ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Matt Allen and Tim Little are well-known big-bass experts who own Tactical Bassin , a website and social media channels dedicated to educating the public about bass fishing .

ith the pleasure boats off the water for winter , anglers get to experience the lake in ways that no one else does . The peaceful solitude is only broken when battling a bass to the boat . Sure , it can be cold , but that ’ s the tradeoff that comes with hunting the biggest bass of the year on a lake with no one else on it .

Layer up on the clothing and outerwear , but you ’ ll be surprised how quickly you warm up when a big one bites . This is the time to rig some rods and head to the lake .

If you ’ re in parts of the country where your lakes don ’ t freeze or ice over , you have an opportunity to have

great success chasing giant bass . Although some of our bait choices might surprise you , the tactics below have worked really well for us over the years and have produced wintertime bass up to 13 pounds .

Go Against the Grain

When most anglers think about fishing in winter , they typically think about finesse fishing with slower presentations . While that approach works , we typically take a totally different path .

In the cold-weather months , some of the biggest bass in the lake are vulnerable . With less boat traffic and fishing pressure , big bass are not as wary

and are more susceptible to artificial lures . Here are two of our favorite power fishing techniques to catch them without picking up a spinning rod .

Speed cranking

Our favorite technique to target big wintertime bass is a technique we like to call “ speed cranking .” Contrary to popular belief , bass will chase down fast-moving baits – even in very , very cold water . We ’ ve found that a crankbait is the best bait to take advantage of a bass ’ true predatory instinct and make them bite even when they don ’ t want to .

To better understand this , think about an object being moved quickly past a lazy cat .