Moving baits for winter ? Soft plastics? I’m confused ??‍♂️

[burrows]

Making a hard bait box for winter this box is excluding jigs they have their own box and I will be pairing them with chunk trailers that I’ve never used I’ve always used kicking flapping style trailers, but I’ve got most things I think ? what am I missing? I got jerk baits, lipless cranks, shad raps,wiggle warts, 75x’s little John 50s what’s missing let me know how you guys are prepping your hard baits for winter assuming you’re water doesn’t freeze over. 

 You guys can also add any soft plastic techniques into the mix I usually stop fishing in December and target other species till March but this year I’m dedicated to fish for bass all year so pls feel free to add any advice. 

 

[SWVABass]

I will fish a deep diving square bill slow in the winter, few bites but they have been the better largemouth I’ve caught. Also I tend to go straight to the dropshot and use gulp minnows and a Shad shaped worm from Yamamoto.

[Angry John]

Smaller keitech swimbaits.  The 3" in Bothell sthe standard swing and easy shiner can be good.

[CroakHunter]

Drop shot and shakey head small worm or craw. 

[TBAG]

Seems like a pretty good lineup. Out of curiosity what part of the country do you fish?

[burrows]

13 minutes ago, TBAG said:

Seems like a pretty good lineup. Out of curiosity what part of the country do you fish?

California 

 

[Mobasser]

Smaller plastic worms, light Texas rig or slider head. 

[roadwarrior]

Rage Tail Swimmer, Menace, Structure Bug, Space Monkey and BPS Tender Tube (#71)

 

 

 

 

 

[Mr. Aquarium]

blade baits and hair jigs for my winter fishin, going to try some lipless  this year. drop shots probably would work. my winter arsenal is very small,  not many baits will work when the water is at 40 degrees.

people LOVE jerkbaits in the super cold but i can only get bit by pickerel. 

[WRB]

California, our water temps usually stay above 45 degrees, so you can use whatever you want.

Tom

[burrows]

It does slow down considerably, for that three months or so.

[All about da bass]

My favorite moving baits for the winter are the lipless cranks and slow rolling spinner baits. I'll throw a crawfish colored crank bait for the crawfish bite and slow roll a white or white and chartreuse spinner bait with golden Colorado blade for those few that still have shad in the lake. If moving baits don't work, I like to go with a shakey head paired with a Zoom straight tail finesse worm or the trusty t-rig with some subtle presentation.

[flyfisher]

I like a tight wiggle crank bait like a rapala but the vast majority of the time i am throwing jerk baits, shaky heads and texas rigged plastics and jigs.  I just slow everything down.

[WRB]

2 hours ago, Burrows said:

It does slow down considerably, for that three months or so.

Bass, like nearly all fish, are cold blooded animals and their metabolic rate slows down as their body temperature get colder. In simple terms the bass eats less often in cold water. 

Like everyother seasonal period including the cold water period depth and location are critical factors. Since we don't get severely cold water temps the Shad don't die in mass, the schools tend to go deeper looking for warmer water and the bass do the same. There is always some bass up shallow year around in our lakes after turnover looking for prey

Go smaller and slower can work but going big with swimbaits also works.

During the winter my lures are jigs, structure spoons, big and small worms, deep diving crank baits, swimbaits and whatever else. Jerk baits work but tend to catch smaller size bass with 3 sets of treble hooks to deal with, not my favorite lure during winter.

I use my sonar to search for bass, not lures.

Tom

[OCdockskipper]

1 hour ago, WRB said:

...I use my sonar to search for bass, not lures...

It would be pretty impressive if you could use your sonar to search for lures...?

[WRB]

55 minutes ago, OCdockskipper said:

It would be pretty impressive if you could use your sonar to search for lures...?

It would be better if the future generation sonar could help bass to find our lures....

Tom

[burrows]

18 hours ago, All about da bass said:

slow roll a white or white and chartreuse spinner bait with golden Colorado blade 

You know I’ve never had much luck on a spinnerbait in the winter but I usually don’t fish December anyhow shadraps and 75X seem to do well till end of November then I target stalked trout or striper.

18 hours ago, All about da bass said:

[WRB]

I make a twin spin spinnerbait for cold water presentation. It's based on a old school design that uses a 5/8 oz football head with a wire cevis link attached to the jig hook eye, spreader wires about 2' long each side with size 2 Colorado blades on small swivel clips at the end of each wire. The twin spin helicopters down through the water column about 1' per second depending on the trailer type. Killer big bass lure.

Tom

[SWVABass]

On 11/2/2018 at 6:33 PM, WRB said:

I make a twin spin spinnerbait for cold water presentation. It's based on a old school design that uses a 5/8 oz football head with a wire cevis link attached to the jig hook eye, spreader wires about 2' long each side with size 2 Colorado blades on small swivel clips at the end of each wire. The twin spin helicopters down through the water column about 1' per second depending on the trailer type. Killer big bass lure.

Tom

I would love to see this design, I’ve heard about it from guys in AZ, just hav never seen one.