Most bass anglers usually end up in deer stands and duck blinds during the dead of winter. Lets face it, bass fishing can be tough during this time of year but I’m going to try and convince you otherwise. I have had days where it was frigid, windy and down right bone chilling and have put more than 100 bass in the boat by 1pm (my neighbor being a first hand witness). Now there will be times where the weather will down right test your fishing skills and sheer willingness to be out on the water. I wont tell you that it will be like this every time you get out on the water during the winter, but if you do find them they will be stacked up in huge bunches. After telling you this it brings me back to one particular day where my neighbor and i decide at the spur of the moment to get out on the water during an arctic cold front! Here is the story of that day and the lures we used to catch our fish during the dead of winter.
One evening while cleaning out my boat and organizing my lures I get a phone call from my neighbor Will. He asked what I was up to and I let him know that I was in the garage cleaning up my boat and putting away some of my new rods and tackle. He came over to shoot the bull for a bit over coffee and we got to talking about bass fishing. Well, after telling each other stories of big fish catches and about the “big" ones that got away we both had the itch to get out on the water for a day of fishing. We both get the nod from our wives agreeing to let us go as long as we came back for about 1 pm to do some holiday shopping. We headed to “the holy grail of bass fishing" Bass Pro Shops to get a few last minutes items we “needed" for tomorrows trip. While at Bass Pro choosing our tackle for the trip we run into a salesman and shoot the bull for a few letting him know we were going out to get em the following morning. He gives us a grin shaking his head saying “you guys better watch the news, they have a big cold front that will be on our door steps tomorrow." He also told us that it would turn the bass off and we would be lucky to get a bite during weather like that. “Well lucky for us we have a one track mind and are die hard fisherman", my neighbor says jokingly. At the register I start thinking about the weather conditions and that I might need to think of a game plan for tomorrow giving the weather that was expected and not going wasnt even an option.
We get home and start getting our gear together for tomorrows fishing trip. We shoot the bull some more not even thinking about the weather and only thinking about catching those green bucket-mouths. We decide to call it a night and i let him know that I was going to watch the weather and told him to dress warm for tomorrow. After getting inside and get a few things together for tomorrows trip i flip to the local news. Well low and behold the guy at Bass Pro was exactly right, north winds were forecast to blast through at 25-30 mph and morning temps were going to be a bone chilling 29 degrees with an added wind chill on top of that. I think to myself, " what in the world did i get myself into" but lucky for us there was no rain forecast for the morning, so that was a plus. It would be bad enough to get out on the water, freeze and get skunked without having to worry about getting wet on top of that.
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Bed time before a fishing trip is a killer especially for me. Everyone knows how exciting it is the day before a fishing trip and if your like me its hard to get in a nap without watching the clock tick minutes by. The last minute trip to Bass Pro didn’t help as I couldn’t wait to get on the water to try my new lures. As many times as I have been out on the water it still has the same affect on me as it would a hunter the night before opening day or a kid the night before Christmas. After my so called “nap" I get up to get everything ready for the day ahead. I peek my head out in the back patio and the wind is howling, my wife’s bottle brushes are flapping in the wind like there is no tomorrow. I quickly jump inside and grab a cup of coffee to warm me up, almost second guessing a fishing trip in conditions like this. But I’m a die hard fisherman, I take a deep breath, shake my head and get ready for a day on the water, making sure I was dressed for the task at hand.
I open the garage and start my truck to let it warm before we take off and find the windshield frosted over. I meet up with my neighbor and its an awkward silence as we load up the boat and head for the gas station. We both have this " what the heck are we thinking look" on our faces. As we listen to crickets chirp on our way to the store. We start loading fuel and groceries into the boat and my neighbor jokingly asks if we needed iced for today. It kinda took the edge off for a second knowing he was feeling the same way until a guy in a truck pulls up and asks " you guys aren’t going fishing in weather like this are ya?" After telling him yes he shakes his head with a grin on his face and says “you guys are crazy, good luck out there." On the way to the launch I notice that the temp sensor on my truck said 27 degrees. I know they tend to read warmer or colder at times but it was close enough to let us know it was down right cold outside, we might have been flirting with insanity for even attempting to be out on the water.
