December: the kiss of death for bass anglers?

[MacJig]

I'm from the NE, western NY to be exact. I fish when I can for as long as I can. I am for the greater part a bank angler. November was OK for me. December not so much. Even my greatest weapon, the green pumpkin Pit Boss, has been a "no go". Is December really the kiss of death for bass bank anglers or is there still hope?

[T-Billy]

I've never had a decent day for bass with a surface temp below 38 here in OH. Meat fishin season for me. Crappie and saugeye mostly. Musky and pike can make for some fun days in the winter too. Caught this fat 32 incher yesterday on a little rage swimmer 8# XT. Was fishing for saugeye. Surface temp 40.

 

[DogBone_384]

It depends on what kind of waters you have near you. I’m near Plymouth/Cape Cod, MA, where many waters are kettles where deeper water can be reached from shore.
 

If you can cast to deeper areas in your local waters, you can still catch bass.

Some things to remember:

• Slow your presentations WAY down. Jerkbaits, finesse softbaits, and blade baits often work well.
• Fish later in the morning. Give the water a chance to warm a couple degrees.
• Fish wind-blown shores if possible.

Dress warm, and keep at it. 

[GetFishorDieTryin]

As long as your line is wet there is always hope.  

If your fishing from the bank, concentrate on hard structure like bridges and spillways.  If you can find steep banks in close proximity to a bridge or spillway its a safe bet that at some point in time during the day its going to hold fish.  The cold water really slows everything down so they don't have to eat very much at all, which shortens that feeding window compared to warmer times of the year.

If your just looking to get bit, I recommend downsizing considerably from a pit boss.   

[Bird]

Couple of other considerations. 

Riprap, those rocks absorb the heat from the sun.

Banks that the sun has hit the longest. 

As mentioned, wind blown shores. 

 

Just enjoy and don't set the bar to high. 

[softwateronly]

I caught my first 2 december bass last week from my pier.  Water temp is 41.  A jerkbait in 10-12' of water and a heavy ned w/ a 5" jerky j got smoked on the fall in about 20' of water.

 

scott

 

 

[ironbjorn]

Historically I'd say yes for us in the North, some of us start to struggle as early as October. But that's slowly changing as climate change takes hold. It's been warmer and warmer. We're having a week straight of 50s and 60s in Indiana just before Christmas. I was catching a lot of bass on a spook in a pond that is no deeper than 6-7 feet all through November.

[WRB]

North of the Mason-Dixon line it’s tough bass fishing when your lure bounces of the frozen surface. 

Tom

 

 

[jimmyjoe]

   Look for patches of warmer surface water. It doesn't need to be warm, just warmER. Last year I caught 3 bass in water only 6-8 feet deep, twitching a spoon 1-2 feet below the surface. It was the 2nd of January, and the next day the whole lake was skim ice.     jj

[suzuki2903]

It’s been rough fishing lately but still fun to try. Wind blown banks are good in the summer but winter not so much! Those can be several degrees cooler. 

[T-Billy]

Competing with the abundance of bait makes it tough too. I was over a school of gizzard shad yesterday that was at least 10 acres in size, and was so thick my sonar was reading 2'-3' in 17' of water. Fish were aggressively busting them here and there, but I couldn't buy a bite, and I threw the kitchen sink at 'em. Ended up with that muskie and a couple 14" saugeye.

[MacJig]

Thx for all the replies ! Went out today as it was in the 60s in western NY. Tried three separate ponds all to no avail. Next week decent temps as well so I will review these responses and maybe up my chances. My December expectations are not high but if the weather man says it's nice enough to get out, I go !!

[PhishLI]

11 hours ago, MacJig said:

Went out today as it was in the 60s in western NY.

We had the same oddly high temps for December here on Long Island too, but the south winds were screaming. This worked out well because they pushed warm water into the 3 foot deep shallow end on the north shore of my spot, Before today it has been a bit painful to wade due to the cold night time temps, but between yesterday's and today's warmth it was very easy to stay in there. We started at just the right time and in just the right place and the bite was hot. My buddy beat the skunk with one nice fish, and I hooked a few nice chunks thankfully. It's been tough lately, so a little rally felt good. We would've stayed much longer, but were soaked through and the wind and rain just got too wild.

 

P.S. Baits that worked:

Beast Coast Miyagi Swimmer in Pro Ghost Alewife.

Black Dog Baits Shellcracker G2 in white and bluegill.

DRT Tiny Clash

6" NorieS Spoon Tail Shad in Pink Ayu (Rainbow trout)

[MacJig]

13 hours ago, WRB said:

North of the Mason-Dixon line it’s tough bass fishing when your lure bounces of the frozen surface. 

