Winter Fishing Love Thread

[thediscochef]

23 hours ago, LrgmouthShad said:

 

I think if I could pick a month that is the most underrated month to fish in down South, it would be December. But naturally, we get caught up in the Holidays. 
 

I caught my PB in December also

My first ever PB over 5# was on Christmas Day 2021. I fell in love in December, it is my favorite month. 

 

I'm hoping for a better winter bite this year, I did much better in 21-22 than 22-23. Gonna be focused more shallow than I was last year, I think sticking myself deep-only last winter was why I didn't do so well. 

[Carolina Pines]

@thediscochef You'll likely do well up shallow in winter, especially after a couple of warm sunny days.  At least that's how it works in NC where I'm at. 

 

I love those warm spells we get in the winter.  The top few inches of water warms up, bait comes up, bass follow.  I always do well with spinnerbaits and swimbaits around shallow cover.  Often times you can get on a great topwater bite too once they start schooling up. 

[LrgmouthShad]

52 minutes ago, thediscochef said:

My first ever PB over 5# was on Christmas Day 2021. I fell in love in December, it is my favorite month. 

 

I'm hoping for a better winter bite this year, I did much better in 21-22 than 22-23. Gonna be focused more shallow than I was last year, I think sticking myself deep-only last winter was why I didn't do so well. 

Good luck brother and I’ll see what I can do for you on Stillhouse. I like fishing shallow in the winter, no doubt. It’s tough to forget though that my lake is 20ft low and ultra clear. Here’s to both of us figuring it out 🍻

[Bankbeater]

23 hours ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Winter fishing in Missouri was a whole different ball game for me. Like you say, there’s a question of if the water is going to be frozen or not, because you don’t know. That water is really cold regardless. I also had to downsize to get bit. The whole big bait mentality during the winter just didn’t seem to work over there. Would you agree?
 

Missouri fishes a little different 

Sometimes the larger reservoirs can still produce bass on summertime size baits, but you're correct most of the time I will be fishing with small baits.  I know a couple of guys that have caught their PB largemouth while fishing with a 1-1/2" tube for crappie.

[Catt]

My goto is a Black-n-Blue 1/2 jig with a Rage Craw 4" Blue Sapphire 

 

Besides creek channels I like deep offshore structures 

[roadwarrior]

On 10/23/2023 at 12:23 PM, Pat Brown said:

For us southern anglers, it's kinda bass fishing heaven.

Yesterday my fishing buddy caught two smalljaws on consecutive casts,

his 1st and 2nd! We hadn't fished below Wilson Dam this year, so we hired

a friend/ guide for the day: https://www.davidallenfishing.com/

 

The smallmouth were all small, 3 lbs and less, but I caught to meanmouth,

several stripers and a bit of everything else that lives in the Tennessee River.

[Swamp Girl]

Winter...fishing? C'mon! Next you'll be telling me that unicorns are real. 

[gim]

[Bluebasser86]

I like winter fishing because it keeps a lot of the fair weather fishermen at home. It's not the numbers game of the summer months, but I've lipped most of fish over 7lbs with numbed up fingers. 

[TnRiver46]

@Bluebasser86 shouldn’t legally be allowed to fish plastic worms. FFS can’t keep up with him 

[T-Billy]

On 10/24/2023 at 12:12 PM, Skunkmaster-k said:

Winter fishing gets tough when the water temp hits 40 degrees. Fishing all day for one bite can be a real test of a person’s metal. I will grind it out though, in hopes of catching that one pale giant. 

Heck yeah. Slow days most of the year, my mind will wander. Slow days late season, I find it easy to stay focused because of the potential every cast has. The anticipation keeps the blood pumping.

[FishTax]

Caught this 5 pounder on 12/30/22 in NC. One side of the lake had thin ice on top so I had to go the other way, but it was closer to sixty degrees and sunny when I caught it off a lay down in direct sun, mid afternoon. I love winter fishing in NC on those warm days we always get intermittently. 

[Mr. Aquarium]

I live in MA near the cape. Most of the state is iced in but on the cape it rarely freezes. I never caught anything big between November and February. Some decent numbers. My bass fishing is October-April. Big bass is March and April. Numbers October-February 

[Bird]

I just got home from 3 weeks at the cabin deer hunting.

My mind is on fishing once again but waiting on a warm sunny day or at least warmer then the 15* I woke up to this morning.

That said, I've never done well with water temps below 50* but will keep trying.

[Tennessee Boy]

One thing I love about fishing in the winter is you don’t see many jet skis.  I did see this one today however.

 

[mk49.mk3]

In our area, winter is the raining season.  We only get rains from Dec to April/May.  So I don't fish as much in the winter, but I tend to catch bigger fish, but less quantity.  I was looking at old pictures on the other day, and I found I caught two 7 pounders in 15min in Dec., 2010.  That doesn't happen every winter, but winter bass are usually bigger.

 

One warm (for Jan) morning, I had like 30 bites, and caught about 18 bass in a few hours.  That's very unusual.  I actually asked my friend if he wanted to go fishing.  He said it's too cold.  After the morning fishing, I called the same friend, and told him about it.  We went back on the next day, and it was totally different.  I caught only a few fish, and he didn't catch any.

[TnRiver46]

11 hours ago, Tennessee Boy said:

One thing I love about fishing in the winter is you don’t see many jet skis.  I did see this one today however.

 

Just squirt some carb cleaner in there and she will fire right up