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Where do freshwater bass go in the winter?
During the winter season, freshwater bass, particularly largemouth bass, exhibit behaviors that are largely influenced by the colder water temperatures. Their metabolism slows down due to the cold, which means they don't feed as frequently as they do in warmer months. In the wintertime, bass may only eat once every 7 to 10 days, compared to the summertime when they might feed 7 to 10 times per day.
Bass tend to seek out areas in the lake where the water temperature is more stable and where there is a higher concentration of oxygen. This often leads them to deeper parts of the lake. The term "deep" can be relative, but generally, it refers to water that is deeper than 20 feet. Bass will typically congregate around structures such as points, ridges, humps, drop-offs, and river channels where there is a change in the contour of the lake bottom. These areas provide the bass with opportunities to ambush prey with minimal effort.
Additionally, baitfish behavior during winter also influences bass location. Baitfish, like shad, may move into deeper water or seek the warmest parts of the lake, and as the water gets colder, there can be significant die-offs of these baitfish. Bass will follow the baitfish, so finding areas where baitfish are concentrated can be key to locating bass.
It's also worth noting that while many bass go deep, there can be resident bass that remain shallow throughout the winter. These fish may not be as active or feeding on the typical forage like shad, but they can still be caught, especially if there's a slight warming trend or if they're foraging for other food sources like crawdads.
When fishing for bass in the winter, it's important to adjust your tactics to their slower metabolism and reduced feeding activity. Slow-moving baits and techniques that can keep your offering in the strike zone longer are often more effective. Remember, the colder the water, the more lethargic the bass will be, so patience and perseverance are key during the winter months.
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Video02:10
03:32
Seasonal Habits of Largemouth Bass | How To | Bass Fishing by Bass Fishing Tips & Techniques by BassResource → once every 7 to 10 days, in the summertime,
they'll actually eat 7 to 10 times per day. So, it's a huge difference, just a big swing.
So, in the wintertime, there's just not as many fish feeding when you go out to fish.
So, just understand that. There's less fish that are gonna be interested in your
offering. Coupled with that is the baitfish. They move into deeper water because it's
oxygen-rich, the temperature is more stable, they aren't as affected as much by the fronts
coming through. But also, if your lake has shad or that type of baitfish that they're
affected when the water gets into the mid-40s, they start to die off. And as it gets even colder,
there'll be a big die-off. So, these baitfish are seeking out the warmest part of the lake that
they can find and that's gonna concentrate them, that's where the bass are gonna be. So, in
the wintertime, you're gonna find them deep. Deep is relative to your lake, but typically,
deep is anywhere deeper than 20 feet deep. And they're gonna hang on structure like points
and ridges and humps and drop-offs and river channels and that sort of thing where there's a
change in contour bottom. That's typically where they're gonna load up on. If you can find baitfish
nearby, that's where the bass are gonna be. Now, as we move into spring, spring is all
about the spawn. That's when bass spawn. So, spring can be broken into really three main
sections, pre-spawn, spawn, and post-spawn.
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Where Do Bass Go During The Fall To Winter Transition? (And How To Catch Them) by TacticalBassin → varies from one place to another out here where we are this is Clear Lake in California water temps here typically just get down to the high 30s low 40s if we have a cold winter it'll get all the way down to about 36 degrees but we rarely get colder than that obviously guys in the North your water it's going to freeze up guys in the south you don't get anywhere near as cold so that will be a factor in how tight these fish bunch the colder the water the more they congregate the more the they bunch up and the more they just focus on survival less on eating because their metabolisms are low during those cold months so less on eating more on just getting through it but that doesn't mean that you can't catch them we will circle back on the baits in just a moment so the actual locations let's focus on that where do you start your search these fish are headed towards a deep water access typically you're steeper rockier banks or where the fish are going to focus that way they can make small moves they don't want to travel way back into a shallow bay to feed this time of year and have to come back out that doesn't work well for them because again metallic metabolism is low water is cold they don't want to make big moves they don't want to move quickly they just want to
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Seasonal Habits of Largemouth Bass | How To | Bass Fishing by Bass Fishing Tips & Techniques by BassResource → Geez, Louise. He about ripped that out
of my arm. Wow, that was a hard hit. That fish wanted it. That was
a vicious strike right there. He just took it. It's not a very big fish,
but boy, he hammered it like a 5-pounder. He's got it way in his mouth. There we go. I'm having fun. This is awesome, guys. Oh, man.
