A lot of people might look at winter as just plain tough fishing, and it definitely can be. But you’ll also find some really great opportunities within this cold season if you pay attention to the weather patterns.
Personally, I fish a lot in the wintertime. When Christmas gets here, plus or minus a week, I put the bow and arrow up and grab my fishing rods.
In Oklahoma, we have a lot of warm fronts during the winter and those are the periods you want to target. I can tell you, though, that it doesn’t seem like just one or two days of warmth really affects the fish much. That’s because the water is so cold, it just doesn’t have time for a significant change.
It’ll be 40 for a high on one day and the next day it’s 60. You might think the fish have gone shallow and you take off for the lake, but really nothing happens.
But if you get three or more consecutive days of warm weather, the fish will respond to this change. They don’t really move that far, but they get really aggressive. They float up in the water column and they take advantage of that warmer sun and wind.
Usually, a winter warm-up comes from a really hard south wind. That’s make those fish more active, but they don’t travel a long way because they know it’s just a matter of time before it gets cold again. I have seen them go shallow, but they’ll go shallow relatively close to where they’re wintering.
The most movement they do when it warms up is they rise up in the water column. For instance, they might be sitting 20 feet deep on a ledge when it’s cold and when it warms up they move up and suspend maybe 8-12 feet.
When it warms up like that, I chase the wind around because when it warms up you’re going to have a steady south wind and that’s going to push a lot of shad shallow.
I’ve actually seen fish school in the true wintertime after two or three days of steady south wind balls up that shad. They’re not going to jump up out of the water like they do in the summertime. You’ll just see circles in the water where those fish boil where they’re actually schooling right underneath the surface.
As for likely areas to find aggressive fish during a winter warm-up, I’d look at a creek channel swing. That’s where those fish live in the wintertime. As it gets warmer, the fish will roam around in shallow water right next to that creek channel. The more it warms up, those fish will venture out an extra 100 yards.
The more it warms up, the more I’d be open to moving away from the creek channel. I still wouldn’t go a quarter mile, but I wouldn’t be afraid to get a couple hundred yards from the deep water – especially if it’s catching a lot of wind.
One thing to point out is that the impact of a warm-up will vary based on the type of fishery. For example, in a highland reservoir that’s really deep, if you have three or four days of warmer weather, you’re not going to have a drastic increase in water temperature just because the water is so deep.
Now, in a shallow Florida lake or a river system, that water’s going to heat up really fast. If the lake is flat and you get several days of warm temperatures, you’re going to see a really drastic improvement in the water temperature, and you’re going to see a drastic improvement in the fish activity.
I can remember at the 2009 Bassmaster Classic on the Red River, they were practicing under really cold conditions, but during the tournament it got warm. The fish started moving shallow and thinking about spawning a little bit and the guys caught the heck out of them.
Runoff also plays a role in the winter warm-ups, because anytime you get a warm rain in the winter, it’s a guarantee those fish are going to go to where that runoff is entering the lake. When you get that warm water and those crawfish start moving, those bass will move up to eat.
The warmest water will be in the backs of creeks where the water temperature might be 5-6 degrees warmer. But you have to remember that the fish won’t gamble their safety by moving too far from the deeper water.
When we get a warm rain, I’ll focus on shorter creeks that are closer to the deep water. Those fish don’t have to swim as far in a short creek that’s a ½ mile long versus 2 miles.
The good thing about a winter warm-up is that you really don’t need to make any drastic changes in your tackle. You might just speed up the retrieves and go from a 5.1 gear ratio to a 6.3 with your crankbaits.
It’s not time to pull out the buzzbaits, but you can definitely fish a little more aggressively during an extended winter warm-up. The fish are going to bite, so take advantage of what the weather give you.
