If you’re a serious bass angler, the winter period is an excellent time to build your skills with the lake to yourself. Rising star Cody Huff has mastered winter bass fishing with a handful of common lures. He shares his top 4 techniques and best winter bass fishing lures that will put some quality bass in your boat or on the bank during this challenging yet rewarding calendar period.
- Damiki rig. The Damiki rig is an excellent wounded shad imitator when fished over the top of shad consolidations. Huff prefers working it with minimal action, letting the subtle motion and profile trigger bites during the cold-water period. A heavy jig is essential for getting the bait to the fish fast when using forward-facing sonar in deep water.
- Paddle tail swimbait. Always on the list, a paddle tail swimbait rigged on a heavy jig head is a simple and versatile tool for covering water and generating bites.
- Jerkbait. A jerkbait is Huff’s favorite lure for targeting high-suspended fish over the tops of cedar trees, brush piles, or around points and bait. Jerkbaits excel with forward-facing sonar and on cloudy days with wind.
- Gliding jigs. Swim or gliding jigs are perhaps the best winter bass fishing lures on Huff’s list. Lures such as the Rapala Flat Jig and Rapala Jigging Rap are the ultimate precision strike baits for catching deep water bass. Huff employs forward-facing sonar to locate schooling bass feeding on shad and pitches these heavy baits, which fall fast and accurately to the fish. He uses the lighter #9 Jigging Rap (7/8 oz.) when fish are less than 40 feet and the heavier Flat Jig (1-3/16 oz.) when they’re deeper than 40 feet of water.
FEATURED TACKLE
DAMIKI RIG
- JIG HEAD – VMC Neon Moon Eye Jig
- PLASTIC – Missile Baits Ned Bomb Worm, color – Goby Bite
PADDLE TAIL SWIMBAIT
- JIG HEAD – VMC Hybrid Swimbait Jig, 1/2-ounce
- SWIMBAIT – Missile Baits Shockwave Swimbait, 3.5-inch
JERKBAIT – Rapala Shadow Rap Deep
GLIDING JIGS
- Rapala Jigging Rap, size – W9 (7/8 oz.)
- Rapala Jigging Shadow Rap
- Rapala Flat Jig (discontinued)
ELECTRONICS
- FORWARD-FACING SONAR – Garmin Panoptix LiveScope System
- GRAPHS – Garmin EchoMAP Ultra Fishfinders (126SV & 106SV)
