Listen, I know the weather is getting cold…maybe a little too cold.  But that doesn’t stop the fish from hunting and eating.

But How The Heck Are We Supposed To Catch Bass On An Early Winter Weather Cold Snap Day? … Is there anyone we can turn to?

Luckily there is!  Gerald Swindle gave us a brilliant insight into his unique approach…Including a tip that surprised even me!

Should even be on the water when it’s cold? What spots should we be fishing?

If you ask Gerald, it’s an astounding ‘YES!”  He emphasizes that the bass are still in the water eating and being bass… they’re not going anywhere.

He goes on, in this time of year the bass haven’t moved to the deepest, darkest part of the lake…yet. They haven’t gotten around to their winter patterns yet.

Garald explains the bass are normally hanging out along weed lines, channels, and breaks.  Sometimes they’ll still be found huddled shallow against dark rocks, stumps or anything that will hold some heat.

He reminds us that bass movement is a process. They just go bolting to the middle of the lake the first week or two of cold weather! Don’t fall into that trap.

If you really want to catch’em you need to fish your typical fall locations and just slow down.

A tip that Gerald mentioned that really stuck with me is don’t switch out your bait if the bass aren’t biting. What he suggests is to switch out your baitcasting reel from a high gear/speed to a low gear speed reel. This physically forces us to slow down. Alot of times we have the muscle memory to fish at a certain speed, but by changing to a slow retrieve speed reel it really helps.

Now if you don’t have a slower speed reel or don’t want to go buy one for that sole purpose then you can always remind yourself to turn the handle slower.

The next thing that the G-Man suggests doing is focus on keeping your bait on the bottom…

He notes that they really don’t suspend much during this time and really don’t like chasing much. So do whatever you need to do to slow your retrieves such as slow-roll, deadsticking Senkos, or slow-crawling jigs.

What are the best baits for cold early winter days?

Gerald suggests using tight-wiggling narrow-body crankbaits, Senkos (in natural forage colors) and football jigs. Sometimes small finesse spinnerbaits can work great.

As far as colors go, stick to natural colors

Remember the bass are in a state of shock. They’re not going to chase anything down. Just put the bait right on their nose and spoon feed them.