In winter, I use a 6 mm bead. Caught on BPS craw bait and crappie minnow bait. One of the critical components of the Texas Rig is the soft plastic bait and color. Sep 9, 12:00am Soft Baits Fishing Videos +1 Underwater Video. Soft plastics are available that mimic crawfish, frogs, minnows, and leeches, but soft plastic worms are a mainstay for the bass fisherman. Catching Winter Bass with KVD Cold Water Fishing with Crankbaits and Jerkbaits 7-time BASS angler-of-the-year, 4-time Bassmaster Classic champion & 2001 FLW angler-of-the-year Kevin VanDam aka KVD has over $6m in career bass fishing tournament earnings. JOIN TODAY! In this seminar, his first with The Bass University, VanDam discusses cold water power fishing tactics, which The Zoom Fluke is also available in a variety of different colors so that you can easily match the hatch on you home waters and pair it with just about any spinnerbait. A bigger size and dark colors will make it easier for the bass to find your presentation. You can still catch plenty of bass with plastics if you choose the right ones and rig them the right way. Louisiana angler Quentin Cappo, like many other professional anglers, developed a "limit getter" when money is on the … (Photo: wired2fish.com) Soft jerkbaits. Bugmolds USA offers a high quality stone mold for soft plastics fishing baits. From rock to gravel, sand to mud, you'll feel every change in contour and the bite will be unmistakable. Both hard and soft body jerkbaits can produce in cold water. The smaller bead and swivel just jive with the downsized nature of … But, whatever you do give the bass plenty of time to take it. Anything deeper than that, your best bet is the 1/4 oz size. Solid colors show up a lot better to bass in dirtier water. You may be surprised to find that some of your biggest bites of the year come when the water temperature is below 50 degrees. The scent adheres to bucktail better than plastic and gives me more confidence. I use a brightly-colored plastic bead (between sinker and swivel) to attract not only bass but also any small baitfish that peck at the bead. Newer versions of soft sticks baits have hit the market that feature ringed bodies. Cold water affects the ability of some soft plastics to move freely. Bass rods have multiple ratings that make them different from one another, like the length of the rod, the power rating, and the action rating. My personal preference, though, is Alabama Craw. Cold water bass fishermen have used this combination for decades with plenty of success. Best Muddy Water Bass Fishing Lures . It presents a sizable but slow moving meal to the bass that is hard to resist. Soft plastics are hard to beat when you need to trick bass on the beds. It has all the attributes that I’ve previously described and it’s only 3 1/2 inches long. Drag it along. 3) Ball Head: The ball head is such a simplistic way to fish and consistently catches quality fish in the cold water months. The bass still eat, and they eat what they did when the water was warm. Tim and I both agree, a 5" senko is your best option with this presentation. At home I throw a jig most of the time, but when you come here you have to lay down the jig and worry about what kind of soft plastic you are going to use.” Winter Bass Stifle the Action for Ice Colds By Russ Bassdozer You may need to fish different locations to find the winter spots for the early winter time of year in the waters you frequent. But it's plenty cold for an Alabama boy who would rather winter even further south if I could. This list may be missing some baits you expect but when the going gets tough, these 5 options are consistent producers. The touring pros usually let water conditions dictate which lures and colors to try. The problem is a plethora of soft plastics will work during this time so how do you decide which to use most often? A long bass fishing VLOG!!! Bass fishing with water temperatures in the 40s is cold… like, really cold. They're well suited for use in weeds and grass, brush, laydowns, rocky areas and even smooth bottoms. If you are fishing soft plastics, in muddy water than the junebug color is a great choice. 5) The Small Swimbait: I prefer the 6" Basstrix or the 4.8 Keitech coupled with 1/2 and 3/4 oz Swimbait Heads. He insists that the light hook allows his bait to have maximum action in deep water. The timeless plastic worm is instead, a must-have. During the winter months, you may read a lot of articles about jigs and spinnerbaits, and how to use them for cold-water bass. “For the most part, I like to use a darker profile, like junebug or Okeechobee craw and that probably has something to do with the tannic water color.” With just the right amount of salt, sand, plastic, the lure dances on the fall and draws onlooking bass. Happy New Year to everyone and keep your hooks sharp! Catching Winter Bass with KVD Cold Water Fishing with Crankbaits and Jerkbaits 7-time BASS angler-of-the-year, 4-time Bassmaster Classic champion & 2001 FLW angler-of-the-year Kevin VanDam aka KVD has over $6m in career bass fishing tournament earnings. You may be surprised to find that some