IceShanty.com's Ice Fishing Community
Ice Fishing Tips -Check your local regulations! => Bass => Topic started by: PikeFisherman325 on Dec 11, 2016, 03:52 PM
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I was wondering what structure and depth you guys look for when targeting large mouth bass, Also what lures you use? ??? ???
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I have gotten my biggest in 4 ft of water on the edge of a weed bed on a shiner with a quick Strike Rig. For jigging I have had the most luck (for larger size LM & SM) on Salmo Chubby Darters...
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On 1 lake I fish it's considered to be a gravel pit. I think the deepest it gets is 30-35'. All the largemouth that I catch out of this lake are usually in 6-10' and close to the shoreline. When I catch them I am actually bluegill fishing. They enjoy my bluegill jigs tipped with either a waxworm or spike.
Another lake I fish I located them along a drop off near an underwater point. I think the magic depth was 11-13' with the max depth of the lake 25'. I found them suspended in the water column and thought they were crappies. I would catch them on size 2 jigging rapalas. Whenever I had trouble locating crappies I would go back to that spot and catch me a largemouth just to catch something.
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I have caught bass around islands, points, weedbeds, and cribs. If I am using tipups, then I usually fish within a foot off the bottom. Jigging, I have caught a number of bass on slender spoons, little Cecils, and tungsten jigs while jigging for panfish. As far as depth, wherever I mark them in the water column.
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Try a jigging rapala in 15 fow
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I look for 15 to 18 on oversized golden shiners or big suckers...a big flat near deep water usually works best for us...good luck
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Around here the weeds hold a lot of the bass. I sight fish and anywhere from 2'-8' if the weed growth is sufficient the bass cruise in. Often you will see 5-6 in a school of like sized fish.
WS
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Very easy fish to target,always seem to bite. They take panfish jigs with bait or plastic. Tip ups with shiners. Anywhere from shallow weeds to 18-20 on flats. They definitely school together in similar size pods. I found a small piece of structure in 18 fow and just had ridiculous fishing, I caught 40 some bass out of one hole on Forage minnow, even though they where 12-14 " they provided some entertainment for the day. I really never target them,but when Panfish are non existent I'll go find a bass bite.
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I usually use a #5 rapala with the glow natural perch along the outside weed edge. Try to match the color to the type of forage bait that is in your lake. The jigging rapala is designed as a swimming bait so I try to fish it 1-2 ft off the bottom and slowly lift it about 2-3 ft and let it swim down and then thrum it constantly with about a 1 inch up and down motion. Good luck this season.
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I like to fish structures that goes from the swallow and breaks to deeper water. I set tip ups along these and let the bass tell me what depth they are at that day. Schools of big bass seem to be deeper most of the time and there feeding window is much shorter than the smaller bass. You can have good structure without bass but you will never have bass without good structure. It can be tough to find big bass if you don't know the structure of the lake you are fishing. I open water fish almost every lake I ice fish. So I know the structures and the depths of the lake most of the time. I have caught bass in 8 fow on a small break. The next day went back to the same spot and didn't catch them till I moved out to 22 feet of water. There is nothing better than finding a feeding school of big bass. It doest happen often that's what makes it special. Good luck
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Jigging 4ft - 8ft depths along the weed beds has worked best for me.
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Do they tend to move deeper at any time during the winter, or do they stick in the weed/ weed edge?
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always find them near weeds or structure,also find them chasing shad.as shallow as 2 fow to as deep as 30 fow with deep stucture.weeds and structure the key,mostly bays rarely find them in main lake unless weeds or stucture.
GOD BLESS
mo
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In the winter I usually catch them in the deeper water near drop offs and the seam to stay in the same areas time after time I usually run tipups 3’ up from the bottom.