Ice Out Bass Tactics

Ice out is something that is highly anticipated by the northern anglers.   Many lakes, reservoirs and ponds can freeze solid for several months, keeping you away from catching bass, unless you’re an ice fishermen.  As the end of winter approaches, all we keep saying is “when will the ice finally start to melt?”  When the winter continues to linger on the excitement for the ice out builds.   For those of you who didn’t spend your free time during the winter organizing your tackle boxes, cleaning your reels and all the other stuff us northerners do, you’ve got some work ahead of you if you want to be ready for ice out bass fishing!

Ice out can be a great time of year to go bass fishing, if you understand the transition bass make from their wintering holes to their spawning grounds.   The bass have been hunkering down all winter in very cold waters, as the ice and snow melts away, water temps begin rapidly increasing drawing the bass to move to more shallow areas where the water is warmer.

Locating Bass

Largemouth and Smallmouth bass can be found in many locations from steep bluff walls with stair-stepping ledges to shallow, dark bottom areas near rocks and weeds where there’s more heat.  The one common factor you need to search for is the transition areas that bass will use to get from deep to shallow.  On larger man made impoundments, old road beds, creek channels and stone walls can be used as a road map that shows you how bass will move from point to point:

A (wintering holes) to

B (deep transitional structures, bluffs, rock ledges, points, etc.) to

C (shallow transitional structures like rock piles, docks and emerging weed beds) to

D (Spawning flats)

Read More Finding Bass When the Ice Melts

Crankbait Tips - Off-Shore

When fishing a crankbait in an off-shore area that you know is holding bass but you can't seem to get them to bite, there are several "tricks" you can try to entice them. For instance, try to vary your retrieve speed (steady, stop & go), change your presentation angle... read more

February Bass & Perch Report - Long Island

Well I was able to get out with my fishing partner Joey for a half-day trip on Sunday. We fished a small pond on the east end of Long Island. We arrived at the ramp around 1:30pm.

Date: 2/19/12
Air temp: 44 degrees
Water Temp: 41 degrees
Water Clarity: Clear
Winds: West at 10 MPH

We set out to target largemouth bass. First area we approached produced two largemouth bass on back to back cast with a hair jig.





Both bass were located at the base of the drop-off into deeper water. We fished the break for about an hour and landed a total of 5 bass ranging from 2.5 lbs to 3 lbs. No giants, but some nice post frontal action for February. We also connected with a bonus fish, a really chunky perch.



We left that area to check another wintering spot and were rewarded with a 2 lb bass and this nice largemouth that was about 3.75 lbs (photo below). That was our biggest bass landed for the day. We connected with couple more 2-2.5lb bass in another wintering hole, but nothing big.



All in all we had a great day on the water. All of our fish were caught on1/8 oz. hair jigs. We managed to catch 9 Largemouth Bass, 4 pickerel and that fat perch, which got me itching to go target perch, so that became to focus for the following morning:

On the trip back, I put a call into my friends Dave and Nunzio to find out if they wanted to join me for a Perch trip. Both agreed and we planned to be on the water by 8:30AM. Our destination was another Long Island pond that holds a very healthy population of nice sized Perch.


DAY 2

Date: 2/20/12
Air temp: 37 degrees
Water Temp: 40 degrees
Water Clarity: Clear
Winds: North 25 MPH (with Gust up to 35 MPH)


You know it’s cold when you are thinking of getting back into the truck while you are taking the tie down straps off the boat! The wind was howling and the pond we were fishing has no place to get out of the wind, so we knew it was going to be a long day. We started searching for Perch in a hole where they are often found schooled up this time of year. It is a large area with weeds and stumps, but with the wind at 25mph sustained, it made finding the perch a little difficult. In addition, the weed was gone. We worked around the area for a while and then decided that we needed to set out to find some good weed that might still be around. Once we found a good patch of weed near the creek channel, it was on! We connected with our first perch around 9:30am, kicked a buoy marker over the side and caught them almost on every cast until about 12:00pm.
















Every now and then they would move around a bit, but for the most part they stayed within about a 100’ radius. We had tons of doubles and a few triples. We only had on one giant, but she came off before we could land her. The rest were all really healthy, fat and feisty perch. With the average perch weighing about 1.5 lbs. They’re a lot of fun on light tackle with 4lb test line.

More Bass Fishing Reports

Power Plant Bass Fishing

One lake in particular that I like is Clinton Lake, (about 2 hours south of Chicago) a 4,900 acre reservoir that's a cooling lake for the Clinton Power Plant. In the dead of winter we're catching bass in 50 degree water on crankbaits, plastic worms and slow rolling spinnerbaits.

October thru March in the upper Midwest usually means that bass season is pretty much over, most folks take their bass boats in for their end of the season maintenance and winterization and start focusing on deer and waterfowl season. Hey what do you expect it's the North Country; the first major snow storm comes in and you're stuck at home watching fishing show and going in & out of Bass Pro Shops or your favorite tackle store just to keep that desire for April spring fishing on your mind.

That works for some but there are a few of us that will get our bass fishing fix by fishing Power Plant Lakes.These are cooling lakes for Power plants, whether its nuclear or coal generation, these lakes don't freeze in the winter months and believe it or not stay fairly warm in the cold months. The other nice thing about these lakes is that they are usually stocked lakes, most of them are bass factories, so you will likely get some kind of action all year. Here in Illinois, where I live, we have several lakes just like these all over the state.

This is a great practice lake in the winter month's because with the warmer water from the hot discharge it will teach you how to fish currents, practice your prespawn-spawn techniques, and it will help you gain confidence in baits as well. On Clinton you can use rattle traps in 50 + degree water temp and 38 degree air temp and catch 15+ bass in a day.
Clinton Lake and other Power Plant coolings are a great option to work on your bass techniques in the winter months, and will keep that winter monkey off your back!!!

Tight Lines!!
Marques Green

Category: Tactics & Techniques

Big Smallmouth Bass in deep cold water on Keitech Fat Swing Impact Swimbaits. A preview of BASSIN' USA's 30 minute smallmouth bass fishing video catching big wintering reservoir smallmouth bass in the northeastern United States.