The cold waters of winter requires a lot more patience when fishing for bass. The body temperature of the fish is always the same as it environment. And the angler that is aware of this fact can still make effective presentations for these fish. Food sources are always smaller because there are not as many shad hatches during the cold winter months. Anglers will find huge schools of shad roaming the lake and depths may be to 50 feet or more.

And these small shad make up the winter diet for almost all the bass, spots and largemouth included.

The spoon jigging technique is the deadliest way to get to these winter fish. With a medium heavy action rod, 12 to 14 pound test line and some metal spoons anglers can get started. One other piece of equipment that is required for this technique is a high quality depth finder. Adjusting the depth finder to manual settings will allow anglers to see more schools of bait fish and the game fish at great depths. Turn off the fish identification feature on the unit. Turn the sensitivity up as much as 90% in deep water so the spoons can the shad can be seen.

Schools of shad can be found all over the lake and using the trolling motor and the depth finder makes finding this forage much easier. Many anglers will use the big engine and idle over large areas and this can cover a lot of water quickly. As soon as the deep water structure and the shad are located, get out the spoons. Once the combinations are there, drop the spoons straight down to the fish. Lifting the rods in shorts jerks of only a few inches will imitate the action of a dying shad. Cold water in the winter kill of lots of shad and the bass can simply wait under the schools for an easy meal. Strikes will always occur on the fall of the spoon and high visibility line can help anglers see the strikes.

All the game fish will be under the schools of shad and in or around

the deep standing timber. They will spend all day waiting for the shad schools to pass over. Once the spoon is dropped into the schools of bait fish, drop the lure under the shad and lift it slowly. It's important to keep these lures over the fish because they will not follow a spoon after it passes under them. Spoons are great winter time lures and even on the coldest days of winter, schools of fish can be caught.