With the colder water ahead we are gaining ground on the time of year my favorite bait produce some great catches. I know lots of folks don’t really work spinner bait as it gets colder but for me it’s the bait of choice as we get into the cold water winter months. It’s also true that if you look back into the history of Lake Guntersville the record bass of 14 lbs. 8 oz. was caught in the cold of February on spinner bait.
The change you have to make in your spinner bait this time of year is paramount to making it work for you; just picking up your favorite spinner bait may not be the success you’re looking for, you have to make a few adjustments. One of the first things I do is go lighter weighted spinner bait like a 3/8 or maybe a ½ oz. I know this doesn’t always make sense because as the water gets colder the bass go deeper but you must be able to slow down the bait and many times making the bait lighter is the one way to do that. You can also make some changes to the blades I always have been an advocate of double willow blades and this remains true for me all year around. However, if you increase the size of the blades by going up a blade size or more especially the front blade really helps slow down the bait especially when the bait is dropping or helicoptering to the bottom. This also adds vibration as the bigger blades tend to add more action to the drop and vibration to the movement. As always for me I am a big believer in gold color blades I guess it’s because my lake is generally always stained and gold shows up better in dirty water. Another trick to slowing your winter time retrieve down is to add a trailer to the blade, swim baits this time of year are ideal trailers as you can add them in many different sizes allowing you to match the hatch the bass are feeding on in your area your fishing.
Slow you’re retrieve tick the bottom make the spinner bait do something different and you will catch bigger bass in cold water than any time of year. To me this is time for you to turn to Picasso’s INVIZ- Wire Pro double willow spinner bait (pictured).
Fish Lake Guntersville Guide Service
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Email: bassguide@comcast.net
Call: 256 759 2270
Capt. Mike Gerry