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Winter is approaching, and even down south bass go as deep as needed to find a comfort zone. That's true until your lake does a turn-over, cooler surface water falling through stable deeper water where oxygen has been too low for them. When that happens they can be severely scattered all over a lake at many depth zones. Once the lake settles down they will regroup into schools, most staying tight to some kind of cover, stump fields, snags, or structure like humps and ledges as deep as 50 feet. Few lures get to them. A few that do are large jigs, blade baits, 1 oz + spinnerbaits (my favorite is Ledgebuster), lipless crankbaits, large weighted swimbaits, and of course some deep diving crankbaits to about 20 feet.
I tie on a 2-6 oz lead sinker for trolling depending on depth to a school. Use the least necessary to get the lure down there and still be fished SLOW as possible in the strike zone. Wide wobbling crankbaits have produced well for me in winter months, tending to swim slow enough. Luhr Jensen sells the Dipsy Diver which more accurately selects a running depth for trolling. I use those for striper fishing. For bass casting I use Fireline superline, with a very small line diameter, and a suitable sinker upline, rigged similar to a Carolina rig. Winter bass often suspend off bottom, so the rig is kept above bottom as necessary. Determine sink rate of your rig by dropping it directly under your sonar transducer while sitting still, watching and counting until you see it reach the target fish depth. If your sonar is fairly good and set for high sensitivity it will track the lure. Then you can cast and count it down. If it's too slow add a little more weight. Don't experiment over the fish. Determine their depth from one pass over them then test the sink rate away from them. Then either make a pass trolling (start the troll after counting down), or approach within casting distance and count down before reeling it in. Be sure to cast well past their location to give the lure time to get on zone, then keep it at that depth through the bass.
Now it's ya'lls turn to add tips.
Jim
I tie on a 2-6 oz lead sinker for trolling depending on depth to a school. Use the least necessary to get the lure down there and still be fished SLOW as possible in the strike zone. Wide wobbling crankbaits have produced well for me in winter months, tending to swim slow enough. Luhr Jensen sells the Dipsy Diver which more accurately selects a running depth for trolling. I use those for striper fishing. For bass casting I use Fireline superline, with a very small line diameter, and a suitable sinker upline, rigged similar to a Carolina rig. Winter bass often suspend off bottom, so the rig is kept above bottom as necessary. Determine sink rate of your rig by dropping it directly under your sonar transducer while sitting still, watching and counting until you see it reach the target fish depth. If your sonar is fairly good and set for high sensitivity it will track the lure. Then you can cast and count it down. If it's too slow add a little more weight. Don't experiment over the fish. Determine their depth from one pass over them then test the sink rate away from them. Then either make a pass trolling (start the troll after counting down), or approach within casting distance and count down before reeling it in. Be sure to cast well past their location to give the lure time to get on zone, then keep it at that depth through the bass.
Now it's ya'lls turn to add tips.
Jim