Fishing tip of the week

Obituaries

Thursday, 01 April 2021 13:00

Fishing targets
by Mike Gerry

Cold water or winter fishing can be about finding the right targets.
I can go back to my childhood and recall a statement I learned to live by as a professional fisherman, that being in the midst of winter fishing, “the bass move to hard targets” like rock, bridges, or wood, in the coldest part of winter or early spring. Those days where you are out on the water and it seems like you just cannot get a bite and it is the cold-water time of year, head to the hard targets and you will find the fish! I promise you it will work; it has for me, for years, and I still make it work today!

The reason I am writing this, in fact, is this past week, on our first stop, I headed immediately to the hard cover and we caught fish off their edges. The water was high and muddy, but the bass were hanging on the rock and exploited this old timers’ beliefs and it worked. Often, one of my fisherman buddies will tell me when we get in the boat together that the bass are just not biting well. We will then head to the hard cover and prove him wrong.
The best piece of advice I can tell you, as you are dissecting the water for bites, is do not be myopic. Use several baits and fish several depths around the hard cover until you find what they want! Today it was a jig, but tomorrow it might be a crank bait, or flat side bait, or even a swimbait. Work close to the cover then back off it until a depth and pattern appears and you start catching fish!

The thing you can bet on is that the bass are there. Your job is to get them to bite, and find something they will react to.
This day, for me, the hard target was rock, but do not overlook wood, or stumps they are always good hard targets. It is also true that boat houses are a strong contender in the winter, especially if the boat house has 8 to 15 ft. of water around it.
Hard targets come in a lot of forms, explore them all and eventually you will score and have some great winter fun!
Captain Mike