Where to fish? What to fish with?

[James Pisano]

I have been struggling lately to catch anything. I am located in northern Virginia and the water temps are in the upper 40’s. Where should I fish? Under Bridges, Deep, Shallow, Rocks, Wood? Also what lures would you suggest? This winter has been harder than any other winter is it just me?

[WRB]

When I read the title was thinking this may be the toughest question ever to answer because it’s broad in scope.

The details matter the question is related to the cold water seasonal period often referred to as winter.

This is over stated often “find the bait”. You basically have two choices 1) find the bait, 2) go fishing blindly. Cold water bass tend to group up near bait so depth is critical. Find the depth the bait is at is more accurate. Your sonar is your best tool along with birds feeding on the bait. Tail spins, under spins and structure spoons are the lures to catch bass feeding on deep bait.

Tom

[Sphynx]

@WRB nailed it, of course if you are like some of us who don't have electronics, your going to have to make some educated guesses about where baitfish should be holding, the fish aren't especially active, and just like the rest of us they prefer a certain comfort range in temperature, sun warmed rocks are a perennial favorite, T rig and finesse jigs, shakey heads, ned rigs and other finesse techniques are favorites here, jerkbaits and cranks can be effective too, but if your on the bank they usually give you more trouble than they are worth. Winter is some tough sledding for bank anglers and there isn't any getting around it, I generally have found the evening bite better than the morning one this time of year looking for active fish, but there are entirely too many variables left out for anyone to be able to give you a play by play instruction on what will work on your fishery

[Teal]

10 hours ago, James Pisano said:

I have been struggling lately to catch anything. I am located in northern Virginia and the water temps are in the upper 40’s. Where should I fish? Under Bridges, Deep, Shallow, Rocks, Wood? Also what lures would you suggest? This winter has been harder than any other winter is it just me?

Sphynx and tom are spot on, tell us more about where you fish.  Are you on the bank, boat, and do you have electronics.?  Google pro can be your friend any time of year but especially this time of year and if you are a bank angler.  You can look at images of the body of water over different times of year through the last decade or so and sometimes you can spot depth changes, rocks, rock piles, sometimes you can see dark spots in shallow water that indicate stumps, brush or other hard cover.  Right now I'm prepping for tournaments next season and I'm doing this for several lakes and I'm marking it.  For fishing right now first off I'm finding the bait, either visually or on my graph.  From there I want to find ambush points, depth changes back away from it, particularly I look for current breaks on the inside of points and secondary points.   You mentioned bridges, I have a couolenspots I have fished over the past few weeks that happen to be right near a bridge lined with RIP rap.  I've caught bass up off the corners at the first significant drop away from the entry way.  I was using a small paddle tail on a regular jig head on light line.  

 

[scaleface]

42 degrees water temp here yesterday . I went 4 hours without a fish then switched to a suspending jerkbait and caught 10 shallow around wood cover .

[GetFishorDieTryin]

Electronics make life much easier, but you definitely don't need them to find fish especially fishing from the bank.  Im a few hundred miles north of you where the water is a bit colder and the excesive rain has made things tough.  The fish are still acclimating to the temp drop.  Bite was inconsistent untill day b4 yesterday, you could find them but the window when they would eat was short, roughly last 2 hours b4 sunset.

Fish are lazy this time of year, they want to get the maximum amount of food while burning the minimum amount of calories. 

Fish usually want to relate to structure thats close to deeper water because the deeper water is warmer.  Bridges and spillways usually have a channel running under or 2 them.  They also tend to have hard bottom which can be key as well.  If you can find a ledge where shallow water drops into a channel in casting distance from the bridge, odds are fish are going to be there at some point in time.  The drop doesnt have to be dramatic, your only looking for a few feet of difference and if you can find any kind of wood or structure close to the ledge fish will be there.

Take a day and just scout around for spots like that.  That way if one spot isnt paying off you can jump in your car and shoot to another spot quickly.  I use what's called the hour rule.  An hour being the maximum time spent fishing at a particular spot without getting a bite.  Once the hour is up, its time to go, even if you smashed them at that spot yesterday.  Also, if your up against sunset make sure you have at least an hour to fish the last spot of the day on you get there.  Be decisive, avoid saying to yourself ill give it 5 more minutes b4 I leave, that quickly turns into 30 mins.

Start with simple baits, they are often the most consistent. So   I swear by 3" easy shiners on a 1/16oz jig head with a  #1 hook.  They are consistently as or more effective then ned rigs because anything will take a shot at 1 and they cover water far more efficiently. 6'10-7'4 XF or F ML rods with a 1000-2500 smooth dragged spinning reel spooled with braided line are best.  All you do is cast out and reel as slow as you can with the rod tip at 9:30 or 10:00 keeping semi slack line and shaking the rod gently.  The goal isnt to impart action its to keep the bait as slow as possible without sinking.  Every now and then stop reeling and drop the rod verly slowly for 2 or 3 seconds then pick up the extra slack and go back to reeling it very slowly.  If a fish is following that bait and he sees it stop and start to sink slowly, odd are he's gonna eat it.  Its called tight lining and im sure someone else can explain it better then I can, but trust me its a fail safe method anyone can do and its a great way to locate fish.

Once you find them with the 3" keitechs you can really slow down and throw ned rigs or jigs and try to get the fish taht wont chase.

The other option is to get a reaction bite.  The JB is the best tool for that in the winter.  Especially on the ledges and points you will find around bridges and spillways.  Just be careful, good JBs like Duo Rozante 77s, Duo JB 85 sp, MegaBass 110 JR are all expensive so losing one a snag will sting, so know the area your casting to.

The #1 rule that cant be broken is to at all costs have fun and enjoy the day.  Its not a job, and if your fishing to for food its far cheaper to buy fish outright then becoming an angler.  I hope this helps, if you have anymore question don't hesitate to ask. GL have fun.  

 

 

 

[schplurg]

On 12/10/2020 at 8:52 PM, WRB said:

When I read the title was thinking this may be the toughest question ever to answer because it’s broad in scope.

The details matter the question is related to the cold water seasonal period often referred to as winter.

This is over stated often “find the bait”. You basically have two choices 1) find the bait, 2) go fishing blindly. Cold water bass tend to group up near bait so depth is critical. Find the depth the bait is at is more accurate. Your sonar is your best tool along with birds feeding on the bait. Tail spins, under spins and structure spoons are the lures to catch bass feeding on deep bait.

Tom

 

Where to fish and what to fish with is the question of all questions!