Anybody ever get on a shallow bite during winter?

[CJ]

I'm just curious for future knowledge as to how many of you and how often you have found a shallow bite with water temps under 45? Let's say 4 ft. of water or less. Mainly just inquiring you guys that have deep water access on the waters you fish. Feel free to give some details, how you caught them, maybe what pushed them shallow, or maybe they stay there through winter anyway, etc.?

Thanks,

CJ

[Goose52]

My "shallow" bite stopped at 49 degree surface water temp. However, EastTexasBassin just posted a great story about getting a topwater (!) bite in cold water. Check out: http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1295615000

[flippin and pitchin]

Several years ago a friend of mine treated me to a day on the lake, February 11th. The water had been 42 degrees and it's a shallow lake over all. We had two warm days in the high fifties. There was a channel with two culverts under a road way with a slough on the other side. That slough water was super shallow and warmed and the lake lowered thus the slough water made it to the main lake channel. The water rose to 46 degrees and we caught about 30 largemouth on plastic worms fished dead sticking them. I've never forgot that day. Got them in three to six feet of water.

[roadwarrior]

Haven't been over to Pickwick in a few weeks, but

in December we were on a topwater and jerkbait bite,

big time! Green fish and brown.

8-)

[Nick]

If the water is dingy on Lake Ozarks as it was last winter, several good fish were caught on dark colored jerkbaits right off the bank in 3-7 feet of water when the water temps were 38-43. The dingy water was the key, and the presentation was quite slow. One of the better anglers  told me that he fractured over a dozen jerkbait lips because he casted them too close or on the rocky shorelines.

On flowing waters, we catch the heck out of smalies under 45 in waters 2-6 feet.  Again it's a water clarity deal when it happens like that. They vacate their deeper 10-15 feet holes then.

[Bassn Blvd]

I wouldn't know, the water never gets below 45 here in S. Florida. 

[EastTexasBassin]

My "shallow" bite stopped at 49 degree surface water temp. However, EastTexasBassin just posted a great story about getting a topwater (!) bite in cold water. Check out: http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1295615000

I was about to mention my last trip but you beat me to it.  ;D

[Goose52]

I was about to mention my last trip but you beat me to it. ;D

You got some great fish on that trip!

[paul.]

last year it got real cold towards the end of dec. here. water temps on the river 33*. all the bays were iced up and there was big chunks of ice floating down the river. we fished the same shallow point 2 days in a row using baby rage craws and squarebills. we didn't catch any giants, but the first day we caught 33 and the second day we caught 27.

on another lake, about 3-4 years ago, i remember catching a bunch of fish real shallow on a bandit flat maxxx with suspend strips on it. all these came in about 3-5 ft. of water. one of 'em weighed over 4 and another was over 7. you had to pause the bait a loooooong time. it was almost like fishing for catfish. you just held the rod and waited for the line to jump and set the hook. funny thing was i caught 2 7's that day, but the other was in about 18 ft. w/ a jig. go figure.

i remember another day there doing pretty well on small fish fishing shallow wood with a lightly weighted tube. i lost a real monster that day doing the same, but i don't even want to talk about that.

now ponds are a different story. in some ponds, MOST of the water is shallow. so if you're gonna catch 'em at all, chances are it could be shallow. especially since the shallowest water could be the warmest after even a small warming trend. i remember back in feb. '09 (at least i think it was '09)catching two nice fish shallow in a pond (only about 3-4 fow) on live bluegill. one was over 8, the other over 11. not sure how cold the water was, but it was pretty cold outside.

those are the only times that really come to mind. other times i've tried shallow when it's cold have been miserable failures. truth be told, i prefer to fish deep with a jig or plastic if it's cold. the last two winters, i've fished for stripers when it got cold, so i've caught very few bass shallow or deep. ;D

[J_Pearson]

I've caught some Nice bass in 4 f.o.w. during December...of course thats vertical jigging a rapala from atop the ice   haha.

However, the first day of ice-off last year I did have a blast absolutely burning a lipless crank over extremely shallow water in local ponds. It blew my mind how fast I was reeling and still getting bit with half the pond covered in ice still. Talk about a BLAST.

JP

[RoLo]

Chris, when I lived in New Jersey, winter activity in 3 to 4 ft of water

was almost non-existent...for us at least (from New Jersey to Ontario)

When we moved to Georgia. we did have days when bass moved shallow

in mid-winter. A couple times in particular was during January on West Point Lake, GA.

