Jim Jared And Ray Ortiz Fish Winter Bass

Cold-blooded critters like bass slow down in winter, and the colder the water gets, the slower the bass become. But they don't quit eating altogether, and if you know how, where, and what to fish, winter can be your best chance to bag a really big bass.Arizona Game and Fish biologist Bill Silvey explains: "As the air temperature drops, the water at the surface starts to cool off and become denser. Pretty soon it's colder than the water beneath it, and it starts to sink, while the warmer water below rises to replace it." This is what we call the fall turn over, and it really mixes up the fish.

Fish Behavior Becomes Unpredictable

The turn over, says Silvey, mixes oxygen all through the water, making almost anywhere in the lake suitable habitat for bass. They can move down to structure that was oxygen-free all summer, or come up shallow and stay. Fishing is difficult during the turn over because the fish are scattered all over, and they are difficult to pattern because their behavior is unpredictable.

It takes about a month for the lake to stabilize after the turn over, Silvey says, and once that happens, fish are more concentrated than ever because there are fewer suitable habitats for them. The water in the lake stratifies again, and the fish have to stay where the conditions make it possible for them to survive.

Fish Usually Shallow In Winter

Fish are not usually actively chasing food in winter, says Silvey, but if you can put something right in their faces, they'll take it. Surprisingly, Silvey states that winter is typically the best time for the Game and Fish Department to do their electrofishing, because fish in winter are usually relatively shallow.What is "relatively shallow"? Twenty feet or less, according to Silvey, and bass will be concentrated around structure in those depths. Steeper banks, ledges, bluffs, and points that drop off quickly are good places to start your search for winter bass, because bass on this vertical structure can easily move up and down to stay in their comfort zone.

For some reason, bass seem to prefer woody structure in winter, even if weeds are available. If you find good vertical structure with wood on it, such as a ledge with old stumps along it that drops off to a creek channel, you've hit winter bass pay dirt.On larger bodies of water, conditions and temperatures will vary in different parts of the lake. The water may be slightly warmer at one end than at the other, and other factors such as oxygen and pH may affect the fish. Keep in mind that if you are fishing unsuccessfully, a simple change in location may turn your luck around.

JIM JARED

Justin Welch with a nice winter bass.

Jim Jared agrees that winter bass can be found shallow. Jared is probably one of the best-known of the pioneer western jig-fishing pros, and he seldom fishes deeper than fifteen feet. Once the lake has settled down after the fall turn over, the water usually becomes very clear. Very clear water often makes fishermen turn to tiny lures and light line, but Jared sticks with the big stuff.

I Fish The Fish Houses

"I only fish the fish houses," Jared says, and this means he casts his jig only to places where he thinks a bass is likely to live. Jared's solution to the clear-water problem is pitching. "Stay back from the cover you're fishing and pitch the jig to it, making sure you don't make a lot of noise with the lure when it hits the water," he explains. Jim makes underhand casts of about thirty feet or so, keeping the jig just above the surface of the water until it is over the spot he wants to fish. When the lure enters the water, it hardly makes a sound.

"Watch the line as the jig falls," Jared emphasizes. "If it moves, reel down and set the hook." Jim doesn't turn the reel handle when the jig hits the water--he allows the lure to fall freely, keeping his fingers on the line to control the slack and feel for bites. If the jig hits bottom without being taken, he moves on without working the lure back.

I Only Fish Targets

"I only fish targets," he states. "If I thought there was a fish between me and that bush, I would have cast there in the first place." Set the hook on absolutely everything that feels different, he urges, because bites on a jig, especially in winter, can be anything: a mushy feeling, the lure stopping before it hits bottom, the line moving sideways, or even a good tap.

If you miss a bite, Jim says, don't reel in--let the lure fall again and many times the bass will come back and take the jig a second time. Jared drags a jig slowly when he fishes, bringing it carefully over every bump and branch on his target, and keeping his eyes and his fingers on the line. When his lure reaches the high point, he makes sure he's got the line loose enough to allow the lure to fall naturally, and this, he says, has made a big difference in his catch ratio.

Cover A Lot Of Water But Carefully

"I want to make sure I can cover a lot of water, but I still fish carefully," he says, "and that's why I cast only to what I consider to be fish-holding targets." He uses a stout, 6-foot Phenix boron rod for powerful hooksets, and a very fast reel. The reel not only lets him get his lure back fast once he's past his target, it allows him to take up line quickly to get control of a fish.

Jared uses every little trick he can to keep the odds in his favor. Rubber-skirted jigs, he says, have a bitter taste and smell, so the night before he goes fishing, he puts the jigs in jug of scent. He usually prepares eight jigs this way, and changes the jig after every fish, or about every twenty minutes or so of fishing. The used jigs go into a different jug, also filled with scent. When the original jug is empty, he starts over with the used ones that have been soaking.

