Bass Pro Shops Foxborough, MA

Hard Water Bass

Bass fishing does not end when the ice covers our lakes and ponds in the northeast. In fact some of the fastest bass fishing action can take place throughout the cold winter months. Both smallmouth and largemouth bass stay active throughout the winter and frequently we take some of our largest bass through the ice.

Largemouth bass are typically found in fairly shallow weedy areas of a pond (4 to 8 feet) but this is clearly not a hard and fast rule as we have consistently taken bass in certain ponds in much deeper water which I will elaborate more on later. Typically when we are targeting bass we use tip ups rigged up in the normal way with Dacron main line with an approximately 6 foot leader of 8 lb test mono with a number 6 hook. Normally we also have a small split shot on the leader to keep the shiner from coming up near the ice. We use shiners both medium and large sizes. We usually take our largest bass on the large baits but this is not always the case. We have found that on certain days the bass seemed to prefer smaller baits and on other days they were more interested in the larger baits. We often times put out different size baits and if we saw the bass showing a preference we would switch our lines to the size bait that they were keying on.

As I mentioned before sometimes bass will be found in the deeper water. One particular pond that we fish for trout we found by accident that the bass were holding in the deeper areas of the pond. We were fishing for trout with our baits set a few feet under the ice but the fishing was slow so we decided to drop a bait down near the bottom in 35 feet of water looking for a deep running trout. Much to our surprise every time we put our baits down there we caught a bass. We have also found a similar pattern at several other ponds.

Another area we often find largemouths is near a drop off.

It is not hard to tell when you have a largemouth bite as the reel will usually be spinning vary fast when you get to the hole. We normally just pick out the tip up, grab the line and set the hook right away. Then it is a matter of working the fish back to the hole.

Smallmouth bass are a bit different as we tend to find them in deeper water, usually over a rocky bottom. We don’t vary our tackle with smallmouths just the location and type of water we fish. For most of the season we are usually targeting smallmouths in 20 to maybe 30+ feet of water often times off rocky points. Smallmouths tend to take a bait differently than a largemouth. Normally they will take the bait and swim slowly in circles around the hole. Sometimes they will grab the bait and just sit under the hole. It now becomes a matter of judgment when to set the hook. Too soon and you will miss them.

Later in the season usually in February we will focus our attention in water from 18 to 22 feet deep, again in rocky areas. These areas tend to produce large numbers of large smallmouths (4 to 5lbs) at this time of year. Maybe it is some sort of pre spawn gathering. I am not sure but it has produced a large number of big smallmouths for us over the years.

Other fishermen I know also do a lot of jigging for bass both largemouth and smallmouth and they do well too. We just prefer to watch the flags fly.

Good fishing,

Don Nelson

Bass Pro Shops

Foxborough