Why Your Winter Baits Aren't Working - THROW These Instead

and uh so based on that kind of chat we're not talking about the bait chat i'm going to hold off on asking you there because i got a couple more fun questions for you but in your eyes jake what do you think the biggest misconception is that anglers have when targeting bass in river systems during the winter months

what is the biggest misconception in river systems Winter time.

There are several, one of which, you know, we previously just talked about with everyone thinking that they go out really deep, you know, river systems in particular.

Or it could even be a man-made lake that's got a dam and is generating water oftentimes, at least in this part of the world or the country.

This is when we get a lot of our rain, starting really mid-December through end of May is kind of our wetter time.

And so that's usually when they're flushing the systems and we see a lot of this current flow.

So The current to me is one of the biggest keys in wintertime fishing in dictating what I'm going to do, where I'm going to go, and kind of how I'm going to target a particular, whether it be even really smallmouth or largemouth spots, either one.

That is what's purely 100% going to dictate how and where they're going to set up, and it's oftentimes not all that deep.

You know, again, there are exceptions to anything, but The more current that a body of water is generating and the more flow through it, oftentimes the shallower they get.

I'll give everybody a little, you know, kind of a sneak peek here on Kentucky Lake and really the whole TBA chain, but Kentucky being the last on the system, we see a lot of this current flow in the winter.

It is not uncommon at all in December, January, and certainly February and March for me to catch them in less than two or three feet of water.

Sign me up.

With that current flow.

Yeah, it's really, and you know, there are a number of factors as to why that is.

Obviously, the closer you get to the bank, the more current breaks and little eddies and, you know, places that they can get out of the current, utilize, let the bait and the forage get washed to them.

But it's I think it's also, you know, something that we don't think about and kind of go back to your question of a big misconception, regardless of whether it's a river system or not.

is when we have these little warming trends, and again, when I say warm, that's relative to what it has been in the last, say, 12, 14 days.

When we see those warm trends, say it's water temperatures are low to mid 40s and it's highs in the upper 50s, significant difference between the air and the water temperature.

Those fish will oftentimes move up really, really shallow and try to absorb as much of that heat as they can.

Again, some of the biggest days that I've had as far as wintertime fishing has been in less than five feet of water.

Now, with all that being said, it is most of the time, it is critical that we do have deep water close.

But again, most of them are not actually utilizing it safely.

tend to use more vertical, you know, steeper drops.

Bluff walls are so important in the wintertime, right?

Exactly.