everythingthatswims

But you prove that even in a place with a very bad bass fishing reputation, there are fish to be found, and big ones at that! My buddies and I like to think that we are working on the same thing here in WV.

We were on a pretty good school of perch in 30 FOW through the ice... The bite suddenly slacked off and about 2 minutes later I popped this big girl, who ate a 1/12oz spoon tipped with a waxworm! Was quite the battle on a little ice rod and 6lb test. Measured 23", decided we didn't need to bring a scale while ice fishing (WRONG)! Certainly didn't expect a fish like this! I probably should just start targeting panfish because that's how I catch big ones.

Somewhere in the mountains of WV.....(and it's not Mt. Storm )

I assume there are some guys from up north who can chime in on this. The past month in WV has been frigid, it stayed below freezing for several weeks, with lows in the negatives quite often. Most bodies of water developed a pretty good layer of ice. I fished a couple small lakes in the area and they had 5-6" on them. The problem is that we are getting a stretch of 3 days with highs in the 50s-60s. Tomorrow is the last warm day, Saturday's high is 23 with a low of 8. Not going to mess with any ice that was only 5-6" after these warm days, but I have heard that high elevation lakes around here have up to 12" of ice on them. I'm just trying to figure out whether or not the ice will be safe anywhere this weekend after the high temps. We are getting a couple days in a row with highs in the 20s and lows in the single digits. Any ideas on how long it takes to re-freeze? Any general advice about the effects of warm weather and various thicknesses of ice would be greatly appreciated. There is a lot of info online but it seems to vary from source to source. Thanks!

I am back at school and caught my first ice bass today after class. My friends and I caught over 50 fish, mainly bluegill but a few bass and crappie as well. Looks like the weather this week is going to make the ice unsafe so this might be the only ice trip for a while!

They kick but they don't roll. Nearly every other swimbait brand rolls side to side, which means a keitech is more subtle and better suited for cold water (I've caught them on a swing impact fat in 39 degree water). Easy shiners have a very fast kick compared to the swing impacts, I usually only find them to be better when you are casting at fish chasing schools of shad, that are keyed in on fleeing baitfish breaking away from the main bunch.

Keitechs are the only baits I throw on an a-rig unless I'm striper fishing. 4" swing impact on the outside arms with a 4.5" swing impact on the inside for clean water and a finessy approach 3.8" swing impact fat on the outside arms and a 4.8" swing impact fat on the inside for most of my fishing. Key for me is to use heavier heads on the bottom, and lighter ones on the top, to keep the rig running true. It makes a HUGE difference in the amount of bites you get.

Use a leader! I don't think those peacocks are known to routinely get that big, I could be wrong. You just want to make sure the shiner can swim freely and naturally, 50lb braid would definitely prevent that without a leader. I wouldn't go any heavier than 12lb leader. The 10lb mono should be good too. Good luck!

It was really bad here too, luckily it was a west wind on a north/south flowing river so I was protected from it. Guides were icy though!

Got out for a couple hours yesterday evening and caught a few COLD river bass. Water temps are in the upper 30s but it's not that hard to catch them when you know where they live and are willing to go sllllowwwww. They were hitting the bait when it had been stationary for 5-10 seconds. One on a finesse football jig and 4 on a tiny little tube. I think this makes 4 years in a row now that I've bank fished that river on Christmas day and caught bass, somewhat of a tradition now!

I'll make it to one of these one day!

WEDGED!

I think some do, some don't. I've fished on a few warm water influenced lakes, and I think there are some bass that go live in the warm stuff, and some that don't care and stay put in the cold.

Lately I've been spending a lot of time fishing a local power plant lake. It has been quite a time, I haven't experienced this sort of stuff on such a large scale before. There is a massive feeding frenzy taking place in the lake, I've fished for them twice now. It seems to be several acres of fish aggressively feeding on shad. They usually sit out deep over 40-50FOW, and there are a LOT of them. You can drop a blade or spoon to the bottom and catch bass in 50', throw a swimbait or a rig for the suspending fish that sit in the 10-20' range, AND catch them on topwater when they come up schooling. It is a mixture of largemouth, white perch, and both hybrid and "regular" stripers. There are also bass in the area pushing bait into the backs of coves, so while I'm out sitting in the middle of the lake, I watch the coves in case the water starts to erupt. The fish don't seem to relate to any sort of structure/contour, they just follow the food. I fished on Monday and on Wednesday. In that time, the frenzy moved about half a mile, pretty crazy stuff! The area where the graph was lit up top to bottom on Monday, was blank on Wednesday.

Anna. I'm back home on break.

2017 was not a good "big fish" year for me. I caught lots of fish in the 4lb range but only two that broke the 5lb mark. I bass fish a whole lot, I spend a ton of time on the water, and usually I run into a couple big ones throughout the year because of that. Long story short, on Saturday, I caught my biggest bass of 2017, a 6-15. I caught it on a crappie jig on 6lb test, fishing vertically over a school of crappie, in 15FOW. And I hooked her in the pectoral fin (the one beside the gill). I have no idea what happened or how it happened, but I'm almost positive she didn't try to eat a crappie that was chasing my bait, because she was on there when I picked it up off the bottom to bring the jig up into the school. No idea at all on how the hook didn't tear out and we managed to get the fish in the net, but I'll take it! This fish was filled out and pretty too!

A 7'2" MH with 15lb AbrazX haha. 6/0 gamakatsu octopus circle hook.

Better watch out for those 23.6" trout

I did this too 40 degrees and steady rain. We were crushing them on blade baits but it got to the point that I wasn't able to reel properly and was grabbing the reel handle with a fist trying to bring a fish in. We called it a day too!

C-rig is my go-to in stained, deep water. Can't go wrong with a baby brush hog.

Had a tough day on the lake today, a few small bass on a blade bait and an a-rig in 41 degree water. When I pulled in a big gizzard shad on my blade, I threw him in a bucket and gave myself a little extra time for a pit stop on the way home.......

I'm sure bass will hit that thing but I bet the hookup ratio is pretty terrible. And if you do hook them it looks like they will have a ton of leverage! Just my .02 Get a plopper 130

Much of my winter bass fishing has taken place in small VA ponds. Shad rap, 1/4oz redeye shad, chatterbait sllllooowww, and a shakey head or finesse jig fished extra slow (count on your pauses like a jerk bait). If you have some depth (10-12'+) you can hop a 1/4oz blade. Most importantly, fish after 3+ days of consistent weather/temps. That may be three days with a high of 40, or three days with a high of 60. Whatever it is, it makes them bite!

I've had that feeling before, but you gotta stay after it! When one big girl eats that usually means more big girls are eating!!!

Keep in mind that they will travel a long ways to eat that jerkbait!