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Goose Hummock Articles
Winter Bass Fishing
Warren Burrell Goose customer/tournament angler
Winter is my favorite time of year to bass fish for a lot of reasons; there aren’t as many people on the water and believe it or not it is one of the best times of year to catch not only a quality fish but more often than not lots of quality fish.
My best friend and I got a chance to hit a local lake recently and despite the early morning air temperatures in the low thirties we managed to catch 60 fish with several smallmouth breaking the 41/2 lb mark and 1 largemouth breaking the 51/2lb mark.
Here is how we did it:
Smallie’s this time of year often school in large numbers and will often use humps and points adjacent to deep water as wintering spots find the fish and often times you can fish a single area all day . The spot we fished on this particular day is a hump that tops out at twenty five feet but drops sharply into fifty feet creating a perfect wintering spot.
We started off the day throwing a 1/2oz Silver Buddy and it didn’t take long to get tight with our first smallie of the day a chunky 31/2lb smallie in forty five feet of water. For the next few hours we managed to catch nearly fifty fish before the bite slowed down, after a grueling eternity (30 minutes) without a sniff I decided to switch over to the drop shot and we started catching them again although not as frequently but still steady finishing out our day and total at 60 fish for a five hour span, not bad considering I have fished lots of tournaments where after eight hours you feel fortunate enough to have managed to barely catch a limit of fish totaling 12-15pounds. On this day our best five would have easily gone 22lbs or better.
The Blade-
The trick to the blade is to make long casts and slowly pump the rod back in a rhythmic pattern allowing the blade to make contact with the bottom, feeling the vibration of the blade is key so I often fish with braided line with a fluoro-carbon leader allowing me to feel the bait and more importantly subtle bites that would often be missed with monofilament line. The good thing about the blade is if you miss a strike just allow the blade to fall to the bottom and often times the fish will pick it up off the bottom.
Drop Shot-
I use a 6 1/2 foot spinning rod spooled with 6lb fluro-carbon for my drop shot tipped with a 4 inch Yamamoto cut tail worm and a 3/8oz tungsten weight. I also make long casts with my drop shot and more often than not most strikes occurred while gently working the bait back to the boat the color of the day seemed to be green pumpkin but I have had equal success with watermelon. I have been fishing the drop shot for a few years and find it to be an excellent tool in catching both smallmouth and largemouth bass.
So instead of putting away your fishing gear for the season grab your buddy and hit your favorite pond for your best chance at a trophy fish.
Tight Lines
Warren Burrell
Warren Burrell with a giant winter Smallie
