Crushed Them In The Cold Mud!

[everythingthatswims]

It is a bit of a Christmas tradition to head to the nearby river after we finish up with lunch and gifts at my grandparent's house. My younger brother and I only had one rod each, and a handful of baits, with a short bank fishing trip in mind. Water is high and muddy, as it has been for most of this year. Not ideal conditions for fishing considering the water temps in the low 40s. Since I have grown up fishing this river, I pretty much know where the bass live, and what they do depending on the conditions. This is a key for cold, muddy water, because even if I'm not getting bit, I know I'm probably dropping it on their heads, so it's easier to slow down and be patient.

 

Water had less than a foot of visibility, but was clearly fishable. I fished a black and blue jig for a while, but they weren't having it. My brother caught one small fish on a shakey head, and missed a couple other fish. His bites were coming in eddies with wood and brush, right up against the bank. It is strange to fish pretty much straight down in front of you, but those river bass want to get out of the current when it's cold and muddy. All of our bites today were in less than 3' of water, some as shallow as 1'. I switched to a shakey head, alternating between a 5" black single tail grub, and a 3" black and blue chigger craw. I don't think it mattered what bait you used, as long as you fished it slow and gave it enough movement for them to locate it in the dirty water.

 

We ended up landing 13 bass up to 2.5lbs in around 2 hours, and my brother lost one that was over 5 while he was trying to lip it. The fish were surprisingly aggressive given the conditions, and we are planning to take the kayaks out tomorrow and further exploit the bite we stumbled upon! Even though I didn't get bit on it today, I know that ol jig will work. I'll be suiting up with some 20lb fluorocarbon and a stout rod to try and yank a big girl out of a tree tomorrow!

                                                                                                                Note that there is no hook-up preventer (some call it a screw lock) on the shakey head.....

[A-Jay]

Nicely Done ~ 
Congrats 

Good Luck tomorrow.

Stay Safe out on that cold river.

A-Jay

 

[Russ E]

Nice.

I am still up in the air with the screwlocks.

I lost a couple nice fish on screwlock shakykeads, this year.

Not sure if that was the reason, but very seldom lose fish on non-screwlock jigs.

[Bluebasser86]

I can't hook fish on a shakyhead without a screwlock ?‍♂️

[Team9nine]

11 hours ago, everythingthatswims said:

 

                                                                                                                Note that there is no hook-up preventer (some call it a screw lock) on the shakey head.....

Hear, hear ?

 

Nice job on the fish. They haven't been so cooperative on my local waters.

[Janderson45]

16 hours ago, everythingthatswims said:

Even though I didn't get bit on it today, I know that ol jig will work. I'll be suiting up with some 20lb fluorocarbon and a stout rod to try and yank a big girl out of a tree tomorrow!

 

Lol...  I’ll wait for you to post the results of this.

[Smokinal]

Nice job figuring them out