Tom

 

 

Yeah, that's not the kind of top water you want !!

[MacJig]

5 hours ago, PhishLI said:

We had the same oddly high temps for December on the Long Island today, but the south winds were screaming. This worked out well because they pushed warm water into the 3 foot deep shallows on the north shore of my spot, Before today it has been a bit painful to wade due to the cold night time temps, but between yesterday's and today's warmth it was very easy to stay in there. We got in at just the right time and in just the right place and the bite was hot. My buddy beat the skunk with one nice fish, and I hooked a few nice chunks thankfully. It's been tough lately, so a little rally felt good. We would've stayed much longer, but we were soaked through and the wind and rain just got too wild.

 

P.S. Baits that worked:

Beast Coast Miyagi Swimmer in Pro Ghost Alewife.

Black Dog Baits Shellcracker G2 in white and bluegill.

DRT Tiny Clash

6" NorieS Spoon Tail Shad in Pink Ayu (Rainbow trout)

Congratulations. Any bass in December represents time well spent. Yeah we had the high winds too. Wind warning with gusts up to 70 mph. 

[PhishLI]

1 hour ago, MacJig said:

Congratulations. Any bass in December represents time well spent. Yeah we had the high winds too. Wind warning with gusts up to 70 mph. 

Thanks. We heard a few branches cracking from those gusts, so getting bonked on the dome was on my mind. I should've added earlier that the baits which ended up working were the last thing I would've predicted before hand. Smaller or finesse-y baits have been the only thing getting bites recently, but they got no play when we started. We went the other way with far bigger baits and things got going.

[Mr. Aquarium]

Go smallie fishing they are more active than largemouth in the winter! 

[MacJig]

3 hours ago, Mr. Aquarium said:

Go smallie fishing they are more active than largemouth in the winter! 

Would love to but the canal that I fish for them in gets drained. ?‍♂️

[Mr. Aquarium]

22 minutes ago, MacJig said:

Would love to but the canal that I fish for them in gets drained. ?‍♂️

Bummer! Go steelhead or walleye  fishin. If I lived up by you, I wouldn’t bass fish. I love WNY fishin 

[Bankbeater]

Over the years I've only caught a handful of bass in December, but that's more about me not wanting to get out in the cold than the bite.

[Munkin]

Hair jigs and 2.5" tubes fished very slowly. 

 

Allen 

[geo g]

I feel for you guys with limited fishing, I moved to south Florida just because of the fishing.  Traditionally we have some bedding bass this time of year, and if the dry season shows up as expected, there will 100 bass days to come for months.  These are our bonanza months!  

[NYWayfarer]

I haven’t seen a Bass since late October fishing from shore. November and December on the upper Hudson River had been all Yellow Perch, Pickerel and Pike.
 

Temps are way above normal the last few days into this week. I went fishing this morning and got skunked. First time in awhile. Going to try again in a few days. It will be hibernation time for me until early April.

[Bluebasser86]

I'll bank fish all winter long provided the water stays soft. If it gets below 40 degree surface temps, it gets really tough. A jerkbait with long pauses is my usual bait of choice. I've had some great days when parts of a pond were iced over. It seems like those that have grass are always better than those without. 

 

It was mid December and I was doing 20-30 second pauses when my line just started creeping off with this fish. 

[MacJig]

12 hours ago, geo g said:

I feel for you guys with limited fishing, I moved to south Florida just because of the fishing.  Traditionally we have some bedding bass this time of year, and if the dry season shows up as expected, there will 100 bass days to come for months.  These are our bonanza months!  

Yeah and you get some 8-10 pounders there to boot !! ?

10 hours ago, NYWayfarer said:

I haven’t seen a Bass since late October fishing from shore. November and December on the upper Hudson River had been all Yellow Perch, Pickerel and Pike.
 

Temps are way above normal the last few days into this week. I went fishing this morning and got skunked. First time in awhile. Going to try again in a few days. It will be hibernation time for me until early April.

I got two bass the end of November around the 29th or so. Since then ?️. 

4 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I'll bank fish all winter long provided the water stays soft. If it gets below 40 degree surface temps, it gets really tough. A jerkbait with long pauses is my usual bait of choice. I've had some great days when parts of a pond were iced over. It seems like those that have grass are always better than those without. 

 

It was mid December and I was doing 20-30 second pauses when my line just started creeping off with this fish. 

That's a beautiful thing. Just getting a bass in December is worth a great big yahoo! That one looks really nice.