Fishing for bass in the winter can be frustrating.
With water temperatures dipping into the 40s across those southern ponds, lakes, and rivers that enjoy open water throughout the winter, it can be difficult to entice largemouth bass into a strike.
That’s especially true for bank and shore anglers, who can’t move to the deep holes that the thermocline inversion has kept warmer, creating a haven for cold bass.
But there are a few things you can do to tilt the odds in your favor, and one of the most effective is to reconsider the Texas rig.
Texas Rig Basics
The Texas rig is easily the most common soft-plastic choice for bass anglers, and its compact shape delivers pin-point accuracy whether you’re pitching and flipping, casting into holes in floating vegetation, or punching grass mats.
And it’s fair to say that the Texas rig’s reputation is well earned: it works well with a wide variety of soft plastics, from magnum-sized worms and lizards, to craws and other creature baits, to even tubes, paddle tails, and flukes. I’ve thropwn just about every osft plastic you can think of Texas rigged, and with the right choice, I’ve never been dissatisfied.
A Texas rig is nothing more complicated than an EWG hook, a bullet sinker, and a soft plastic trailer.
It can be assembled in seconds, and baits can be swapped just as quickly.
Winter Texas Rigs
In the late spring, throughout the summer, and into the early fall, you’ll find my throwing big soft plastics most of the time, and I like to use 1/4 to 3/8-ounce bullet weights and typically a 2/0 EWG gap hook. In conjuction with good braid like Sufix 832, that gives me precise casts, as much distance as I can possibly use, and plenty of options for color, pattern, and action.
But in winter, when the bass are sluggish and disinclined to strike, I’ve had much better luck downsizing, and I’ve found that “finesse” Texas rigs are money on cold-water bass.
Downsize your Texas rigs
For my winter bass fishing, I start with a 1/8-ounce bullet sinker and a 1/0 EWG hook.
I’m looking for a trailer in the neighborhood of 3 to 4 inches, often the same kinds of options I’d consider for a Damiki rig or a Ned rig.
I’ve had good luck with craw patterns like NetBait’s Paca Slim 3.5-inch and Strike King’s Rage Tail Craw, and flukes like Zoom’s Super Salt Plus really strut their stuff behind a light jig head.
Pick your pattern
Patterns with more fluttering appendages will typically fall more slowly than more hydrodynamic designs.
In plain English, flukes fall faster than craws, and lizards fall faster than brush hogs. I’m sure you get the idea.
If the bass are on or near the bottom, I’d prefer a pattern that helps me get down quickly while still fluttering as it falls. But if they’re suspended in the water column, I want my soft plastic to slow my descent as much as possible, keeping me in the “stike zone” longer.
And as is awlays the case, stained or muddy water demands brighter colors, and pearl or charteuse are common choices. In gin-clear water, I go for muted, natural hues like greens, brown, and blues, often with a shiny fleck to catch the light and glint, drawing additional attention.
Slow down
When the bass are feeling the full lethargy of cold water, you’ll need to give them plenty of time to gear-up for a strike.
If you think you might be moving to fast, you probably are and it’s essential that you slow way down.
My favorite winter-time technique is to cast my Texas rig into a likely spot, say, on the far side of a channel or hole, and creep my Texas rig in and across that spot.
I use a side-arm drag, watching my rod tip for soft strikes and moving it just an inch or two at a time. I pick up my slack to keep a tight line throughout, and with good braided line and a medium-power rod, have no trouble detecting every stick, rock, hump, and trough as I go.
I’ll sometimes switch to a very slow retrieve, moving the crank just inches forward before stopping.
Slow and steady pays off, and the first time you feel the bump, bump, bump of a bass rather than the soft slide of your Texas-rigged soft plastic slipping over a log, you’ll know you’ve got it right.
Suspended bass
“Warmer” water will sometimes find the bass suspended in the water column rather than holding tight to the bottom, especially if there’s a heat sink like a piling, a big chunk of concrete, or some rocks warming in the sun nearby.
And when I know the bass are holding mid-column, I’ll consider mocing to a 1/10-ounce bullet sinker, or even dropping the weight entirely to throw my soft plastic on just a 1/0 EWG hook.
Either of these choices is going to affect casting distance, and if that’s not really an issue, a weightless craw or fluke can really hammer winter basss as it flutters and glides down through a school.
For instance, yesterday, I found a drop off that held suspended, lethargic bass. The water temps were in the 40s, and they weren’t inclined to strike. But by working my unweighted fluke up to the surface and letting it flutter back down through them, I got some fish interested in what I was throwing.
Experiment
Especially when I’m fishing unfamiliar waters, I want to switch up weights and trailers until I find a combo that falls like I want it to and garners plenty of attention as I work it.
It’s not a bad idea to experiment systematically, working heavier to lighter on your weight, changing sizes and patterns, and working several likely colors to find what works for the conditions that day.
Final Thoughts
Texas rigs are versatile, and one of their many strengths is that you can downsize them for winter bass fishing, using them much like you would a jig or Damiki rig.
And with a little know-how and time on the water, you can dial-in a deadly Texas rig for your favorite bass waters, giving you a lot more time on the water in cold weather.
Do you have any tips to add or questions you’d like answered?
If so, please leave a comment below!
Source: usangler.com