Early winter can be downright frustrating for fisherman. Without a doubt it’s the most challenging time of the year. You’ll have to put your topwater lures back into storage, but that doesn’t mean your fishing seasons over.
With gloomy skies and frigid water temperatures everything is just a little bit harder during the winter. Before you give up on the season and winterize your bass boat, you should give jigging spoons a try.
Fishing For Bass With a Jigging Spoon
When the weather turns to shit and water temperatures drop it’s tough to find something that works. On those days where you can’t feel your toes there’s at least one lure that you know will work.
You always know that you can rely on your old faithful jigging spoons. They might not be the prettiest lures on the market, but they’ve been around for decades and are still just as effective.
My Favorite Jigging Spoons
There are a lot of different spoons on the market and everybody seems to have their their own favorites. Some guys like to use a basic KastMaster while others use the small versions of saltwater spoons.
Personally I like to keep things simple and use a basic Cotton Cordell Spoon or Acme Kastmaster. They’re just dialed in for the style of spooning that I like to do. Made for that deep vertical spooning.
When to Fish a Jigging Spoon
It doesn’t matter where you live in the country, the best time to fish a jigging spoon is in the dead of winter. Jigging Spoons thrive when the water is at its coldest point of the season.
Where Should You Fish a Spoon?
When first starting out it’s always tough to pick up a new fishing technique. Spoons have been around for decades, but most of us are afraid of the cold so we rarely get to use them. So where should you start looking for bass?
When you’re new to a technique it can often get frustrating. Without the right location your hookup rate is going to absolutely plummet.
Water Depth
My search for deep water bass always takes me to deep water structure. The depth is going to depend on the lake, but it should be somewhere between 20-60ft(I know that’s a wide range).
The key is looking for those big groups of bass using your fish finder. Most of the time they’ll all be clumped together holding out through the long winter. If you see a little bit of activity on your graph there’s a good chance there’s a large chunk of bass there.
Cold Water Means Lazy Bass
Bass are cold blooded which makes them extremely lazy throughout the winter. If you thought fishing the late fall was bad you’re in for a miserable day.
You can combat the general sluggishness by targeting large groups of bass. In a large group you have a pretty good chance that a few of them will be actively feeding.
Out of 40 fish maybe 10 of them will be actually feeding. Just like trying to bring a girl home from the bar, it’s just a numbers game. You’ll get rejected by most of them, but you’re bound to snag a few if you keep trying.
Cover a Lot of Water for Fall to Winter Transition
When first learning to vertically jig a spoon you need to cover a lot of water fast. Early in the season when the water starts to dip into the 50’s you need to start transitioning from your fall technique to winter.
This means ditching your fall shallow water haunts and moving back towards feeding creeks and rivers. Go after the same spots where you had success during the early fall feed. (Check Out My Guide to Fall Fishing For More Info)
As the rivers and creeks start to dry up you’ll have to move into deeper water. These deep water locations are where you’ll find bass throughout the rest of winter.
Finding Bridges
Although transitioning bass prove difficult to pinpoint there’s one spot that you can always count on. Bridges offer some of the best fishing throughout the early winter.
Instead of working the riprap like you would during the summer fish the natural choke point formed by the bridge.
Fishing Brush Piles
Vertical jigging deepwater brushpiles is one of my favorite techniques. Simply drop the spoon to the brush and begin an up-and-down jigging motion.
Don’t worry about the hook snagging on the wood. Just let out a little bit of line and the weight of the spoon should pull it free.
Jigging Spoon vs Flutter Spoon
Before we get into actually fishing the jigging spoon it’s important you understand there’s a difference between a jigging spoon and a flutter spoon.
Flutter spoons are designed to be cast and ripped through the water covering a lot of water fast. Jigging spoons on the other hand are designed to be dropped right in the middle of a school of fish. They’re supposed to mimic a dying baitfish.
Jigging Spoon Technique
You don’t want to cast a jigging spoon at all, instead simply drop it down right off the side of your boat. Hopefully it falls right down in front of the fishes face so he’ll take the bait.
It’s all about That Little Jerk
You see a lot of the guys that fish spoons do a great big long jerk and there’s absolutely no need for that. It doesn’t look natural and it takes your spoon out of the strike zone. So all we’re doing is basically taking our wrist and just snapping it.
Try out a few different little cadences to see what works. For a few minutes double drop it then single drop it. Just try to keep the bait moving at all times.
That subtle wobble makes it look like it’s an injured shad down there struggling in the water. That’s whats going to draw the most strikes.
Boat Positioning
Boat positioning is everything when using a vertical jigging spoon. Keeping your boat steady is key. On those cold windy days you can’t let yourself get pulled into the wind.
Even a little bit of movement can pull you out of that sweet spot. You want to keep your bait exactly in line with the transducer cone on your fish finder.
This allows you to watch exactly what’s going on underwater. You should be able to see something that looks like a heartbeat on the graph. That little heartbeat is your spooning jumping in the water.
Whenever you see a fish start to move up or down just open the bail and drop the bait right down in front of his face. Most of the time this is going to cause a quick reaction strike.
Feeling The Bite
You should be able to feel a couple different style of bites. Of course the best type of is when they just slam it down. There’s no missing these monster strikes. They just want that spoon and they’re gonna kill it no matter what you do.
However most of the times you’ll just feel a small tick on the end of your line. It should feel almost like a summer jig bite. Other times you barely feel anything and all of a sudden it’s in his mouth when you jerk up and the race is on.
One thing you’ll notice is that 99% of your bites are gonna come on the floor.You’ll feel the bite right on the drop when it’s heading towards the bottom.
One thing you’ll notice is that 99% of your bites are gonna come on the floor.You’ll feel the bite right on the drop when it’s heading towards the bottom.
So whenever I’m jigging a spoon I put my thumb on the spool as a break when I let it drop. That way if something does come up and hit it my thumb can lock the line where I can set the handle before he gets away from me.
Always Use Your Electronics
With this style of fishing electronics are extremely critical. You wouldn’t shut your eyes and try to drive a car by feel. Without a good fish finder it’s almost impossible to get a feel for the bottom.
What I’m looking for is structure at an appropriate depth. Whenever I get into my boat I always check for those shad lines starting to develop. Even right as you pull away from the dock you should start to see where those baitfish are settling.
If you see the shad line between 15 and 25 feet you know to keep your bait somewhere in that area. To recognize a shad line just look for those flat lines that signify shad. Most of the time it will look like a big flat red line which signifies a school of shad.