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We get to the deserted launch and start prepping the boat for take off. I go to pull up on my rod locker hatch and it wont budge. The carpet was damp from me cleaning it the day before and had froze during the 1 hour drive to the launch. After pulling and pulling finally freeing the locker doors, I go to grab the rope and its frozen to the deck. Now all indications are telling us not to even attempt it but as a die hard fisherman I couldn’t resist. We launch and head down the bayou drinking the last bit of our coffee trying to stay warm. We were greeted to white caps on the bayou just south of the no wake zone. I didn’t even dare to get my boat up on plane and make a run, the sheer thought of that gave me the chills.
We get into the bayou where i had planned to fish. The trees and houses around us protected us from the wind. I drop the trolling motor and turn on my electronics to see the graph light up with fish arches in the near by deep hole. I thought to myself “no way", its probably garfish. I reach for my rod with a lip-less crankbait on it and when I pick up my head I see a 3lb class bass blow up on shad. I make a cast and had the bass inhale it as soon as it hit the water.
I know some say its bad luck to catch a fish on the first cast but I don’t believe that mumbo jumbo. I reel the fish in and its a fat 3 lber with a big belly. The bass had a yellow tint to it because it was so fat and it was slap full of shad. As I was unhooking my fish I hear Will saying he had another good fish on his first cast. Suddenly the air didn’t seem as cold and the wind not a factor. We were in the fish! I quickly cast and hook up again, this time with a 2lb class fish as I’m fighting the fish to the boat playing it with ease I see other fish following it back to the boat trying to get the lure out of its mouth. Will hooks up again, a few casts later I double on one lure!!!!!! This place is on fire, after awhile we break out the old crappie counter I had in my boat just to keep track of the numbers of bass we caught and released. I made 18 casts and caught 19 bass one of the casts had two fish on one lure.
We continued to make repetitive casts with deep running cranks, lip-less cranks, suspended jerk baits and jigging spoons. We caught fish on just about every cast that day and at one point we had to shed some clothes because all of those fish catches had us warmed up in no time. Both Will and I were boat flipping 2 to 3 lbers in at will. That’s not an easy feat especially in an area known for smaller bass but high numbers. These bass were so fat and plump it looked like they were about to pop. Will and I both were talking about how much fish they had in the area and we wouldn’t be surprised to catch a few big bass before the day was over. I make a cast with a jerk bait and as I reeled it down I felt a THUD…….I pick up the slack and rare back to have my rod bent double. As I started to fight the fish came up and surfaced. I knew immediately that it was better than a 3 lb class fish. This felt like a good fish. The fish attempted a jump but i lowered my rod tip just in time to get it to roll back down. I got a good glimpse of her and she was big! I never bring a net in the boat but this is one time I wish I did. I only had 8 lb fluorocarbon spooled and I had a 5 maybe a 6 lb class bass on the other end. For as cold as the water was you would have never thought bass would have been this active. She ran and fought until she couldn’t any more, I fought back and at one point she had me to my knees as she ran under the boat. Will knelt down to lip her but I told him I wanted to because she was barely skin hooked and if I was going to lose her I wanted it to be my own fault. The bass came to the surface and I got a thumb in her mouth and hung on for dear life, as I held her up to take a good look at her my lure fell out of her mouth. She weighed in at 5lbs 12 oz. We start cheering and yelling about the catch celebrating the fact that we had a monster.
On the next cast Will had a jerk-bait on and his rod bent over double. I snapped a few pics of the fish and let her go as Will had a fight on his hands too. Will landed the fish and it weighed in at 4lbs 15 oz. We continued to catch fish after fish all through the day not paying much attention to the time until our cell phones started ringing. Ah, the dreaded " why are you guys running late call". Well, needless to say no matter how many fish we were catching a promise is a promise and we headed back in. The number totaled 131 on the fish counter and we didn’t log in a few bass because of all the excitement we were having. We had one in the 5 almost 6 lbs class a 4.5 lbs class fish and a bunch of 2 and 2.5 lbers, not to mention a ton of 1 to 1.5 bass.
This was a trip that Will and I were going to talk about for a long time. It was definitely my personal best since I have been living on the Northshore. I have told people this story over and over. For some its hard to believe but to those who know how fishing is on the Northshore know that its definitely possible and have similar stories to compare. I hope you guys enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Be safe on the water, good luck fishing and Happy Holidays.
