since bass are heading into deeper water what lure to use

[Outdoorsman60]

what lure can i use i'm not crazy about plastic worms

i have a rat l trap a deep diver.. i might try miami white water forest or hueston woods or rush run

[J Francho]

Shore, boat, what type of waters?  All makes a difference. 

[lynyrdsky1]

You have a whole assortment of baits to use.

You can use any deep diving crankbait.

I know you don't like plastics but thats usually all

I use. Usually carolina rigged plastics but thats my preference,

Drop Shot would work to.

If your fishing shore I would probably use plastics or a spoon. You're gonna have the crankbait dig a ditch into the bottom if you try bringing it to shore.

[backwater4]

Don't know where your fishing, but here in the north it's blade bait time. Silver Buddies and vertical spoons (Hopkins) work well over deep structure this time of year.

[Tin]

I think this is a common misconception. I find most of my cold weather fish on drops that are not exactly deep. I'm talking a 2 to 5 foot drop, or at most 6 to 10 feet. It doesn't have to be from 30 to 50' like some think. Therefore yes you can you traps, jerks, ect. Just a small drop can hold plenty of good fish.

Winter doesn't always mean spoons and metal.....unless you like smallies....

[smallieking]

From this time to the ice all i use is spoons. i can not get bite on anything else this time of the year.

[Vinny Chase]

I'm a crankbait junkie, so when it gets cold I like to take a suspending bait and slllloooowwww roll in over the deep weed lines. Once I find more about where they are, thats when I pull out the jig/drop shot

[Hellbenderman]

I figure you are about on the same temperature schedule as I am in Maryland. I fish a lake that is up to 60 feet deep and crystal clear, lots of submerged timber and weeds. I believe that as the water temp cools, the comfort zone eventually shrinks, and so the number of places you will find fish, and food, also shrinks. This can be good and bad. The bad is that fish are holding in more selective, condensed areas, and may be holding in areas that are now outside your fishing comfort zone. The good thing is, I propose, that more fish are packed into less area, and if you find one, you should be able to find a few. And, when you find some, take the time to really understand the circumstances and conditions so you can repeat the pattern at other spots. About mid October, I stopped getting numbers of hits on senkos, worms, etc., no matter how diligently I worked them. Why? I don't know...me probably, but whatever they liked about a 12" worm in August, they don't like now. I am not alone at my lake in discovering this...every year...hahaha. However, deep running cranks are doing nicely for me, and jigs & tails are still getting numbers. That said, I have to work these at a crawl, tediously slow, and it is a lot of work. I'm happy with one good fish an hour and really working for them...concentrating on fishing soooo slowly wears me out. Use a suspending crank, something that gets down 10-20, and stays there, and can be worked in slow twitches. As a place to start, go back to that point where you caught some nice ones this early fall and move out ten feet deeper, and more. The fish you caught on that point last summer/ fall are still on that point somewhere. They are just relating to the point differently. Conditions have changed, and this time of the year, deeper is usually part of that change. Monday, it's going to go up to 63 here and I'm going out. I'm going to use Rapala DT-10s and DT-16s and target 15-30 feet on all the same points I fished two months ago. Those fish are still there. You just have to figure it out the first time.

[Outdoorsman60]

thanks guys for the info

[Micro]

I think this is a common misconception. I find most of my cold weather fish on drops that are not exactly deep. I'm talking a 2 to 5 foot drop, or at most 6 to 10 feet. It doesn't have to be from 30 to 50' like some think. Therefore yes you can you traps, jerks, ect. Just a small drop can hold plenty of good fish.

Winter doesn't always mean spoons and metal.....unless you like smallies....

I agree.  Yesterday my lake water temp was 51 degrees when I put in and 53.4 when I pulled out.  No matter the water depth, I was finding fish at 4 to 8 feet, even in 30 feet of water.  I tried drop shotting in deep water, and caught nothing. My bait was way below the fish.  Everything I caught yesterday was on a slow crank that dove to about 8 feet.