Whats The Darn Trick To Fishing In The Cold 2025
daveshepp reply :
I was out this past weekend sunday morning at 2am till 9am. i was fishing in lake marburg(codorus state park) i have a 12 semi-v with a 3hp johnson gets us around fine but a little slow i have no trolling motor. just the essentials for getting out on the water. will be getitng a fish finder for my birthday this weekend. i fished every lure i had is every color that i had and not even a bite. now im new to fishing expecially from a boat this is only my 3rd outing in my boat.
when i used to fish from the shore i would see people fishing under the bridge and catching fish after fish after fish. so i get out the early saterday morning and fish all over the lake and just before the sun comes up we move to the bridge and we are still not having any luck within a half hour there is someone else with a boat there but of corse its the guy with the nice bass fishing boat with every bell and whistle it could have and these 2 guys caught i would say 10 fish within the first 15 minutes . i tihnk it was my most depressing moment in my entire life :-) this year in general has been very depressing.
i live in west york and and i fish the Susquehanna, codorus, lake marburg
caught 2 under 12" small mouth in the susquehanna all year
caught nothing in lake marburg
and i fished in the codorus in york city next to the comcast building fending off bums and others. and caught over 40 fish alot of small trout and what i was told are Red-Eye Bass
so what im asking is does anybody else fish lake mrburg and whats the trick this time of year? i thought food was supposed to be scarce because of the baitfish dying off but i saw plenty of baitfish. maybe i will try livebaits nexttime.
any guidance would be appreciated
thanks
i tried trick worms in : watermellon seed, white, silver/black stripe, even pink(i got desperate) have them in there from my girlfriend making me buy them
i tried spinnerbaits of every kind including buzz baits of every color
i tried jitterbugs of every size and color even different shapes
i even tried some of the lures that have the lips and dive
i just dont know what to do
thanks
also it wasnt just me fishing all these lures it was 2 of us trying everything
Grey Wolf reply :
2 AM in the morning ??????????? You didn't say where you are from but if its cold where you are fishing , try fishing arund mid day til early evening.
daveshepp reply :
yeah we were bored an planning on getting up around 5am to get out there and fish the bridge in the morning and we just decided to not go to sleep and to just go out and just sleep when we get back sunday morning. so is the trick to fish from like noon-till?
ChvyKc reply :
Like Bass said, wait until the water warms up a little during the day. I also get most of my catches on something that goes a little deeper than what you have been using.
Jig 'n Pig, texas rigs, carolina rigs and crawfish colored big lip crank baits are what I mostly use. Most fish get lazy as the water cools down and you really have to slow things down to get them to hit it. Natural colors in the winter are a must around here as well.
BTW, I've caught more fish on yellow and pink trick worms than anything else in my tackle box. Your girlfriend made a good choice but that is more of a warmer water bait.
I do live in a warmer climate (South Carolina) so take that into consideration when you read my post. What works here doesn't work when I visit family in Arkansas so it might not work great where you live.
M_Fields. reply :
I would go out in the morning and stay all day. I would slow down and use a drop shot, tube, and a football head jig with a mop head. Try the single tail and douple tail grugs. I would be using a natural color. Try colors that look like the bait fish that you found. Or a color that looks like the craw dads.
M_Fields
daveshepp reply :
SO WHAT YOUR SAYING IS EARLY MORNING IS THE BEST TIME FOR FALL/WINTER FISHING?
my poor fingers are still sore it was f'n cold and i didnt have gloves :-)
oh well going out again this saterday hopefully will get to try out my new fishfinder. hopefully it isnt too crappy it was like $130 after $80 off it is all that could be afforded at this time for my birthday :/ has to be better than nothing
ChvyKc reply :
Hey, at least you got a boat to put that fish finder on. I'm still bumming rides. >
basser89 reply :
Marburg can be a VERY tough place to fish! I only time that I have fished Marburg is in the summer. Most of the bass I have caught there have come on deep diving natural colored crankbaits out off the deep weededges. I have also done well around the islands too with spinnerbaits and plastics (working them over the weedbeds). This time of year, you'll want to slow way down and use jigs or tubes around the rocks and wood. Crankbaits could be an option as well.
