Cold-Weather Spinnerbaiting

Rick Vogelbacher on Round Lake Indiana

What a day! Where to begin? Well let me start with the weather. Overnight lows were supposed to get in the teens, but I don't think it went past the lower 20s. I delayed my fishing plans do to the cold temperatures. Started fishing at 9:30 am and finished around 2:30 pm. Temperatures didn’t reach above the magic 32 degrees until 12:30 pm. Winds were howling around 15 to 20 mph. Which left me with a few difficulties along the way. My eyelets kept freezing up, and I had to keep cleaning my reels out of the ice. By the time I went home, temperatures rose to 35 degrees.

One last note is worth mentioning: I’ve set my goal for this year, and it’s not what you might think. Last couple years it’s been to catch a bass over 8 lbs. This year I’ve decided on making my goal one that will help achieve the previous goal. Attitude!

In the past I’ve let the weather get me down before I even wet a line. I said to myself I’m not going to do that to myself this year. Called my Dad up on the phone to let him know I was picking up the oars and anchors in the morning from his place. First thing he says to me is: “Are you crazy? Those fish aren’t going to bite today. We had that huge cold front already move through, and it’s windy as heck out there. Those fish will have lockjaw.” I said that’s ok; I think I can catch some today.

I called to get permission from Willie, a friend of mine who is one of four landowners on this particular lake. Willie gave me permission to use one of his boats and said he didn’t think they would bite today. I wasn’t discouraged at all. For the last couple nights, already knowing the weather conditions I would be faced with, I had envisioned the day far in advance. I knew where the key spawning ground was and believed that a lot of these bass would have backed off with the cold temperatures and moved to a transitional area between flats of 4 feet and the drop-off of 50 feet. So I concentrated on one particular spot that was between 4 and 8 feet deep right on the break.

I give Kevin Van Dam credit for this new goal this year. Quoting out of one of his books: "I force myself to begin every day of fishing with confidence, regardless of the conditions. I look for something positive in every situation, no matter how small it may be or how dreadful the fishing conditions are. That can carry me through a day of tough fishing, because I firmly believe — I'm confident — that the next cast can produce a fish when other anglers are convinced the fish won’t bite." What a great piece of advice for every angler. Don’t you think?

All right, to the good stuff. I launched the boat, and set up on the spot I envisioned the two nights before. Set the anchors, and on the second cast slow rolling the Secret Weapon Baby Bass pattern spinnerbait, I landed a 29-inch Pike. Two casts later I landed a nice 3 to 3-1/2 pound bass. I’m jacked now! This is the first time I’ve used this particular spinnerbait, and it helped build all the confidence I needed for the day.

I ended up catching a 42-inch Northern Pike – my new personal best in that species. She did’t look as thick as a 39-incher I caught last year, but she was definitely longer, and better yet, I got her photographed.

Over the next 4 hours I caught probably a dozen bass, six of them between 3 and 4 lbs.! Yeah! What a great day, I’m thinking to myself. Half of those dozen were caught on the Secret Weapon Spinnerbait slow-rolled near a flat.

Well, the icing on the cake was still to come. I hooked into a good one on a Cordell Spot crankbait and she felt big. I fought her up to the boat, and she’s got a huge gut on her. If I can just get her in the net before she pulls loose from the trebles. I got her coming towards me on the surface, made a swipe with the net, and she gave a burst with the tail and goes back down. Man, I’m thinking to myself, if she comes off I’m going to be sick because I had a good shot at netting her. Next swipe didn’t miss. She was in the boat and she looked huge. She ended up being 22-1/2 inches long! I’m guessing her weight between 6 and 6-1/2 pounds. This day I will remember for some time. Hopefully many more are in the future.