Cold Weather Bassin

[straw hat]

Thanks, Straw. The real bread and butter for Kentucky Lake guides was crappie, but it is a great bass lake as well.

I have since moved back to Missouri and guide float fishermen on the Black and Current rivers, so although I learned KY Lake well, my knowledge about it is probably outdated. Bet I could go back there and catch a few big ones though.

Some day you need to come up and fish Stockton, it has a lot of nice crappie in it. I grew up fishing the upper Jacks Fork, Current and Eleven Point rivers. Beautiful streams in that area. Some day if you want to try something different you need to fish the Eleven Point River below Greer's Spring for chain pickeral. There are some monsters in there! Good luck on your guide service. I hope you do well.

[Walcrabass]

For decades, I fished and/or hunted about 300 days a year, especially during the decade I was a guide on Kentucky Lake. Of course, I tried a lot of things, and what worked best depended upon the weather and water conditions. During unusually worms spells (50 and above), suspended jerkbaits were best, but the majority of the time, hair jigs produced the most and biggest fish for me.

During unusually warms spells, I did best on windy banks that dropped off to deep water. I don’t like wind, but suspended jerkbaits always seemed to work better if there was at least some chop to the water.

When it was cold, I gravitated to hair jigs and calm areas. Part of this, I’ll admit, was to avoid the wind-chill, but mostly it was to make fishing lighter jigs more practical. Stand-up jigs increase the number of times a bass will suck in a bait resting on the bottom, but the vast majority of the time, they take it on the fall, just like the rest of the year, so a slower fall is most productive. You can slow down your retrieve, and let the bait sit for longer periods between movements, but a 1/2-ounce jig is going to fall just as fast during the winter as the summer. The only way to slow that down, is with a lighter jig. This is especially important when fishing ledges.

I learned this long ago when I fished often with Doc Clayman on Bull Shoals and from fishing with other guides during the winter on Dale Hollow. I also learned from Dale Hollow guides that the majority of fishermen not only fish jigs that are too heavy, they are too big. Jigs represent crawfish, and most these days fish jigs that are the size of lobsters, not crawfish.

Anyway, quite a few years ago, when it became difficult to find jigs that were light enough and small enough, I began making my own on 1/4- and 1/8-ounce jigs with stand up heads. Instead of bucktail, I spun deer body hair around the head, which makes the hair flair out. Bucktail sort of maintains the same shape, but when I pull these body hair jigs through the water, the hair flattens a bit and then flairs back out when it stops, which closely mimics the how crawfish slim down when swimming and flair back out in a defense posture when they stop.

For years, I made them just for myself, but later started giving them to other fishermen on Kentucky and Barkley lakes, who in turn started winning tournaments with them, especially one guy who won most of those he entered by swimming my jigs along rip-rap banks. When asked what they were called, I came up with the name of Flair Hair Jigs.

A few months ago, a guy named Cole heard about them and contacted me, asking me to make a few for his new website that specializes in unusual and hand crafted lures you can’t find in Bass Pro, WalMart, etc. http://www.baitmyline.com/

They aren’t for guys who want heavy jigs to keep from backlashing, and they are a true finesse bait, which seems to be something of a lost art these days.

Oh, and for your guys who believe scents increase how long bass hold baits (I agree), if you douse a Flair Hair Jig with liquid scent before you cast it (still dry), this kind of hair absorbs and holds it like a scent pad.

[Walcrabass]

Your brain and mine are on the same wavelength. Use the lightest Jig you can for a given day. Also use a Jig profile that is acceptable to the fish. As far as the scents go I couldn't agree more. The problem with my favorite lake, Stockton, is that it should be used for wind tunnel testing. When the fish get really slow I just scoot the Jig or barely twitch it to get a bite. If you pull it up off the bottom much the wind will sail your line for about 15 feet with a light Jig and you have just passed over the fish. Unfortunately I end up fishing with 1/2 oz. and heavier even when I am FINESSE fishing with a smaller profile Jig. Today was a prime example. The wind was terrible and no matter which bank, cove, or main lake point I went to it was waiting for me. I ended up fishing with 1/2 oz. and really could've used 3/4 oz. in a lot of places. I also had to go to a smaller profile Finesse style Jig to get bites. As it turned out my 6 biggest Bass for the day would've weighed about 22 pounds with the largest being between 6 and 7 pounds. Only caught about 15 fish. Missed many because of wind sail and "Light Bites". Those hair Jigs you mentioned are truly works of art. I tied many of them in my youth as Deer hair/Tails were free and the fish liked them. They are a knockout in the Creeks and Rivers in the Winter. I will have to say you have brought back many memories.

[Walcrabass]

Another thing I learned about fishing jigs from guides on Dale Hollow decades ago, was to "stay in touch" with the bait at all times. The way the better guides do it there wouldn't make good TV, but it also is the best method for fishing in the wind, and I believe the best method for any conditions.

Forget about the macho poses: standing up, rod tip up and lifting it to move the bait. Sit down, hold your rod tip low and don't move the rod tip at all. Move the jig with one or two turns of the reel handle. This way, you have very little line between the water and the rod tip to cacth the wind, and you never have slack in the line as the jig falls, so light strikes are detected. It doesn't look cool, but it catches a lot more fish, especially big fish.

Big fish often just inhale a bait and sit there, or move off very slowly. They are strictly ambush creatures, and they don't have to compete with other fish, so they don't hit it hard and run off with it. This is especially true during the winter, when their motabolism is slow anyway. Run-and-gun, lift-and-crank jig fishermen don't catch these fish, because they fish too fast to interest bigger ambush bass, and they usually pull the bait away from the bigger bass that do take their baits, mistaking those occasionaly strikes as logs, rocks and other cover. When I fishing jigs or worms, every time my bait stops as if it has pulled against the back side of some type of cover, I stop and hold with slight pressure for a few seconds to make sure the "cover" isn't breathing. Often it is just a mushy feeling, like fishing 30-feet deep. When in doubt, set the hook.

Productive finesse fishing demands two things: An idea of where bass are holding and the patience and confidence to probe it slowly. Otherwise, you're probably better off fishing crankbaits or spinnerbaits, relying upon aggressive fish willing to chase and luck from covering a lot of water.

[Walcrabass]

I like this guy!!!!!!!!! He is as on target as he can be!!!!! Many times I hold my rod tip down to the top of the water and just twitch, twitch-twitch. And those big Bass bite so often just like you said, just inhale it and sit there. I do the same thing in waiting to see if the other end of the line is breathing. One of those "No Bite Hits" is what produced my big fish on Saturday. A lot of guys probably scoff at just catching 14 or 15 fish in a day but when you are moving a bait that slowly you don't cover a lot of ground. If however that is the only to get a bite then you are miles ahead. Besides, it takes skill and patience. It is so much more rewarding than just cranking a lure through the water. Many more people need to "learn to fish" instead of letting the lure do the fishing for them. Jigs are the most "Year Round" and "Always Catch'em" Lures that I have ever seen. They are truly high level skilled fishing. Besides all this praise and Tech talk........They just plain CATCH FISH!!!!!

[Whack'emGood]

I know this topic is a few weeks old, but I just came upon it. Great stuff guys. Thanks for your interesting and informative contributions to the forum.

Whack'em