Story by Chad Marler | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
Early winter is one of those windows in bass fishing where a lot of anglers feel lost—not because the fish disappear, but because they shift. They’re no longer in the predictable fall patterns, but they haven’t fully committed to their winter homes either. As a guide who spends an enormous amount of time on the water and as an angler on the NPFL tour, this is one of my favorite seasons to teach because it forces you to slow down, read the signs, and understand the “why” behind a bass’s decision-making.
What people often overlook is that early winter isn’t defined by the calendar—it’s defined by the fish. You can have 55-degree water in Texas and still be in “early winter mode” because the bait is bunching up, the nights are longer, and the lake is going through those first real seasonal contractions. Bass react to those cues long before your weather app does.
Start With the Edges of the Fall Pattern
The first thing I look for is where the fall feeding pattern ends. Wherever those shad pushed into the backs of creeks, start backing out. Not 200 yards—I mean literally start with the first meaningful break, the first ditch intersection, or the first swing where deeper water touches the path those baitfish used in the fall.
Bass don’t abandon the shad. They simply slide to the first overhead comfort zone that gives them stability. In early winter, that stability is everything.
Channel Swings, Drains, and “Winter Parking Spots”
Once you step out of the backs of creeks, the next high-percentage areas are:
- Primary and secondary channel swings that make contact with a flat
- Drain intersections where multiple small cuts meet
- Breaks that offer 8–20 feet of quick access
These aren’t random places. They’re the first “safe parking spots” bass use when they start staging for the winter months. They want three things: bait, verticality, and reduced energy expenditure. Any place that checks all three boxes becomes a natural early-winter highway.
Hard Spots Become Magnets
As water temps dip into the low 50s, bottom composition suddenly matters a lot more. Hard spots hold heat, crawfish, and bait. Shell beds, transitions from sand to rock, or even a single small piece of isolated gravel can become the centerpiece of an entire feeding window.
When you find a hard spot adjacent to a ditch or channel swing, you’re not just in the neighborhood—you’re in the living room.
Follow the Bait, But Don’t Chase It
One of the biggest mistakes anglers make this time of year is chasing roving bait balls until they’ve burned a quarter tank of gas. In early winter, the bait moves, but the bass don’t move as far as most people think. A big part of what I teach is how to eliminate water quickly, and this is where discipline pays off.
If I see bait drifting in and out of a drain or transition zone, I don’t leave. I slow down, watch my mapping, and let the seasonal pattern do the work. Bass will slide up, feed, and slip right back into that vertical structure. If you’re constantly chasing bait, you’ll always be one step behind.
Lure Selection: Efficiency Over Ego
Early winter is the kind of season where you can catch bass on a wide range of baits—but that doesn’t mean you should. Efficiency wins. Cover water, dial in cadence, then refine.
My go-to approach looks like this:
- Reaction baits to locate fish: jerkbait, lipless crankbaits, flat-sided crankbaits, tail spinners, or an Alabama Rig
- Precision baits to catch fish: jigs, small swimbaits, finesse presentations, or a Carolina rig
Reaction baits show you where they’re living. Precision baits show you how many are there.
Trust the Season, Not the Noise
Early winter is subtle. You’ll swear the fish vanished, when—in reality—they’re sitting within 200 yards of where they were last month, just tighter, more selective, and transitioning into long-term structure.
The challenge is to quiet the noise, trust the seasonal cues, and let the lake tell you what the fish are doing. The more time you spend reading the water instead of reacting to frustration, the quicker this transition season becomes predictable.
That’s the part I love about fishing at this level. It forces you to stay honest, disciplined, and tuned into the things that never change, no matter what lake you’re on.
As the NPFL season gets ready to fire back up and my guiding stays full throttle, early winter remains one of my favorite teaching windows. When anglers learn to understand this transition—not just survive it—they unlock some of the most consistent fishing of the entire year.
Chad Marler – Angler Profile
