The passage of cold fronts can be a tough time to catch
bass, but Brian Maloney believes this situation negatively affects anglers more
than bass.
“You are freezing your tail off and you are thinking it is
killing the fish, but you have to remember that those fish are already in their
winter mode,” Maloney says. “Their metabolism is already shut down. So in the
wintertime just don’t get wrapped up in what the front is doing. I think that
is more the front messing with the fisherman than it is messing with the fish.”
The former Bass Fishing League All-American champion notices
cold fronts in the spring have a more drastic effect on bass than wintertime
cold fronts. “In the springtime the fish
are getting ready to spawn and all of a sudden they get hammered with a 30- to
40-degree change of a cold front that screws it all up,” Maloney says.
Bass are already sluggish during the dead of winter when
water temperatures plummet into the upper 30s or low 40s, so a cold front that
drops air temperatures into the 20-degree range makes little difference to the
fish. “I don’t think that hurts the fish
as much but I do believe that they will seek out any source of heat they can
come up with which might be a good chunk rock bank, slab rocks and brush piles,
Maloney says. “If the water is clear
enough the brush piles will absorb enough of the UV rays and hold the heat.”
The arrival of a cold front works in your favor because bass
will move up shallower on a rocky bank seeking the warmth of the rocks and
taking advantage of the cloud cover to feed. Maloney suggests those bass will
remain shallow the morning after the front passes until the sun shines on them.
“If you go two or three days of cloud cover and then all of
a sudden slap a bluebird sky on bass it messes with them,” Maloney says. “I believe as the day goes on with a bright
bluebird sky it kind of messes with the fish’s eyes and they haven’t adapted to the light yet so
they tend to pull off the bank and sink down a little deeper in the brush.”
The former Forrest Wood Cup qualifier still keys on
shallower shady areas the first day of sunshine after a cold front but has to
move deeper to catch bass the second day after the front. Maloney agrees with
the old axiom of fishing is toughest on the second sunny day of a cold front. “We struggle because we are not realizing what
is going on with the fish and we are fishing what we had two days before when
we had cloud cover,” he says.
Water clarity dictates how deep bass will move after a
winter cold front. Maloney suggests bass in off-color water might only drop
down 2 feet but fish on clear-water lakes dive down 15 feet or deeper. On 45-degree rocky banks void of cover, post-frontal winter bass will move away from
the rocks and suspend in open water.
Baitfish also leave the bank and head for the middle of
coves after a winter cold front. “The
baitfish might be 3 to 10 feet deep maximum on good days but on those cold
fronts you will see them push out and the next thing you know they are hugging the
bottom at 20 feet,” Maloney says.
The Missouri angler throws the same lures during and after a
winter cold front. If Maloney has caught
bass during a cold front with a suspending stickbait, Alabama rig or finesse jig
along a chunk rock bank, he will continue to throw the same lures after the
front in the low light of morning or shady areas. He has to probe deeper water with the Alabama
rig or jig when the mid-day sun eliminates the shade option. Maloney claims he
has dragged his A-rig 50 to 60 feet deep to catch winter post-frontal bass at
Table Rock Lake.
In the middle of winter, Maloney downsizes his suspending
stickbaits to 2 1/2- to 3-inch models to
catch finicky bass. When the larger gizzard shad start dying in late winter
Maloney opts for bigger stickbaits such as Megabass Vision 110 and 130 models
or magnum-size Rattlin’ Rogues. Maloney
is a finesse jig fanatic so he continues to fish his 5/16- and 7/16-ounce
finesse jigs throughout all wintertime conditions.
Maloney advises a slow lure presentation is a must during
the winter whether fishing before, during or after a cold front. “You
are already slowed down on your baits,” he says. “The surface temperature is
telling you to do that regardless of what the sky looks like. If it’s 35 to 40
degrees surface temperature you should already be going as slow as you can
possibly go. So I don’t think you have
to change up your approach or cadence.”
When a winter cold front hits your favorite bass fishery,
bundle up in layers of warm clothing and ignore the cold because bass are still
biting.
For
information on lodging and other facilities at the Lake of the Ozarks or to
receive a free vacation guide, call the Lake of the Ozarks Convention &
Visitors Bureau at 1-800-FUN-LAKE or visit the Lake of the Ozarks Convention
and Visitors Bureau web site at
funlake.com
.
For copies
of John Neporadny’s THE Lake of the Ozarks Fishing Guide call 573/365-4296 or
visit www.jnoutdoors.com.
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