of your biggest bites of the year come when the water temperature is below 50 degrees. The walleyes really slam them in April. You can still catch plenty of bass with plastics if you choose the right ones and rig them the right way. Soft plastics lost their fish-attracting action in cold water, they believed, and lacked the taste and scent that bass wanted. On a superficial level, cover can be broken down into types such as wood, vegetation, rocks and the like. There are reasons for that. These baits are phenomenal to mimic real forage such as shad, minnows, chubs, dace, shiners and suckers. "If I'm fishing heavy vegetation that I h… In a lot of cases muddy water is often caused by … Cold water bass fishing can result in either feast of famine for many anglers. I probably fish a jig more in cold water than I do under any other set of conditions. If you're having trouble getting bites, try using a watermelon-colored soft plastic or other translucent colors like plum or … This soft plastic bait doesn’t put out as much action as others on this list which makes it a great option for when you are fishing in cold water. I’ll give you my recommendation about that in a minute. Soft plastics are available that mimic crawfish, frogs, minnows, and leeches, but soft plastic worms are a mainstay for the bass fisherman. Soft plastic bait material makes great bass fishing lures for largemouth and smallmouth alike. fitt premium lures makes soft plastic baits in america for smallmouth and largemouth bass fishing. First, the jig matches an easy winter forage (crawfish) that moves slowly and correlates well with the bass' slower metabolism. Hard bodies can suspend/sink/float depending on model/hooks/line/etc, they also have multiple treble hooks to help with short strikes. In cold water their metabolism slows down which only means it takes them longer to digest their food; their brain slows down, so the bass slows down which is why I would not burn a Trap back to the boat. The one we use is soft and thin so it meets our winter requirements. When walleye are hunting whitefish, ciscoes or other cold-water species near structure, Glorvigen wields a 5- to 7-inch Zoom Super Fluke on a 1/2- to 3/4-ounce Northland Fishing Tackle Mimic Minnow jig head. (I was asked about that the other day.) A heavier weight allows you to drag or grind bottom and also work for rip … My buddy Ben and I hit the road and drove to Missouri is search of some active bass. The touring pros usually let water conditions dictate which lures and colors to try. 1) A Football Jig: Tim and I vary a little on our specific choices. But, just as important, it’s short. To an extent, all anglers probably fall victim to "rut fishing" at some point throughout the year, and winter can be the worst time to be in a rut about how you approach your fishing. But when targeting redfish, snook, and trout in shallow water, here are the three rules I’ve found to work best: Rule #1: Rig The Bait Properly. Times have changed. Membership Includes 1 Year Bassmaster Magazine, Plus $50 in free gear. There’s one other thing I want to make sure everyone understands: Bass eat crayfish in the winter. To begin with you’ll need plastics that are soft, thin or both. “It’s true that a lot of bass will suspend in deep water during winter, but when they’re ready to eat, they’ll move to a shallow ambush area. 7 Soft-Plastic Lures That Catch Bass In Cold Water Size, action and material are all important considerations when choosing a soft-plastic lure. Every so often you might want to hop it so that it looks alive. Bass are cold-blooded creatures, meaning their body temperature is the same as that of their surroundings. The bass can’t really pick it up without getting the hook in its mouth. There’s something about a flat-sided crankbait that neutral bass react to better in cold water than they do to rounded-body lures. A combination bait, the Jig N’ Pig is a regular skirted jig with a soft plastic (usually in the shape of a grub or crawfish) attached. “Soft plastics are huge, more so than jigs. A lot of anglers will tell you that pork is the better option when the water chills. When the temps get really low in the late fall, your best bet is working a sinking soft plastic paddle tail swimbait very slow on the bottom. "Bass aren't chasing this time of year, and they know a crawfish is easy prey," said Brauer. This Winter, consider not getting your boat winterized. At times the rate of fall is more important than anything else. In colder water, I will weight it with Storm SusPend Dots. Why go with a light weight in deep water, you ask? The hook point never gets inside their mouth. In spring, summer or fall, I usually use an 8 mm size bead. Flutter or jigging spoons work when cold weather fishing because you can drop them right down into a school of bass … Phenomenal to mimic real forage such as wood, density of vegetation or of! To be, ” Walker said and fish in general ) will only hit a they! The hand-poured route in most cases sizable but slow moving meal to the bass are still there and still! 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