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Five Presentations for Deep Winter Bass

By Justin Willmer

In summer we love hunting the edges for bass, fishing shallow, and buzzing the surface in search of those aggressive strikes and powerful runs. As the weather cools the bass commonly move toward the dam walls in preparation for a spawning that won’t happen without access to brackish water, creating large schools of bass that can easily be located with the use of a depth sounder. The bite can be frustrating when the conditions shut the schools down, but when they switch on it can create those hot bites that keep us coming back, with cricket score catches to be had. In this article I will cover five of my favourite presentations for targeting bass when they are schooled deep and how I like to fish them.

Before we get into these five proven presentations, let’s look at locating and approaching schooled bass. Impoundments will vary dramatically in terms of depth and available structure, in turn influencing where fish hold. After fishing many different impoundments over the years, some common areas worth searching throughout the cooler months include points, humps or rises in the bottom, deep weed edges, deep rock edges and flats of 6-10 metres that hold bait and are in close proximity to deeper water. Also keep an eye out for bait being pushed to the surface or numbers of birds in an area, often signaling the presence of bait.

These large schools of bass consume plenty of food so mark any schools of bait on your sounder and it’s worth visiting these marks a few times throughout the session as bass may move to feed on this bait before returning to deeper water or deeper structure. Likewise mark any schools of bass on your sounder and if they are shut down, flat lining on the bottom and won’t feed, it’s worth visiting them again during the session to check if they are actively feeding.

When the fish are shut down and not feeding aggressively, your retrieves will often need to be slower and more subtle, dragging presentations across the bottom, slow rolling (slow winding) through the schools and shaking your lure in their face until you can encourage a bite. When the schools are lit up and bass are actively feeding, cutting diagonal lines across your sounder screen, a more aggressive burn and kill, hopping or shaking retrieve can fire up some brutal strikes.

Below are five presentations that have proven effective when targeting schooled bass throughout the cooler months. They also offer you five very different presentations that you can cycle through until you find what the fish want at that point in time, which can change throughout the day with sunlight, water temperature, wind direction, barometer, and other variables.

ZMan Slim SwimZ

Creek, river, or impoundment there is one plastic that is a standout for me when targeting bass, and it just happens to also be one of my favourite presentations in the salt. The ZMan 2.5” and 3” Slim SwimZ is the perfect baitfish profile, with its slender body profile and under hooked tail providing loads of action and bite size realism. More importantly, the super-soft and flexible, 10X Tough ElaZtech material means that this small profile swims at super-slow retrieve speeds and on the drop (sink), seeing it eaten as it sinks or fish following it to the bottom and eating it on the first couple of hops.

A variety of retrieve speeds will work effectively, including a slow roll (slow wind), burn and kill (wind and pause), and hopping, allowing the plastic to sink to the bottom and imparting a couple of upward hops with the rod tip, before pausing and allowing the plastic to sink to the bottom again. The bites will often come on the sink / pause when fishing these three techniques and at any point during the retrieve. The key is to keep the plastic in the strike zone, be it on or near the bottom if fish are schooled on the bottom, or higher in the water column if the fish are schooled mid-water, while matching the retrieve to their mood on the day, which could be anything from a dead slow drag along the bottom to an aggressive rip and pause.

I commonly fish the Slim SwimZ on a TT HeadlockZ Finesse jighead or TT DemonZ painted head to match or contrast the plastic. The 2.5” rigs perfectly on a 1/0 size jighead and I will fish it from a 1/8oz to 1/4oz jighead down to about six metres. A ZMan 3” Slim SwimZ will be rigged on another rod, paired with a 2/0 size jighead, and I will fish it on a 1/4oz down to around six metres and a 3/8oz for fishing deeper or getting it there faster. Having the two different sizes of Slim SwimZ rigged allows me to switch it up if the bite stalls on one size. If you are looking for a bulkier presentation for targeting larger fish, the ZMan 3” MinnowZ is another excellent presentation, rigged on the aforementioned jigheads in a 3/0 hook size.

TT Switchblade

This metal vibration blade has been a bass favourite for anglers for many years and it still produces bites whether jigged vertically, cast, and retrieved, or slow trolled, making it a versatile addition to your kit. The Switchblade sinks quickly, allowing you to get into the strike zone and stay there, while the flash and vibration emitted appeals to actively feeding fish. For chasing winter bass, I will carry 1/4oz, 3/8oz and 1/2oz models, to cover bass schooled in varying depths of water. You can sit above the school and pulse the blade vertically, throw long casts and cover water or slow troll the Switchblade around the schooled fish, pausing your kayak or knocking the boat motor out of gear to allow the blade to flutter back down through the school.

We have had some red-hot sessions on the Switchblade over the years and it pays to carry a few different colours, with Red Nightmare, Aussie Green and Gold, Green Back and Peacock Blue being a few of my favourites. Remember, if you are fishing lures with trebles, it pays to carry a pair of TT pliers to make hook removal simpler and safer, especially while also avoiding the bass gill rackers and spikes.

TT RevlockZ Jighead

Lures with spinning blades, designed to create flash and vibration, such as spinnerbaits and Jig Spinners, are popular during the summer edge reaction bite period, often being packed away through the winter months when other presentations are preferred. Attached blades can reduce casting distance and sink rate, both of which are important when fishing deeper water, however the compact framed 1/2oz TT Vortex spinnerbait is one to keep in the winter kit.

