ILLUSTRATION BY BRANDON ROWAN ate-winter chill and metal baits make for a strangely harmonious combination . When water temperatures dip below 55 degrees in early winter , bass seem naturally tuned to lures like jigging spoons , blade baits , tail spinners and ripping jigs . Amazingly , largemouth , smallmouth and even spotted bass bite them consistently – often with abandon – even as water temperatures near freezing .
That the cold-blooded bass clan should salivate over hunks of cold metal seems odd if not outright contradictory . But bite them , they do . Why ? Bass are apt to conserve energy as water temps tumble and their metabolism slows , but they ’ re quick to capitalize on an easy meal opportunity .
“ During the cold-water period , you get major forage die-offs as water temperatures drop ,” explains Matt Stefan , who notched a runner-up finish in the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit event on the St . Lawrence River in 2021 . “ Crayfish go dormant below 50 degrees , so bass key more on pelagic forage species . Shad , cisco , alewives , herring … those fish slowly fall to the bottom , not necessarily dead , but dying . They tail-kick a few times , shoot off the bottom , then sink back down . Metal baits really mimic that dying baitfish well .”
Worked correctly , these shiny minnow imitators convulse and vibrate , lie immobile , then shiver and tumble again . Winter bass frequently hold to the bottom , often quite deep , and metal baits are among the easiest lures to keep in their strike zone .
Winter ’ s heavy metal symphony rides a slow “ adagio ” tempo , for the most part , with bait movement brief and broken with frequent pauses . It ’ s the flutter or fall or even the “ dead stick ” stillness of a “ dying ” bait that draws the most strikes .
Yet , at times , more aggressive hops or snaps can catch the attention of bass and draw them in – or even produce a reaction strike . Subtle detail can make or break a day .
“ Do they want it super slow ? Are they hitting it at the top of a jig or dead on the bottom ?” asks Bass Pro Tour standout Dave Lefebre , a lifelong resident of Pennsylvania and a devoted dead-of-winter angler . “ You have to really focus on why you got that bite and try to duplicate every aspect of that presentation . It ’ s like decoding a dock pattern or a deep pattern . But with these baits , the subtleties are really magnified . You have to pay close attention . The key things that matter to me are the fall rate and the distance of my stroke .”
First , though , you have to find the bass .
Where did they go ?
Sluggish bass look for easy meals , and they locate accordingly .
“ The key is to find where the bait is ,” says Scott Dobson , blade bait master and Great Lakes smallmouth guru . Once water temperatures dip beneath that 55-degree threshold , he ’ ll plumb prime areas where baitfish amass – where a river dumps into a lake , the edges of vegetation , sand breaks and any other break of flat where prominent forage species like shad and emerald shiners gather .
“ This is a ‘ baitfish ’ time of year ,” Lefebre echoes . “ Bass will gather near tight schools of baitfish .”
Tailrace areas below reservoir dams are prime gathering areas . Bass gang up with prey and other predators on the edges of current produced by turbine discharge as well as in adjacent eddies and flats .
On Ozark reservoirs , Jeremy Lawyer finds bass concentrations on long gravel points , often focusing on dropoff edges .
“ Bass wait there for the water to cool and the shad to bunch up ,” he says . “ Once water falls below 50 degrees into the upper 40s , they ’ ll move off bars into the guts of pockets in the middle of the drain at the bottom of the creek arms .”
Tennessee pro Adam Wagner agrees , pointing to his Toyota Series win on Dale Hollow in the dying days of October 2020 . There , his Silver Buddy blade bait contacted tournament-winning fish in a “ gut ,” a deep trough situated at the juncture of two grassy points with a cloud of shad hovering overhead .
Often , uncut trees follow promising tapers to suitable winter depths . Lawyer notes that it isn ’ t unusual to find timber stemming from 80- to 90- foot depths with bass gathered in treetops 30 to 40 feet down . Brush piles and sunken tree limbs gather bait – and bass .
On lakes where bluegill and other sunfish are prime eats , the settings may differ , but the scenario remains much the same . Bass will huddle up on deep grass edges or in troughs or depressions on flats where the ‘ gills feed on bloodworms and other invertebrates .
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