Image source here

As winter approaches the BassBoat team is reluctant to put their rods away after being informed relentlessly by fellow anglers that winter months are dead months. We refuse to accept that fate and so have decided that instead of slowing down with our angling this winter we will do the opposite… fish longer and harder. therefore we have decided that because this is our first serious winter fishing season that we would post our strategy right now for the on coming months so that all of us can consider our theories (based on what we have read), add to them, and track our progress.

The first most important lure that we believe will bring us good fortune this winter is the jig. Jigs come in many shapes and forms but we will be focusing confidently on skirted jigs. These basically look like spinner baits without the blades, and instead of swimming them we will be fishing them veeeeeeery sloooooowly along the bottom, sometimes jumping them and occasionally shaking them to entice our predator bass. Jigs are basically specially designed pre-weighted hooks as can be seen here. However we will be buying them with their skirts pre-attached, as can be seen in the above picture.

Remember that in winter bass metabolism slows Significantly, which means that they hunt slower and not as often. However, they still need to eat to survive and when they do they will be looking for large easy targets as they do not want to waste energy chasing down a small morsel. Therefore we will be presenting them with extremely slow, large, and thus inviting baits, which we will shake occasionally with the slowest retrieve possible. Because we are set on large baits it is important to mention that we will be upsizing our jigs with trailers. Trailers are basically just extra lures which we will attach to our jig hooks under the skirts to fatten them up, giving them more substance. One common example is the Zoom Chunk, which comes in many shapes, sizes and colours, but we will be focusing on lures such as the Zoom Fat Albert Grubs as trailers due to their large, juicy profiles. Remember that many lures can be used as trailers and trial and error may be the only way to find your winner. If you do, let us know. Here is an image to show you what a jig and trailer looks like, one can clearly see the added rubber grub under the skirt.

Other lures which we will be focusing on are large rubber worms. The make is your choice but we will be focusing on the Zoom 7” Worms of all shapes but sticking to Dunebug (dark purply blue colours) for the most part. Zoom Tube baits are the next and final lure that we will be focusing on to begin with due their fat profiles and wavy tentacles. We will also certainly be inserting small rattles (bought at tackle shops) into their hollow centres to hopefully give them slightly more attraction.

Hopefully some of these this winter

So that is our opening strategy, which we (and hopefully you) will build on over the next few months. The most important thing to remember is to fish and retrieve extremely slowly in winter and to use large baits of substance. Lets work together and create a winter bassing season that is not only productive but worth documenting for the future.

Original image: South African Department of Water Affairs and Forestry at www.dwaf.gov.za/…/dams/bronkhorstspruit.htm

When it comes to bank bass angling it is often difficult to locate productive waters. We, however, have found what is now one of our favourite and most productive bank angling locations, Bronkhorstspruit dam in Gauteng. The very location that ‘The Bass Bugger’ caught his first bass, seen in our post titled ‘5 simple rules’. The banks of this dam are lined with thick grass mats and although they seem menacing to the carp anglers, who frequent the dam, they also serve as great habitat and cover for bass waiting to ambush their prey.

We have had great success on this body of water simply dragging a weightless Baby Brush Hog (black) over the top of the grass mats, sometimes allowing them to sit for a moment, at which point the fish generally take it straight off the surface. Otherwise we simply drag them over, leading them into gaps in the grass mats or over the edge of the mats completely, allowing them to glide gently through the water. We were also successful with other soft plastic baits such as the Zoom 6″ Ultra-Vibe Speed Worm using the same technique. In the picture below we have Andrea with her first and biggest bass ever caught (1.5kgs) on her first bass expedition ever .

What is interesting to us is that we fished the same spot at this location on three different days within two weeks and noticed a substantial pattern in the amount and size of fish that we caught. The days were the 3^rd of February 2007, the 6^th and the 11^th. The weather patterns for these days respectfully were: warm, partly cloudy, little to no wind; cool, partly cloudy with strong wind; and cooler, partly cloudy, with stronger wind. What we noticed was that the fish hooked were fewer but larger with the later dates, with us having 22 small bass (app. 500-800gs) on our lines on the 3^rd and only three on our lines on the 11^th, two of which were 1.5 and 1.8kgs (seen below). Is this pattern random or can it be attributed to changing weather conditions or moon phases perhaps, which can be viewed here. We do not know and hope that someone who does know better can give us some feedback.