Large YUM Dinger Fishing Article

Hotspots for Cold-Weather Fishing

Don't hang up your fishing tackle just because winter has arrived. Instead, add a couple layers of clothes, consider conditions at hand and plan your approach accordingly.

In truth, winter provides unique advantages. Unlike spring and fall, when the living is easy and fish can go virtually anywhere, harsh conditions make your quarry's locations and behavior far more predictable. Gamefish pile up wherever food can be found and gravitate to areas that provide thermal refuge.

With that in mind, we'll examine several types of areas that tend to attract concentrations of gamefish under various winter conditions and then look at best lures for working each.

-CREEK CHANNEL SWINGS – Deep bends along the lower ends of major creek channel arms in reservoirs probably produce more consistently good winter fishing than any other type of spot, and catches might include various black bass species, walleyes, saugers, white bass, crappie and more. Baitfish and gamefish alike drop into these big holes as they move down the creeks at the end of fall, and many stay put throughout the winter.

These holes lend themselves to vertical fishing approaches, and a Cotton Cordell C.C. Spoon or a Heddon Sonar typically is tough to beat. Putting fish in the boat requires slow, steady fishing and begins with a keen eye on electronics, looking both for gamefish and for baitfish.

SHALLOW FLATS – Vast flats warm slightly during strings of sunny days, pulling fish from nearby and causing them to feed more aggressively than normal. Most fish still won't do a lot of chasing, but they will cruise the flats or hold close to cover and will ambush anything that ventures too close. The best flats are studded with stumps, rocks or other cover, stretch close to significant channels and have Southern exposures, allowing for maximized sunshine during the day.

An excellent weapon for fishing a flat is an XCalibur Xr50 Rattle Bait , which can be cast long distances and used to cover a lot of water. Another great choice is a Bomber Flat A , which has a very tight wiggle and dives 3 to 5 feet deep.

TOPS OF TRIBS – Any time a big front floods the landscape with rains that are warmer than a lake's temperature, fish will move to the extreme heads of creeks and to the backs of coves and cuts where ravines create mini-inflows. Along with finding slightly warmer water, fish find buffets of foodstuff washed down the creeks and even off the land.

Because inflows often are stained, fish will move very shallow and will relate to edges and to flooded cover. This is a great situation for pitching a dark-colored BOOYAH Boo Jig or making short casts around cover with a Black or Rootbeer Chartreuse BOOYAH Single Colorado Blade spinnerbait.

HOT SPOTS – If all else fails, visit a "hot spot" from a power plant discharge. While these areas tend to get very heavy fishing pressure, they hold a seemingly endless supply of bass, stripers and other gamefish, because of the comfortable conditions and the extreme abundance of food.

The downside of fishing hotspots is that fish have so much real food to choose from that they can get somewhat finicky. The best baits resemble baitfish and can be fished quickly to draw reaction strikes. Excellent choices include YUM Houdini Shads  and XCalibur Xt3 Twitch Baits .

This article is provided by Lurenet.com and is used with permission. jB0405.