Cold water calls for heavy metal. Steel, zinc, and lead bodies fall fast to reach bass holding in the mildest and stablest environment they can find during fall, winter, and early spring -- deep water. How deep depends on the depths available in rivers, reservoirs, and lakes, plus water temperature, water clarity, current, and the activity of important preyfish.
Spoons
Vertically jigging spoons often is the best presentation when sonar shows fish suspended off bottom, loosely grouped, near schools of baitfish. During winter, bass and their prey often hold in the deep lower end of creek arms where wind is blocked and water temperature remains constant.
To jig a spoon, position the boat directly over the bass or bait, or along a key structural feature like a roadbed, stump row, or turn in a creek channel. Other good spots for winter spooning are deep main-lake points, bluffs, and manmade features like bridge pilings or abutments. Standing timber also holds fish, but try to pinpoint structure like creek channels within the flooded forest.
Hold the rod, preferably a 6- to 7-foot medium to medium-heavy-action baitcasting model, at about 9 o’clock as you free-spool the spoon to the bottom. If fish are several feet off bottom, reel the lure up just past their holding depth. Watch sonar carefully and you’ll see the spoon on the screen if the boat is still.
Work the lure by lowering the rod to about 8 o’clock, then lifting it to 10 or 11 o’clock, depending on the activity level of the bass. As the spoon falls, lower your rod with it, feeling for a tap or sense that it’s no longer falling. As you jig, keep an eye on the school, for baitfish and bass tend to wander.
Used to be, spoons came mainly in silver, a few in gold, or you could paint your own. Times have changed. Finely painted models now are available, and some with realistic fishlike features (Horizon Pirk Minnow and Luhr-Jensen Crippled Minnow). New models like Hildebrandt’s tin Bun-G-Blade and the zinc Bullet Blade fall more slowly than lead.
Some top anglers prefer an unpainted lead spoon. Others favor rattling models like Bass’N Bait’s Rattlin’ Snakie Jigging Spoon, with an enclosed rattle chamber, a bait that made profound news by capturing the Ohio record 91⁄2-pound smallmouth.
Slowly maneuver the boat along structure with the trolling motor, jigging the spoon as you watch sonar for bottom features and fish. But don’t skip a good-looking spot if you don’t mark fish, since the action of the spoon will draw them when you start jigging.
Spoons also catch fish when retrieved semivertically. Cast the spoon into the wind, then snap it upward as it simultaneously drifts toward a vertical position. Try it when wind pushes baitfish and predators toward the windward side of structure in fall or summer, when fish hold from 8 to 20 feet down.
This type of retrieve capitalizes on the instinctive response of predators to strike vulnerable objects that speed past them from tail to head. On this presentation, which leaves fish little time for decision making, strikes often are arm-wrenching and may come from black bass or the unrelated white, striped, or hybrid “bass.” These other species are down there for the same reason black bass are deep -- food and a stable home environment.
Bladebaits
Blades seem most effective when water temperatures fall below about 55°F until it cools to about 45°F. A Tennessee favorite, the Silver Buddy, is the simplest form of this genre. With its plain leadhead and stamped metal body, it’s legendary for producing giant smallmouths in the mid-South where it’s most popular. Other popular models like the Cordell Gay Blade, Reef Runner Cicada, Bullet Blade, Luhr-Jensen Ripple Tail, and Heddon Sonar each display a unique action and falling rate.
