Ice out bass fishing

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Rodney Heupel on January 8, 2014 at 11:04pm

Kevin, list a few names of the lakes you have in mind. Then I am sure a few of the east side experts will chime in. 50 degree water temp is the magic number when it starts to happen based on my experience. We used to have a young man from Texas in WBC, once he learned to down size lures and line size along with using spinning rod and reel he did well here.

Permalink Reply by Kevin Lunde on January 9, 2014 at 9:09am

Thank you Rodney. 

I fish Eloika and Long and have always wondered how you catch bass during early spring.

thank you 

Rodney Heupel said:

Kevin, list a few names of the lakes you have in mind. Then I am sure a few of the east side experts will chime in. 50 degree water temp is the magic number when it starts to happen based on my experience. We used to have a young man from Texas in WBC, once he learned to down size lures and line size along with using spinning rod and reel he did well here.

Permalink Reply by Tag Watson on January 9, 2014 at 6:01pm

My personal experience in late Winter/early Spring is that the water temperature trend seems to have an even greater bearing on the quality of the fishing than the water temperature itself.  For example, I would much rather fish in 43 degree water that recently warmed up quickly from 38 degrees than in 47 degree water that recently cooled down from 53 degree due to a cold snap.  Just my preference.

I haven't personally fished in an ice-out situation, but I can imagine this scenario could offer some excellent fishing for both largemouth and smallmouth due to the rising water temperature trend under the right conditions (warmer rain, sun, wind, etc.).  I would suggest slower presentations on-average due to the colder temperatures with traps, jerkbaits (long pauses), crankbaits, spinnerbaits, swimbaits, jigs and plastics, but you may encounter certain situations where you can trigger some reaction strikes by fishing a little faster than you would anticipate.

Someone with more experience under these conditions should chime in.  Just wanted to respond to Rodney's post about the 50 degree mark.  I like that number as well for my confidence with certain presentations and patterns, but you can have some lights out fishing in 45 degree water and some lousy fishing in 54 degree water depending on the current conditions and temperature trend.  

Good luck! 

Rodney Heupel said:

Kevin, list a few names of the lakes you have in mind. Then I am sure a few of the east side experts will chime in. 50 degree water temp is the magic number when it starts to happen based on my experience. We used to have a young man from Texas in WBC, once he learned to down size lures and line size along with using spinning rod and reel he did well here.

Permalink Reply by Don Hogue on January 10, 2014 at 9:14am

No different from Texas (except for ice maybe).  Timing of the seasons is just different.  Start with where you think (or know) they will go to spawn and look for steepest contours next to there.  I would focus on the north side (southern exposure) of anything.  Depth and water temp are all relative so it's kinda pointless to get into that.  Fish may be shallow, but will be near those steeper breaks.  

Study Tag's statement on trends.

Permalink Reply by Marc Marcantonio on January 10, 2014 at 3:13pm

+1.  Fish the primary steep break just off spawning flats, or main lake points.

Can't beat a slow jerkbait or suspending crankbait fished slowly if the fish are shallow enough to reach them.

Permalink Reply by Daniel Caffrey on January 10, 2014 at 8:55pm

Get ready for a challenge. Like Tag and Don said, The warming trend is key, and they may be shallow. I love fishin for Ice cold Largies.  (if that's what you're goin for.) It's no doubt the hardest time to catch 'em all year. Smallies will be much deeper.(and much easier to catch)

 My favorite bait is a spinnerbait.I use a double willow in 1/2 oz my favorite color is Gilley by pepper custom spinnerbaits in double gold. However, a crank or a jig works sometimes too. My favorite technique is covering water with a 1/2 oz spinnerbait contouring the bottom on the retrieve. Reel in just fast enough to make the blades spin. Don't be sad if you come home with nothing. Bass don't have to eat much when the water is this cold; due to their metabolism being soooooo slow.  If it's a really sunny day and you are on a stained lake try flippin' or the spinnerbait technique. I've never caught LMB out of ice cold water on a clear lake. However on the stained lakes I have had many days where I have caught a few of them in the winter.  I donno That's just what works for me, but it works. In the sun go shallow flippin n pitchin basically and throw a spinnerbait. I've also caught Largies trolling with a crankbait but that's really boring, so don't do that.