For smallies on the river, I have 3 baits that I usually switch between. A crankbait (I prefer Bandits in whatever series will keep me just in contact with the bottom), jerkbaits, and tubes. If you can put in at Goldboro (below TMI), you'll have the advantage to the warm water the power plant put out so you should be able to get away with the crankbaits and jerkbaits on days the bass are active.
BassinSoldier reply :
My .02....Wait until it's midday and the sun is good, high, and bright, find a steep rocky shoreline and hit it with a crankbait that dives deep enough to bounce around on the rocks. Once you've found some fish like this slow down and hit it with a football jig or shaky head. When you go back write back and let us know how ya did!
daveshepp reply :
what type of crankbait are you suggesting? i always have the camera in my fishing bag. i did see 1 bass last weekend was going to take a picture is was a approx. 14" smallmouth resting in the ridges of the boat launch. oh well hopefully i get something this weekend
Sam reply :
A pink or white trick worm in the summer is great so your girlfriend made an excellent choice.
When fishing in cold weather you have two temperatures to watch. The first is the air temperature while the second is the water temperature.
Regarding air temperature, just bundle up; have a second set of clothes, socks, shoes and a bath towel in the car or truck in case you have to change; and watch for those cold fronts.
Don't forget your polarized sunglasses and cap as you will need them this time of the year to watch for the baitfish.
Regarding the water temperature, it is critical that you know the surface temperature as that is what we base our baits and techniques on plus what we believe the bass are doing to fatten up for the winter.
As the water cools, the bass become active and start to feed. They are seeking to eat, 1) crawfish; 2) shad; 3) bluegills, white perch, yellow perch and bream; and 4) minnows.
The bass will hunt the crawfish on mud banks and rocks; and follow the baitfish into the creeks or along the shoreline.
So, the first thing you do is to figure out what is the most abundant forage where you fish.
If shad, then go with a shad colored crankbait or a white spinnerbait.
If bluegills and bream, go with a bluegill or bream colored crankbait and have some "blue strands" in your white spinnerbait.
Use silver Willow blades if sunny; go with a Willow and Colorado blade combo if the water is stained or it is a little cloudy overhead.
You may even want to use copper or gold spinnerbait blades in stained water.
Use a trailer hook on the spinnerbaits, too.
If crawfish, go with a brown, with some orange strands, or a Peanut Butter and Jelly jig and pig with a nice fat plastic trailer.
Bulk up your jig with the pig as they are looking for an easy meal and you want them to see it. Plus a big pig causes the jig to fall slower and the bass may hit it on the way down so be ready once the jig hits the water's surface.
Throw out the jig and pig and let it sit for about 20-seconds; then, by using your rod tip, bring it back to you by bouncing it off the bottom and letting it sit for about 5 to 10-seconds between movements.
You are trying to minick a crawfish feeding or a crawfish moving away from danger. Just picture how a crawfish will jump and do your best imitation.
Remember, the bass are looking for a nice juicy "meat" meal, meaning they will hit something that they think will be their biggest meal of the day. And the easier, the better.
Sometimes topwaters will work, like the buzzbait or Chugbug moved fast on the surface with a lot of noise. So give the buzzbait, with trailer hook, and a Chugbug or any other fast moving topwater a try.
Get a small pair of binoculars and use them to see what the guys in the fancy bass boats are throwing if you cannot figure it out by looking at them as they cast. And watch how they fish as they may know about the local structure and hard bottoms and rocks as they have sonar. Go fish their areas after they leave or fish them before they arrive.
Fish parallel to the bank. Fish off the bank back to the boat. Fish the mouths of creeks to the left, center and right. Go into the creeks and fish them, especially if you see any wood or brush. Go as far back as you can as the baitfish are supposed to head to the backs of the creeks this time of the year.
Fish the docks and piers or throw under the moored boats. Fish by the bridges and where you can figure out where any creeks enter the body of water.
