This is the time of year in the North where most people turn their thoughts to next year or get ready for some ice fishing after it gets thick enough. Depending on your geographic location you may be in an Early Spring type pattern for most of the winter. However in the South where you can fish all year long you have to change your tactics back to just about what it was like in the middle of the summer. For this time of year when the water temperature is in the 40's or even colder your presentation has to be a little slower than usual.
The first thing you have to do is find an area that will hold a concentration of bass for the winter. This requires some pre-Winter scouting for likely areas. Look for places that have a steep drop off, a good place would be a steep sloping point that goes from a cove into the main lake. Also if there are any deep water weeds, that would be an excellent place to check every so often. Lures for this time of year would be jigs, slow moving deep-water crankbaits, slow rolling spinnerbaits and spoons.
While ice fishing if you fish where the crowds are, you can expect to do about as well or as poor as most of crowd. You can probably do better if you strike out on your own and find your own spots. Study the lake maps and be careful of the ice thickness. It can be a little more lonely and colder but the results can be well worth it.
If you are fishing down South where there isn't any ice keep an eye on the weather and hit the lake after a few warm sunny days have warmed up the water a few degrees. The best time would be the last warm day right before a cold front moved through.
The above paragraph also goes for those who fish rivers and streams. After a few warm days rivers and streams will warm up, especially smaller feeder streams. Check out the areas where these small feeder streams enter the main water body.