Another option for adding flash and vibration when targeting deeper schooled bass, while maintaining casting distance and sink rate, is the TT RevlockZ underspin jighead. The small blade under the head weight of the jighead can be enough to trigger strikes from fish when they can’t be tempted by other presentations and you also have the versatility of fishing a slow roll, burn and kill, or hopping retrieve, or mixing it up during the one retrieve. RevlockZ are available in the jighead sizes listed above to suit the Slim SwimZ, while also offering a wide range of sizes to suit other plastics.

The flash and vibration of the RevlockZ can come in handy when the school is pressured and you want to show them something different, when the school is spread out and you want to attract the attention of the fish while covering water, and when the fish switch off on other presentations that you are throwing. Blade options include gold (brass) which is often preferred in low light and dirty / tannin-stained water and silver (nickel), a common option for clear water. Both colour options are available in a Colorado blade, which is rounder, has more thump and lift, and is generally fished slower, or Willow blade, which is longer and narrower, with a faster rotation, more flash and the ability to run deeper at the same retrieve speed.

TT Hard Core Metal Lures

Take my favourite tailor spinning lure, the TT Hard Core in 20g, to the fresh and you have a deadly bass presentation when the school is feeding more actively, especially on baitfish. This presentation casts a mile, allowing you to cover plenty of water, and it gets down there quick when the bass are schooled deep. Colours in the range include natural baitfish colours, such as Pearl and silver with a blue, black, or green back. Another option worth having in the kit to mix things up is the Chartreuse colour.

Retrieve wise just throw a long cast, allow the Hard Core to sink to the desired depth and commence a slow wind. The Hard Core has a subtle swimming action that gets the bite and if that doesn’t fire them up, try throwing in a pause, or a burn and kill (wind and pause). This presentation won’t catch them all the time, but it does allow you to cover a serious amount of water and when it does catch it can produce fish-a-cast action.

TT NedlockZ

This is my switch for when the school is shut down and sulking on the bottom, along with fishing impoundments that have less baitfish and more shrimp and freshwater yabbies. This one requires a little more patience, however it can get them to bite when they don’t want to, while also clocking up the numbers when they are feeding actively.

The Ned Rig System starts with a TT NedlockZ jighead, a mushroom shaped head that has a rapid ‘stand up’ action when paired with the naturally buoyant ZMan ElaZtech plastics. This ensures that the presentation is always working for you, maximizing the bite opportunities. The NedlockZ can be paired with virtually any smaller ZMan plastic, including paddle and curl tails, jerkbait profiles, and crustaceans and creatures.

When dragged, twitched, shaken or hopped the plastic appears to be moving naturally, foraging, or fleeing, and when paused the plastic will rapidly stand up as if it is either feeding, for example paddle tails, or in a natural defensive pose, such as craws. The plastic will also move naturally with any water movement. This sees the Ned Rig attracting predators and triggering strikes throughout the entire retrieve, whether fished super slow or more aggressively.

Commonly winter schooled bass are found in open water; however, a weedless option is also available in the NedlockZ EWG, which comes into its own when the fish are schooled around weed and other structure. This is also an option to add to your kit for targeting bass in weed and structure during the summer months.

A Few Tips

Bass schooling through the cooler months can be frustrating, but they can also produce some of the most exciting and productive sessions that you will encounter, with big, healthy fish producing that initial line burning run that makes bass an addictive target species. The main tips that I would give you would be to cover water and mark some bait and schools that you can work as a milk run, be patient and mix up your presentation and retrieves. The lure that worked last time is a good starting point, but not guaranteed, so carry a selection of presentations and mix up both the presentation and the retrieve. If you are fishing with other anglers, try fishing different presentations and retrieves until you crack a pattern.

Learn to use your sounder, both the sonar function and the GPS, as it’s the GPS that becomes even more important when the fish are schooled deep, and you are fishing the massive expanse of water that many of our impoundments present to anglers. The GPS will allow you to better control drift lines, especially in wind, to ensure that you are drifting over productive water, including bait and fish that you have marked on the sounder. If you don’t have a sounder, it’s all about covering water, while looking for other signals, such as bait, birds, and the geography of the land, such as points and steep rock edges.

That’s a Wrap

Alright, it’s time to get stuck into a few bass and I will generally start with an all-round light spin combo, such as a 7’, 2-4kg rod, 2500 size reel, 8-10lb braid and 8-10lb leader. The option is then to step down to a lighter 1-3kg setup for finesse presentations such as the Ned Rig System, or up to a heavier 3-6kg setup for casting heavier metal lures. If you are just starting out though, the 2-4kg spin combo is a great all-rounder for the fresh and salt.

Hopefully this article has given you some tips for getting started on winter schooled bass, while also offering five presentations that have proven themselves effective for myself and other anglers, across a wide cross section of impoundments. Take some time to explore the area that you are fishing, take note of the bait and bass schools, be patient, cover water and switch it up until you make one of those cricket score sessions happen that will remain etched in your fishing memories forever.

See you on the water…
Justin Willmer