Winter fishing techniques are much more streamlined than those for other seasons. Fast-moving and topwater baits are generally out of the question. What’s left are bottom-hugging baits and slow-moving lures.
Some of the top winter baits are jigs. Football-head jigs and hair jigs work well when the water is cold. Moving them slowly along the bottom is your best chance at getting a lethargic bass to bite. Since football jigs imitate crawfish, choose colors that closely mimic the crawfish in that body of water. The colors vary greatly by region, but generally anything green or brown will usually be enough to match the hatch. Hair jigs also imitate crawfish, but can also look like small baitfish. The same approach to matching colors works here; white- and silver-hued baits are often good choices.
Metal baits such as spoons and blade baits are another great idea this time of year. The hard metal often outperforms everything else when the water is cold. They do a great job of imitating dying baitfish and are a key way to catch winter bass.
Soft-plastic baits fished slowly on a drop-shot rig are another top choice in the winter. Fish these slower than you would other times of the year and experiment with both the size of bait as well as your leader length. Smaller baits are often better and adjusting your leader length based on how far the fish are setting off the bottom is a solid wintertime bass strategy.
Grant and I went to my local community pond the other day and I had a blast learning so som new fishing techniques I would certainly recommend Grant as an fantastic instructor.