And then, if that fails, pull out your Carolina rig and slip a nice, big and juicy brushhog or lizzard or creature bait or a l-o-n-g worm with a curly tail like the Culprit 10-inch in Electric Blue and give it a try in waters from the shoreline out to about 20-feet.
Drag it s-l-o-w on the bottom, being ready for a strike at any time. And don't use a big 1 ounce weight. Go with a smaller weight this time of the year unless you need to get very deep with the C-rig.
You can also use a Norman DD-22 in a shad color and fish it so that it stirs up the bottom.
Once you find the fish or get bites, then this is your pattern for the rest of the day. Just do it over and over and over but in other places.
Just remember to get the water temperature; look for the forage; and use moving baits.
Plus what the guys tell you so start to cut and paste these posts on a Word Document so you can read what everyone has to say and go from there.
Have fun and be safe in that little boat. 
WRB reply :
Welcome to bass fishing. We all had to start somewhere and today you have the internet to help you with answers to your questions, This site for example has feature articals for the new bass fisherman to read.
You apparently live in Eastern Penn and fishing river and small lakes, to very different environments for bass.
During the warm summer period months, getting out early was a real advantage because the baitfish and crawdads are active close to shore, near or in cover. As the sun comes up both baitfish and crawdads go deeper and become less active.
During the colder water periods of late fall and winter, the baitfish school up and the crawdads stay in deeper water. There isn't a lot of prey for the bass near the shoreline or in cover, so the bass move deeper to be near their food sources.
Bass are cold blooded, meaning their body temperature is the same as the water and the bass slow down and eat less when the water is cold. The bass become less active and will become active for only a short time period, about every 3 to 4 hours.
The short cuts to learning to bass fish is to ask the successful bass fisherman in your area what they are using and how deep they are fishing to catch bass. If you are polite, most fisherman will be very helpful. Don't ask where they catch their fish, few fisherman will tell you about specific locations.
Don't try to learn more than 2 presentations at any one time. The best to start with IMO are; soft plastic worms, use the split shot or slip shot technique and drop shpt with small 5" to 6" finesse worms. Stay with the basic colors; night crawler browns and green with red flake. You can drift these rigs slowly on the bottom, around points on the main lake or anchor and let the current slowly move the rig along the bottom in the river around bridges and deeper holes.
The second lure to use is a crankbait, the lure with the deep diving bill.
Agian I would suggest 2 lures; a Bomber model 7A, that will run about 8 to 10 feet deep and a 200 series Bandit that runs about 6 to 8 feet deep. Colors; fire tiger and crawdad brown.
With your small boat and motor, I suggest you to learn to fish a crankbait by trolling. The speed you troll should be the speed the lure is swimming with the best action, so let a few yards of line out and look at the lure along side your boat, a slow walking speed or 2 mph is about right. Cast the lure about 50 to 75 feet behind the boat and try to stay in about 10 to 12 feet depth, the lure should bump the bottom once in awhile, but not a lot. When you see shallow water ahead, or the lure is bumping the bottom too often, move out to deeper water so the lure doesn't snag, then move back to the 10 to 12 foot depth. make lazy S turns about 10 feet to one side, then back agian about every 100 feet or so the change the lures speed. This will teach you what bass strikes feel like and where the bass are located. Once you catch a few, then go back and try casting the crankbaits and also try the soft plastic worms in the same area.
You may also want to make or buy a lure knocker to retrieve crnakbaits that have snagged into the bottom or whatever.
Stay with these two presentations until you are consistanly catching bass.
These 2 presentations should keep you busy until the spring, then add spinnerbaits and buzzers to you presentations and fish the weed/grass beds, early and late, continue with the soft plastic and crankbaits during the mid day hours. Good luck.
