9.5 Pound Largemouth!

Winter is always a slow time of year for bass fishing, but if you use the weather to your advantage its very possible you can reel in some of the biggest bass you’ll catch all year. Winter fishing hardly ever produces large numbers of bass, but with the right techniques you can catch a few pigs, even in the midst of winter. Just last weekend I used these and caught 9.5 pound largemouth out of my Jackson Kayak. 

Its late January and the water has cooled off. The fish have slowed down and have started feeding less. This means two things, you either have to slow down your tactics to really entice a bite, or try and get a reaction strike. A reaction strike is when a fish strikes a lure out of muscle memory and instincts. To make this happen you have to very closely impersonate a species that the fish are use to eating. These are some common bait used for this technique, jerk baits, rattle traps, crank baits, and things of that nature. These techniques are my personal favorite for triggering those cold water bites.

Now back to last weekend. I had woke up early, somewhere around six. Me and my buddy Mason pushed our Big Rig and Coosa onto the water. It was windy because of the rain storm that had just passed. A warm front had just hit so it was around 50 degrees out. This meant the top water column will be slightly warmer than the rest of the lake. Which meant the fish might be suspended in the warmer water. These factors lead me to my choice of throwing a jerk bait. The jerk bait allowed me to keep my lure shallow enough to stay in the warmer water. Its also a fast fishing lure which was necessary because of the wind. So me and my buddy paddled out to some open water and started slowly drifting down the lake. While I was throwing a jerk bait he was tossing a spinner bait. We had both cause a few small ones but nothing of substantial size yet. Of course the usual trash talking was going on about who was going to out fish the other. But in the middle of our talking I made a nice long cast out into the open water where I had seen some baitfish.

I gave it a jerk, second jerk, third jerk, then bam, she hit. My rod was doubled over and drag was screaming out of my reel. After about a 3-4 minute fight we were able to bring her in the Kayak. This was one of the biggest bass I have ever seen or caught. This was a fish of a lifetime and I am extremely grateful to have been able to witness this fish. The stars aligned the day and i was lucky enough to hook into a big one. This just goes to show that with the right techniques, and a little bit of luck, its possible to pull in big bass no matter the weather or time of year.