Hey, folks. Glenn May here with BassResource.com, and today I wanna talk about the seasonal patterns
of largemouth bass. If you've been fishing for a little while now, you've probably figured
out that yeah, the different seasons affect the behavior of the fish, where they're
gonna be, what their disposition is, and how often they feed. So, it's more than
just winter, spring, fall, summer kind of thing, though, it's you have to break it down into many
seasons for the most part, but the easiest one is winter. So, let's start off with winter.
With winter, this is obviously the coldest time of the year. What happens is that the
lower levels of the lake tend to be warmer than the shallower parts, so the bass tend to
congregate down there. This is because a bass's metabolism is powered by, or dictated by the water
temperature. Okay. They're a warm-water fish, so the colder the water is, the slower the
metabolism is. Doesn't necessarily mean the slower the fish is, but it means that they eat less
often. So, whereas in the wintertime they may eat
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Video10:13
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Seasonal Habits of Largemouth Bass | How To | Bass Fishing by Bass Fishing Tips & Techniques by BassResource → This is when the water temperatures get above 65
into 70 degrees. And summer can be broken into, again, three seasons really. It's early summer,
summer, of course, and then late summer. So, in early summer, there's this transition period
from when the fish are up shallow and they're done spawning to where they're gonna be during the
duration of the summer. And what happens is you get a good chunk of the population will go deep,
not necessarily as deep as they were during the wintertime, but they'll make their way, again,
down that bus route, all along those bus stops and towards deeper water. So, you
can follow their migration path as they progress deeper and deeper. They're gonna
settle down on humps and ridges and creek channels and points in deeper water, say anywhere from 15
to 30 feet deep on average. Your lake may vary just depending on overall depth of your lake,
but that's just giving an approximate idea. Now, there's another chunk of the
population that remains shallow, and they'll go up and they hang out under docks.
They go into any kind of cover that you can see, lily pads, reeds, they hang out on hydrilla
and milfoil and cruise the shallows and feed on baitfish. They will sometimes go
deeper when the front comes through or if the baitfish move or conditions change, they may
move off and go deeper. And of course, the deep ones may sometimes come up a little bit shallower.
So, you get this population that's now scattered.
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Video02:58
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The Myth of Deep Winter Bass | Bass Fishing by Bass Fishing Tips & Techniques by BassResource → about it later and realized, "You know what? We did have a little bit of a warming trend,"
and there was this long tapering point that it's in vegetation in there, and that's where
the baitfish went. The bass went and chased them, so watch for
those little things. Sometimes during the wintertime, you get those
little subtle changes in a water temperature, and that's all it takes to move bass up shallow,
that and there's also the notion that there are resident bass that just don't move deep
during the winter. They'll stay shallow all wintertime, all along. They may not be feeding on those baitfish
like threadfin shad, but they'll any perch happened by gobies, things like that. They may be looking foraging for crawdads. Sometimes you'll catch smallmouth or even
largemouth during the winter times, and their nose is all red. That's because they're actually shuffling
around the gravel, and they're moving it around looking for crawdads. They'll be up shallow doing that so you can
catch fish shallow during the wintertime. That's the point I'm trying to get at is don't
draw an imaginary line, say 15 feet, and say, "Okay, I'm gonna fish deeper than that this
whole time. I'm not gonna go any shallower." That might be a mistake. You may be missing out on a really good day,
so keep that in mind. For more tips and tricks like this, visit
BassResource.com.
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Where Bass Go in the Winter and When to Fish Them by Wired2Fish → Bassmaster Lead Series Pro Mart Menendez here with you winter time fishing where do the fish go are they in the back of the coves are they out deep where are they it's kind of a unique thing one of the things that bass do their behavior in the winter they feed up and down in the water column they don't go all the way to the back of the Cove to feed and then come back to the main Lake yet a few fish live shallow year round on isolated individual pieces covers little little depressions in the back of the creek you may catch a bass or two back there but the vast majority of the population is living in the main stem of the lake do I catch them deep yes I do catch a lot of fish 25 30 35 feet deep if I've got a something special there a creek Channel Junction a verticality that verticality is what I'm always looking for looking for some place that a fish can get to a feeding station which is always a flat place I find a lot of fish in the two to five foot range in the winter that I'll catch with a small crankbait like a series three a chick magnet something like that that are in a shallow water situation but what they've got right behind them is 25 35 feet of water so the key times to fish in the winter
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