January winds howl, but the weather is mild. Long lines extend out behind a rocking boat adorned with a sock to slow the drift. One big split shot carries hook and live shad down to 20-odd feet. The structure is a series of humps topping out at 25 feet in the river channel. Let out too much line and the rig snags. Too little line and the bait passes out of reach for the biggest smallmouths, content to let dinner come to them in the heart of winter on Pickwick Lake in Alabama.
Mark Davis, senior manager of public relations for Shakespeare, has a lot of experience -- tournament and otherwise -- fishing reservoir smallmouths in the South during winter. "Smallmouths take the first opportunity they get to move shallow. In January and February, we have 45F days for long stretches at a time. But we eventually get a stretch of two or three unseasonably warm days in the high 70F to 80F range. On Pickwick, smallmouths move into 8 to 10 feet of water with surface temperatures of maybe 58F during those warm spells.
"The first opportunity smallmouths have to move up, they move. The biggest mistake anglers make is to keep focusing on deep water during warm, stable winter weather. On Pickwick, smallmouths move as vertically as they can out of wintering habitat, straight up bluff banks or deep bends in river and creek channels to short little pea-gravel points. Lake Pickwick and Wilson rarely register colder than 55F in winter. As for air temperature, a 50F swing from a high of 30F to 80F is not all that uncommon in January and February. It happens fast. When it does, I'm hunting big bass in 8 to 10 feet of water or less. Lots of skipjacks and other big baitfish move shallow during these really warm days. I don't catch a lot of fish, but they're big. The first fish -- the earliest fish to move shallow in winter -- are big specimens.
"Time of day doesn't really matter," Davis added. "The bite is on from about 7 a.m. through evening. Bass move up and back down periodically. They're moving up into small areas. They move up for flashes of activity, probably not more than two hours at a time. This is milk-run fishin'. Hit a spot and move on. Come back later if it's a key spot for giants. The bass that come up are active; the inactive fish stay deep. It's not uncommon to have a 5-pounder hooked and have two other five-pounders come up to the boat with him. It's common sense to believe, once you find these fish, that two 5-pounders caught on a point with active baits means it's time to slow down and see if you can finesse a few more. Don't waste your time. They won't come up on top, either. They're actively feeding, but there won't be any sign.