WRB
Grey Wolf reply :
QuoteSO WHAT YOUR SAYING IS EARLY MORNING IS THE BEST TIME FOR FALL/WINTER FISHING?my poor fingers are still sore it was f'n cold and i didnt have gloves :-)
oh well going out again this saterday hopefully will get to try out my new fishfinder. hopefully it isnt too crappy it was like $130 after $80 off it is all that could be afforded at this time for my birthday :/ has to be better than nothing
Early morning is NOT the best time in the late fall to fish , let the sun get over-head , that's about as clear as I can make it.
yankthatsucker reply :
i think too many anglers overlook the good ol'natural way...buy yourself 4 dozen crawlers...I GUARANTEE youll hook something
Grey Wolf reply :
Quotei think too many anglers overlook the good ol'natural way...buy yourself 4 dozen crawlers...I GUARANTEE youll hook something
You fish for cats more then you do for bass don't you. Why would you sign up on a bass forum ?
yankthatsucker reply :
QuoteQuotei think too many anglers overlook the good ol'natural way...buy yourself 4 dozen crawlers...I GUARANTEE youll hook somethingYou fish for cats more then you do for bass don't you. Why would you sign up on a bass forum ?
what are you talking about? are you saying that nightcrawlers arent an effective way to catch bass? i live in south florida and I catch huge bass, cats, tilapia, peackocks, mayan cichlids, and bluegill on crawlers all the time.
read this:
http://www.trophybassonly.com/id132.htm
basser89 reply :
For those that don't know much about the lake Dave is talking about, here is a little information that I know about it. Marburg is a 1275 acre man-made lake in south-central PA. The lake is gin clear (there's no problem seeing fish down 15-18'). The species residing here include: largemouth and smallmouth, musky (pure strain and tiger), pike, yellow perch, white perch, bluegill, crappie, trout, catfish and gizzard shad. Most of the coves, at least the ones that I have fished, are fairly shallow and are over run with hydrilla in the summer. Similar to Lake Raystown, when the area was dammed, houses and other structures (including a few road beds and small bridges) were left intact.
As far as the crankbaits that I have had success with on Marburg, the main one that I use is Bass Pro Shop's XPS Extreme crank. They run about 12-15'.
btw, GREAT posts Sam and WRB!
Grey Wolf reply :
QuoteQuoteQuotei think too many anglers overlook the good ol'natural way...buy yourself 4 dozen crawlers...I GUARANTEE youll hook somethingYou fish for cats more then you do for bass don't you. Why would you sign up on a bass forum ?
what are you talking about? are you saying that nightcrawlers arent an effective way to catch bass? i live in south florida and I catch huge bass, cats, tilapia, peackocks, mayan cichlids, and bluegill on crawlers all the time.
read this:
http://www.trophybassonly.com/id132.htm
If you fish for food there is nothing wrong with worms but a true bass fisherman uses artificals. This is the point you are missing.
yankthatsucker reply :
QuoteQuoteQuoteQuotei think too many anglers overlook the good ol'natural way...buy yourself 4 dozen crawlers...I GUARANTEE youll hook somethingYou fish for cats more then you do for bass don't you. Why would you sign up on a bass forum ?
what are you talking about? are you saying that nightcrawlers arent an effective way to catch bass? i live in south florida and I catch huge bass, cats, tilapia, peackocks, mayan cichlids, and bluegill on crawlers all the time.
read this:
http://www.trophybassonly.com/id132.htm
If you fish for food there is nothing wrong with worms but a true bass fisherman uses artificals. This is the point you are missing.
what kind of statement is that? who says so? why? explain the point im missing. i thought the point of fishing is to catch fish?
Grey Wolf reply :
It's just too hard sometimes.
Muddy reply :
[color=#ff0000]If you fish for food there is nothing wrong with worms but a true bass fisherman uses artificals. This is the point you are missing.
That is JUST WRONG!
I f I am not mistaken: that Fish Chris has caught monsters using live bait, Road Warriors 2 smallies in his Avatar were minnow caught fish(live bait) and to me bait and or artifiacls are all great waysways to catch good bass. Skill is needed either way, and of course tourny guys have thier limitations due to rules and the artifical tackle makers will tend to make statements like this since thier profits are derived from artificials. Just file those statements in a folder marked
Please add a litttle of this : : and a lot of this ;D ;D to the above statement
Grey Wolf reply :
Quote[color=#ff0000]If you fish for food there is nothing wrong with worms but a true bass fisherman uses artificals. This is the point you are missing.
