Table of Contents
How do you target largemouth bass ice fishing?
You can easily catch largemouth and smallmouth bass through the ice. Cold water slows the metabolism of bass so you’ll find them concentrating in areas with smaller, easy to catch prey. Therefore, ice fishing with downsized baits around deeper structure and healthy weed lines produces big bass in most lakes and ponds.
What lures are good for winter bass fishing?
3) Jigs. A jig is the ultimate lure for wintertime bass fishing because it will catch fish at any depth in any weather and water conditions.
What depth do you ice fish for bass fishing?
Bass often relate to the deep edge or those weeds when active, and are more likely to be deeper, beyond that edge, than shallower. The best fishing often occurs on flats somewhere between 10 and 25 feet.
Where do bass go when lakes freeze?
Fish Deeper Than Usual Warmer water is denser than colder water, so it sinks to the bottom, and that’s where the bass hang out all winter.
What color lures are best for winter?
In order of importance, we focus on Green Pumpkin Brown (Go To), Brown, Cinnamon, Purple (Supermatt Brown), and Black Blue Green Pumpkin (Blackened Blue). Last comes hard baits. We focus entirely on ghost colors unless murky water conditions dictate that we throw a solid color.
Where do bass go in winter under ice?
During milder winters they stay close to healthy, green, deep weed edges. Smallmouths typically winter near hard-bottom points or on isolated rock humps 40 feet down or deeper where they have that option, but often rise shallower when active. Bass are most active under the ice during periods of warm, stable weather.
How do you find bass in cold water?
When the water is very cold, a 3- to 4-inch curly-tail grub on a ΒΌ-ounce jighead is one of the simplest and most effective presentations for large and smallmouth bass. Cast to the shallow edge of a drop-off and let the grub sink alongside it, raising the rod tip as the bait reaches the bottom.
What color should bass be in winter?
Black/blue is the best color for this lure in off colored water. Considering off colored water is about the only color you’ll find this time of year with all the rain. Black and brown are excellent choices as well. Most anglers tie on this bait during a cold front when the bass have buried themselves in cover.
What colors do largemouth bass see?
Bass apparently do see color. Their vision is strongest in the areas of medium-red to green. It fails rapidly moving into the blues and purples, as it does towards the far reds. If our picture of bass color vision is accurate, then color is meaningful to bass in some cases but not others.
What do bass do when the lake freezes?
They’ll rise up when the temperature levels out a little but retreat back down to around 30 feet when things get cold.
How cold is too cold for bass?
BEST TEMPERATURES FOR CATCHING FISH IN LAKE HOPATCONG
| LAKE SPECIES | Too Cold F | Best Temps F |
|---|---|---|
| LARGEMOUTH BASS | 49 | 63-75 |
| MUSKIE | 50 | 60-70 |
| RAINBOW TROUT | 43 | 52-56 |
| SMALLMOUTH BASS | 59 | 64-68 |