Best Method for Coldest Time of Year?

[slabbandit]

On this southern lake the water rarely freezes and our average deeper spots are 35 feet deep in the old river channel. What would some of your preferred methods be to catch fish this time of year?

[bugman]

Up here we get ice in january but until it freezes over on the upper end of a tributary i fish i'm fishin my stakebeds in 8' or less,the old channel is only 10' deep up there so they really don't have anywhere to go,about mid day especially on sunny days they pull up on the stakes and it's like pullin em out of a bucket.on the main lake the fish set up on docks anywhere from 1' to 20' deep,some days you can shoot docks and catch black fish just under the foam and turn right around and fish a brush pile 20' deep ond pull one white fish right after another.I know you have a bunch of stakebeds bandit do you ever try them in the winter?

[spiderkayaker]

i fish all winter here in NC.

i do best tightlining live minnows very slow. i use 1-1.5 oz weights kentucky rigged with the bottom hook being about 4 inches above the weight. then i set them slam on the bottom in the deepest parts of the channels. the bites are really light. ive found the trick for winter fishing is the wind. if you cant sit still, you probably wont hook up.

[slabbandit]

Hey Bugman, I have a few deeper brush and stakebeds that produce from time to time in the winter months.

[bugman]

How do you guys mostly fish down your way bandit?

[slabbandit]

Actually, there's not very many people winter fish here. What I've noticed is deep and fairly tight to the bottom.

[89ranger]

Spider rigging

[damitdanny]

would this be lake walter? and do you have a fish finder some of the guys use a knot in the line to let the cork slid up so you can cast and fish 20 to 30 ft.






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[89ranger]

Spider rigging

[gabowman]

Whatever it takes to get fish to bite. I'll longline troll until I cannot BUY a bite, then switch to downlining meat under the hugh bait balls. Generally, I dont have that much of a problem getting fish to bite the curly tail jigs pulled behind the boat though when theyre under the schools of bait.