If you’re looking to end the year with a big one, this is the time to move away from the fire and get out on the water. Don’t whimper about the weather, and don’t say you wished you lived someplace warm. Suck it up. Go do it.
And don’t suffer under any illusions, either. This won’t be a numbers game. You’ll go hours and hours – maybe days – without a bite. This shouldn’t come as any surprise, though. It’s that way anytime you’re fishing for the biggest bass in the lake. That’s just the way it is. If you’re unwilling to go that route, fish for smaller bass. You’ll be a happier angler.
The giants are all deep right now. They don’t hang out in the shallows in December. Fish the main lake river channels, deep ledges and drops. Fish anything that’s different — a twist, a turn, a stump, a rock or anything else that seems out of place down there.
That’s not the easiest way to fish but it does have a silver lining. It makes the big ones easier to find. You know where they’re at. You can eliminate 99 percent of the water before you ever launch your boat.
Experience has taught me that these fish don’t feed very often but when they do they want something big. My best lure for December is a John Murray Papa Mur Jig. I like the football head design and the fact that’s it’s tough enough to handle big, angry bass. The 3/4- and 1-ounce size will get down deep and stay there.
My color choices are simple and always dark — blacks and deep browns without any flash. Be especially careful if you’re fishing with black and blue. Some blues are bright and have sparkle on them. That might work most of the year but it won’t work now, and never fish in December with anything that has orange or chartreuse on it.
I sometimes use a trailer to add bulk and size to my bait if the fish are really big or if I think they might be feeding a little more aggressively than usual. When I’m targeting largemouth I go with a Missile Baits D Bomb. When I’m targeting spots I put a Missile Baits Twin Turbo on. Either way I always use a matching color that’s muted and dull.
Be careful about noise, too. I don’t use any kind of rattle. The jig head banging on the shells, rocks or wood on the bottom is enough to get their attention.
You can’t fish too slowly in December. Don’t move your jig more than an inch at a time, and I frequently deadstick mine. That might sound crazy but it works. At times they’ll pick it up while it’s lying still on the bottom. I’m guessing they see it move before they grab it so they know it’s alive, but I can’t be sure of that.
Something else you might want to think about: If you find them now, you’ll have a much better chance of finding them in January when they start to move towards the spawn. We’ll talk about that another day.