Although water temps were under 50-deg, I won't say they were under 45-deg.

There'd be a brief feeding spree in a shallow stump-field that bordered

the main river channel. The catalyst in my opinion, was a sharp warming trend.

The bass didn't move very far, it was basically a vertical move for them.

Roger

[senile1]

I have but it was a long, long time ago and the details are difficult to remember. I was fishing a small clear-water lake and the shallow area was adjacent to the deepest holes where the bass generally lived during the winter. We used original floaters and countdown rapalas to catch the fish.  I also lived further south at the time but water temperatures were definitely below 45 degrees.

Otherwise, the shallow areas in the lakes I fish now are usually frozen over much of the Winter.

[farmpond1]

Last fall, following a rather cold spell, the day had warmed up and the wind was blowing all the warmer water into a shallow bay.  I caught 6 decent bass shaking a creature bait in 3 feet of water.  Might've caught more but the chilly wind drove me away.

[CJ]

Man there's a lot of good input here.

Rolo, I kind of expected any migration in the winter months to be more vertical. I believe they won't stray too far from the deeper water.

Nick, I always felt water clarity could factor in. I fish Ky. and Barkley. Ky. has much more hard bottom so it stays more clear when the water starts flowing in. Barkley will stain or even mud up. Just a couple years ago guys on Ky. were catching fish 6-10 ft. deep in late February after  a lot of water in flow. The guys on Barkley how ever were catching fish in 1-3 ft. Yet the bass on Ky. usually move back to the shallows first. You throw some conditions in the mix and things will change.

[Tin]

95% of the fish I catch in sub 50 degree water come out of 5 feet of water or less.

[5bass]

Most times in 40 degree water, we're sitting on top of fish that are suspended around the shad schools, dropping spoons on 'em. However, last winter we had one day that we couldn't get bit with the spoon even though the graph was covered up with activity from 15 ft all the way down to 35.

I decided to move the boat shallow and drag a carolina rig up the hill on this particular main lake point that was loaded with shad. Well, the carolina rig wasnt working out so while we were up there on that point my partner decided to throw down the bank parallel (rip rap bank) with a Gulp Minnow on a jighead, just dragged slowly along the bottom. He started ripping fish out left and right, one after another. I threw the rig over that way but they were having none of it. The jighead minnow deal he had was just hammering the fish. We (actually, he) ended up with 5 going almost 20 pounds off that bank in about 30 minutes. I moved the boat around to cast straight at the bank (so we wouldnt spook them being so shallow) but they wouldn't eat it unless it was dragged parallel to the bank, so thats what we did.

That day turned out sunny and might have hit 40 degrees later on but it was sleeting when we blasted off that morning. There was something different happening because everything was right for the deep spoon bite but it never happened. I havent figured out exactly what it was but ever since then I always throw something parallel up shallow along banks that are close to deep water with bait nearby. Flats are places that I've found them up shallow in cold water as well but again, there is always bait close by.

[Nick]

That sleet is a strong indication to me that a feed was going on. A front coming through with nasty sleet or snow can trigger good shallow activity. Lots of guys in the Ozarks swear by the jerkbait bite in the bad weather in sub 45 degree water. ( or maybe they just want other snglers to go out and suffer with them.)

[Siebert Outdoors]

I have right around that 45 deg mark.  I was fishing laydowns in about 3-5 fow.  They were all dinks but they were feeding pretty shallow.

[Fat-G]

Technichally yes, in reality the water was less than 5'. In some of the ponds I fish it only gets to about 4.5', but I have caught fish up to 6 lbs pitching to timber. I like winter fishing, but I also hate it LOL.

Edit: Completely misread the OP. Yes, but all of the water in my ponds is 5' or less, so I guess not.

[bmadd]

Main lake shallow flats made up of Pea Gravel north of Paris towards your way

[Munkin]

One March day about 3 years ago I was pre-fishing for a club tournament. Water was at best 40 degrees so I was using hair jigs and small tubes with no luck. Well I had a new crankbait rod I wanted to try out so with no action I figuered I would get some casting practice in with it. I tied on a RC 1.5 to judge action, etc of the rod and started casting. The very first cast I boated a SM out of less the 2' of water. Every other cast after that was about the same. Now I didn't boat any big fish but to catch like 25 keepers in 5 hours prefishing March is pretty impressive. Of course a cold front came in that night dropping the temp a few degrees and killing what I thought was an easy victory.

Allen