can move dependent on changing water temperatures.
This information will help narrow down that search for cold-water bass while maximizing your time with high-percentage presentations. Ultimately, every angler must find what works best for him or her, and the only way to do that is to spend every opportunity on the water going through some trial and error. Besides that, dress warmly, use the buddy system, wear your PFD, and have fun!
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