One of the things I’ve been doing the past few winters is fishing with downsized swimbaits. I call it finesse swimbaiting, but it’s really not much different than old-school grub fishing. For the most part it’s good in any temperature and in stained to clear water. I do not recommend it, however, if the water’s heavily stained or muddy.
The first, and most important, factor is bait selection. This is a feeding bite so you want to make sure you always match the hatch. In general, I like baits that are between 2 and 4 inches long in natural colors. I start my local forage research with the Internet, but I always check my selection against what I see when I actually get out on the water.
Bait design is a little more complicated. You need a different style of bait for different water temperatures. This is really important if you want to be successful with this technique.
If the water is somewhere between the low 40s and freezing, you want something with a straight or a pointed tail. Nothing moves much in water that cold. It’s important that your bait look like the real thing.
If the water is between the low 40s and 50 degrees you want a bait with a moderate tail action. I like small boot tails the best. In water warmer than 50 degrees you’ll want something with a high action tail, such as a big boot that displaces more water or a ribbon tail with a lot of ripple to it.
These are relatively small baits so my heads are small, too. My box has a pretty good selection of colors and styles. All of them weigh between 1/16 and 1/4 ounce. That weight range will get you through almost any situation.
I fish finesse swimbaits the same way I fish other swimbaits. That means long casts with a steady retrieve back to the boat. Sometimes I pause my lure just a little bit but I do not put any action on it. Use light tackle and light line. Control your depth and speed with the weight of your head as well as with your reel.
My rigging is really simple. I’d say about 80 percent of the time I fish finesse swimbaits with the hook exposed. If you practice and if you pay close attention to what you’re doing, you can avoid hang-ups in all but the thickest cover.
This is a really good winter technique, guys. I encourage you to give it a try the next time you go fishing. Even in the coldest conditions some bass will feed. This will catch them. And, everything I’ve talked about is inexpensive and readily available.
Next week we’ll talk about jerkbaits, but with a twist you may not have heard about.
Don’t forget: Ike Live! will start at 7 p.m. Eastern tonight. We have three rookies lined up for the show — Joe Sancho and the Lee brothers. We’ll ask them the tough questions and see what they have to say.
Mike Iaconelli’s column appears weekly on Bassmaster.com. You can also find him on Facebook and Twitter or visit his website, mikeiaconelli.com.