 

Permalink Reply by Colby Pearson on January 10, 2014 at 10:40pm

I fish quite a bit right after ice-out and honestly in my opinion it is by far one of the best windows to catch big fish, and numbers of big fish! Usually I will be targeting smallmouth after immediate ice-out situations but that's mostly because I fish largemouth in the low elevation lakes all Winter and love to target brown fish.

After immediate ice-out I look for fish around early Spring transition areas, like clock-work here, as soon as that ice cracks within a week of thaw those fish are starting to move, thinking about feeding up, and ultimately down the line spawning. It's surprising how fast those fish begin to position themselves in favor for the next phase of the cycle, that time of the year being the spawn. Essentially going from Winter areas, to early pre-spawn/feeding areas, and so forth. It's likely very dependent on the fishery how fast the lake warms & those fish begin their migrations, most of mine are near 5,000' elevation, and the thaw occurs in late March/early April & spawn 3-4 months later.

Immediately following thaw, as previously mentioned, I will begin looking for fish transitioning from immediate Winter haunts to early prespawn type areas, usually deeper water near classic pre-spawn/spawn locations. With smallmouth I find these areas tend to coincide so its fairly straight forward, I'll start fishing offshore areas- humps, flats with hard structure, rock-piles and so forth, even suspended in channels, and I move myself inward as the season progresses. Initially I'll throw a lot of swimbaits, ospreys slow rolled, I'm sure hudds work well, some hard baits like Hiroshima glide bait have caught me some big ones too, I mix in a variation of baits with the swimbaits as well, but don't find myself throwing a lot of slow bottom oriented approaches. I will mix in lipless cranks, preferring the Duo Vibration 68, a very thin high pitched bait that works well around grass it almost mixes characteristics of a blade bait, like a silver buddy, with a trap, I usually yo-yo this bait and rip it through remaning healthy grass (tending to be deeper)- and catch a lot of largemouth doing that, as well as smallies (more so around open pockets of grass). Crankbaits, smaller swimbaits like skinny dippers & Ripbaits, vision 110 & 110+1, both baits that have more left to right movement which I prefer for smallies, and in clear water I'll throw a Duo spinbait-80. I've caught largemouth early in the season on all those baits as well,  in a scenario where I was targeting mostly largemouth I would be more inclined to fish a jig, slower swimbait, and incorporate longer pauses with my ripbaits, personally caught a lot of largemouth in the dead of Winter on big baits, jigs, and various hard baits, as soon as the largemouth move into the willows on my lakes, usually when the water gets in the low 50's I'll pitch those and catch some good fish as well.

Temps obviously start in the 30's, and slowly get into the 40's and 50's, no point in that range have I found a truly exceptional temperature, but it does depend on recent conditons. The nice thing about ice-out bass is they haven't really been pressured in a number of months. I'll go a little slower in cold water, but it's crazy how active fish can be just after ice out.

IMO- the biggest hurdles will be location, which was mentioned in a post before mine by Don Hogue which I completely agree with. & I'm not from Washington so things will vary from lake to lake, state to state.

Permalink Reply by Kevin Lunde on January 13, 2014 at 3:04pm

Thank you everyone for the insight, baits and areas to target late winter and prespawn bass...

Permalink Reply by Ronald Hobbs, Jr. on January 20, 2014 at 9:09pm

Don't be surprised to find fish in 2 feet of water with temps in the mid 40s and ice freezing in your guides... Eastern washington is different than us coasters are use to. I am talking LM here, I have also caught them casting to ice on the bank and dragging it off....it is weird and against what and where I think they should be but have done in it, great thing about fishing is that they are where they are and you can't make them be where you want them to be just because it makes more sense. This shallow water after ice out water freezing up my guides in shallow water has happened enough times to call it a pattern.