That is JUST WRONG!
I blieve, if I am wrong that Fish Chris has caught monsters using live bait, Road Warriors 2 smallies in his Avatar were minnow caught fish(live bait) and to me bait and or artifiacls are all good ways, no great ways to catch good bass. Skill is needed either way, and of course tourny guys have thier limitations and the artifical tackle makers will tend to make statements like this. Just file those satements in a folder marked
OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Am I not entitled to my opinion ?
Muddy reply :
Hey Bass Brat I am sorry, there was some bustin going on with that also I will add a smilie, I mean no disrespect. I do strongly feel that Bait fishing is just as valid, but I certainly would rather make my point without insulting you. I will add smiley, Please accept my apology, I do disagree with you but I never want to be insulting to you
my mistake,
Dominick
YankeesWin reply :
You are entitled to your opinion, yes. But I for one disagree with your opinion and I believe that many others do as well.
Live bait is a very viable and effective method for catching Bass, especially LARGE Bass. I'm with Muddy on this one.
That's just my opinion. 
Bassnajr reply :
Hey all,
This is a bit off topic, but I think you can divide bass fisherman (in this case) into two categories. Those that fish with artificial lures and those that fish with live bait. I hate to disagree Muddy, but I believe that it takes more skill to fish with artificial lures than live bait while in pursuit of that monster bass. That having been said, it is the choice of the individual as to what they fish with. I haven't used live bait since I was a kid (crawlers for trout) and have never used minnows for bass fishing.
Go back to a thread a while ago I started about whether there should be two different cagories for record fish...one for artificial and one for live bait. That thread was EXPLOSIVE!!!!!
I don't use artificial lures because of any tackle company, I do it because I feel it is more of a challenge. learning the different techniques etc. This is, of course IMHO.
bassnajr
Grey Wolf reply :
QuoteYou are entitled to your opinion, yes. But I for one disagree with your opinion and I believe that many others do as well.Live bait is a very viable and effective method for catching Bass, especially LARGE Bass. I'm with Muddy on this one.
That's just my opinion.
No big deal , we all agree to disagree on this one.
Muddy reply :
For Bass: Most of the time it is artificals with me. I make it a point to have at least one nightcrawler/bobber trip a year to celbrate and give thanks for my youthful invitation to this sport. We have an elderly gentleman named GUS on Mauch Chunk, he uses nothing but crawlers, has respectable catchs and fishes the same deep water spots as the rest of us. I have learned a lot about locating deep structure and bigger fish from him. I also use Minnows and Crawfish , on the river for smallies and I really do not feel less than or any need to apologize for having so much sucess and fun. If thats explosive then wear a helmet so no one gets hurt
YankeesWin reply :
I use artificial baits 100% of the time when fishing for Bass.
With that said I also believe that it is crazy to dismiss live bait as an option for catching them, ESPECIALLY when confronted with cold water or winter conditions.
I will agree that it may take more skill and or ability to catch Bass on artificial baits. That is why I choose them. I consider it a bit more sporting during warm water or "prime" fishing conditions.
If I'm not mistaken the thread was about "tricks for cold water"..... I think it would be unrealistic to not consider live bait in extreme conditions. (keep in mind that I live well above the Mason Dixon Line)
Sometimes "you gotta do what ya gotta do"!! 
Catt reply :
Waiting until mid day is a huge mistake since the morning can be just as effective during winter as it is any time of the year.
My personal best largemouth of 12.8 was caught February 3rd 2007 a nasty cold morning with Northwest winds at 15-20 mph, a slight misty rain falling, and temperatures in the middle 30's; it was caught on a Bill Lewis's Rat-L-Trap ½ oz Red Chrome.
My personal best biggest average during a tournament was in January 1979 during a sleet storm with 15 bass (101.7 lbs) all being caught before 9:45 am.
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