Story by Todd Goade | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
Winter is pretty much in full swing here at home in East Tennessee, and for me that means working shallow. I know that may not sound like a normal strategy for some, but it can definitely get the job done where I’m from.
If you’re on one of the reservoirs in my area such as Douglas, Cherokee, and those along the Tennessee River—Chickamauga, Watts Barr or Fort Loudoun, for example—it doesn’t really matter how cold it gets, you can always catch bass shallow.
Growing up in East Tennessee, I’ve enjoyed this type of fishing for over 35 years now, and I can remember during winter breaks at ETSU that my good friend Brian and I spent most of those breaks at Cherokee Lake crankbait fishing and we still talk about the incredible days that we had. Ask him about the car keys jumping out of his pocket into the lake while he was reaching for clippers, I still rib him about that to this day!
I like tight-wobbling crankbaits this time of the year while focusing on rock. You target rock because it’s just able to hold heat better. I try to work the crankbait at around 5 to 6 feet deep—just deep enough to not skim along the bottom. I cast parallel to the rocky bank or at a 45-degree angle. The heat coming from those rocks doesn’t radiate very far, so you’ll need to be casting pretty close to them because the bass won’t stray far from that heat.
There’s rock in the Ozark lakes like Table Rock Lake, but those bluffs are a little steeper than what we see in Tennessee. Ozark anglers like to use baits like a SPRO Rck Crawler to get to about 8 to 10 feet of depth because they need it with steeper bluffs. In East Tennessee, we can get away with more shallow depths and something like a Shad Rap, DT6, or a balsa version that I like from Greenfish Tackle called a Stray Dog.
Every great angler I know from East Tennessee throws these shallow-running balsa crankbaits on a spinning rod. There’s something about the action a spinning rod imparts on that bait that a baitcasting reel just can’t imitate. I like 8-pound test, but you can get away with 10-pound if you’re in a pinch. I would always try to go with 8-pound whenever you can, though.
In terms of color, I like to keep it simple: it must be red, or gold, or have an orange belly. One of those three things always needs to be present in order to have success. I’m not mimicking shad with these baits; it’s mostly crawfish. I don’t need a shad imitating bait in the winter, usually.
You may not catch a ton of bass working this technique, but I can promise you’ll be impressed with the quality of bass you bring in. I’m talking about 16 to 20 pounds for your best five. Almost every bite is a good one if you can be patient and find the right structure, location and color of your bait.
Try these tips at your home lake and you may be surprised how shallow the bass are in the winter.
Todd Goade – Angler Profile