In Case Of Accidents+-*-******************

Jared also keeps an entire spare jig rod and reel handy in case of accidents, and even doctors up his pork frogs. The combination he uses most is a 3/8-ounce purple jig with a brown #11 Uncle Josh pork frog. If he's going to be fishing heavy cover, he'll trim the sides of the pork to make it move through branches more easily. He also makes vertical cuts through the fat side of the pork frog, almost all the way to the skin, so that the pork has a more natural flex to it.

"Bass are basically shallow-water fish," he says, "that's why most tournaments are won in fifteen feet of water or less." You don't have to go deep when fishing slows down, he adds, just look for better cover, concentrate on "fish houses", and slow down your presentation.

RAY ORTIZ

Not all of our lakes have a lot of wood cover, and even in those that do, there are usually still large areas of water that have rocks as their only cover. Does this mean that there aren't any bass there in winter? No way, says Ray Ortiz.

Ortiz fished western bass tournaments with great zest as well as great success. One of his favorite baits for winter bass is a football head jig with a Yamamoto Hula Grub trailer.

Big Doesn't Necessarily Mean Heavy

"Big doesn't necessarily mean heavy," Ray explains, "and I usually fish a 3/8-ounce jig, especially when I'm fishing water less than ten feet deep." A big bait falls slower because there is more surface on it to resist the water, he says, and sometimes that slow fall is the key to success when winter has the fish in a sluggish mood.

"I start in the text book places," Ray says, "like points with good drop-offs, ledges, and channels." He uses a long medium-heavy rod and a 6:1 reel and makes his casts right to shore. Dragging the lure is the key to winter fishing, he states."I keep the rod tip low, and I keep the boat as still as I can," he says. "I want to move the jig as slow as I can, and I need to feel every move it makes." Keeping the rod tip low gives him more room to swing when he sets the hook, and he's been experimenting with braided line. "It only takes half the effort to set the hook with this stuff," he says.

Using The Reel To Move The Jig

Ortiz uses the reel to move the jig, turning the handle slowly and keeping his fingers on the line the whole time. He drags the jig over every rock and hump, and pays special attention when the lure starts to fall down the structure--this is when the bites usually happen, he says.

"It's important to let the lure fall right next to the rocks," he emphasizes. "If you start hopping it over, or pulling it so it moves away from the rock, you're probably jumping it right over the fish. In winter, you have to let it get right on their nose or they won't take it."

Set The Hook Hard

A lot of times the bite is simply the lure stopping. You'll be cranking the handle, feeling the jig move, then it suddenly doesn't move any more. When this happens, don't think about it, he says--just set the hook, hard. "A lot of people are really too shy about setting the hook," says Ortiz. "Since the bite can feel like almost anything, you should set the hook hard whenever you feel something different about the jig."

And you need to set that hook with authority, he adds, snapping the rod up as hard and as fast as you can, and reeling hard at the same time. This is when the stiff rod and fast reel pay for themselves. You can't let a fish get slack when you have him on a jig, Ray says: if you give him a chance to jump, he'll most likely jump right off.

Catching Means Finding First

"People get discouraged when they're fishing if they don't catch anything for a while," Ortiz says, "and usually they just need to slow down." They also need to remember that catching fish is a matter of finding them first, and in winter you can be as little as ten feet off where the fish are and not catch anything. You have to find likely looking structure and fish it thoroughly before moving on.

Changing colors also helps sometimes, he says, and Ray uses the KISS method for choosing colors: Keep It Simple, Stupid. He uses shad and crawfish colors like smoke/sparkle, dark green, and pumpkin. Another of his tricks is to fish uphill sometimes, keeping the boat shallow and pulling the jig up the rocks toward the shore. He also uses Smelly Jelly scent abundantly, and says he thinks that rather than make the lure taste good, its main function is to cover the unpleasant (to bass) smell of human hands.

More And Bigger

"When people think of fishing shallow, they usually think of lures like spinnerbaits and crankbaits," Ray says. "These lures, even if they get close enough, usually go by too fast for winter bass. You can fish shallow and still fish slow with a jig, and you'll catch more fish. Bigger fish, too."

Some final words of wisdom about fishing big jigs for winter bass: if you spot good structure on your graph, even if you can't see fish around it, stop and fish. Fish that are eating will go right to the structure, and you may not be able to tell if they're there or not. In fact, seeing fish out from structure is not necessarily good. Those fish are suspended and can be almost impossible to entice into biting.

Bottom Line

Bottom line:

just because the fish have slowed down a bit when the water turns cold doesn't mean they aren't eating. Put a big jig right where they live and you'll soon discover that when it comes to winter bass, bigger is better.