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The
Snow May Be Flying, But Fishing Season's Still Here
by Lee McClellan, courtesy of Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife
February is the pits.
Mother Nature punctuates dreary weather with a pounding cold rain, snow
or damaging ice storm. But, it is not necessary to sit around the house
and mope about the seemingly endless days of highs in the low 40s with
low gray clouds and no sunlight. This bleak time is also the beginning
of fishing season.
For many of us, fishing in mid-winter isn't any fun. It is cold. You spend
an entire day in the biting winter wind with numb hands and burning face
for maybe a couple of bites. This style of fishing appeals mainly to the
diehard.
However, you don't have to wait until it is 75 degrees outside to start
fishing. A three-day warm front from late February to mid-March that pushes
air temperatures into the 60s kick-starts the fishing season. Farm ponds
offer productive fishing for largemouth bass. Stream smallmouth bite heartily
and sauger make their spawning runs.
If you wear a layer of old-school thermals or thin polypropylene with
wicking properties under a layer or two of outer garments, you'll stay
comfortable while you fish in late winter and early spring. Packable rain
gear is great for this time of year because you can wear it in the morning
when it is cold, shed it in the mid-afternoon warmth, and put it on again
at dusk when it gets cold again. They will usually fit in the back of
a fishing vest, a pocket or tackle box.
Farm ponds offer impressive late winter and early spring fishing because
they warm up much quicker than a large reservoir like Lake Cumberland
or Barren River Lake. If the sun shines for a couple of days after a warm
rain muddies the water, big female largemouth bass move up into surprisingly
shallow water.
Old-timers impaled a gob of nightcrawlers on a large hook and probed shoreline
stumps, downed trees and cuts in the bank to catch huge female bass in
late February and early March. They used fiberglass rods up to 12 feet
long with a limber tip and a beefy butt section to haul big bass out of
the heavy cover. This method came to be known as jig-fishing and still
works extremely well.
Large bass move shallow to take advantage of the great feeding opportunities
provided by warm, cloudy water. The shallows draw small bluegill and other
prey and the murky water shields lurking bass. They gorge themselves to
provide nutrients for the eggs developing in their abdomens and recharge
after a long, hard winter.
In addition to jig-fishing, running a square-billed shallow-running crankbait
parallel to the shore triggers strikes from shallow bass, as does a spinnerbait
fished in the same manner. A jig slowly crawled in and near shoreline
cover also works well for these fish.
Stream smallmouth bass also wake up from their winter
slumber in late February and early March. In late fall, stream smallmouth
migrate, sometimes up to several miles, to find their wintering holes.
They seek pools with a deep, current-free middle section with flowing
riffles and shoals on each end.
Concentrate your efforts on the flowing shoals and riffles. A 1/8th-ounce
black, olive, olive and chartreuse or brown bucktail or rabbit hair jig
is deadly at this time of year. Fish them neat with no trailer slowly
along the bottom or swim them just above bottom. A sleeper lure at this
time of year is a 4-inch pumpkinseed lizard with green flakes fished in
the same manner as the hair jig.
In smaller streams, these holes may only be waist to chest deep. Smallmouth
bass spend the winter in these holes in a semi-dormant state and feed
only under conditions advantageous to them. A three-day warm front in
late winter is one of those optimal conditions.
Stream smallmouth bass thrive in a harsh environment. Surviving winter
taxes their biological resources and mature female smallmouth must eat
in late winter to nourish the eggs they'll deposit six weeks from now.
Get out and use this to your fishing advantage.
Sauger also bite willingly in late February and early March. The best
places to fish for them in Kentucky are tailraces on the Ohio River and
directly downstream of Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley in the Tennessee
and Cumberland Rivers. You can also catch them congregating in creek mouths
in the Ohio River and along irregular channel bends in the northern ends
of Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley, but the tailraces are much higher percentage
spots.
Some of the finest sauger fishing in Kentucky is below McAlpine Lock and
Dam in Louisville and Meldahl Lock and Dam near Foster, Kentucky in Bracken
County. Both of these areas are easily fished from the shore or waded.
Fish the flowing chutes that form miniature creeks below McAlpine Lock
and Dam in low water conditions. Fish further downstream near the Falls
of the Ohio State Park if the river is up. The park is on the Indiana
side of the river, but Kentuckians may fish there from the bank with a
valid Kentucky fishing license.
Don't lie around the house and pout as Kentucky shakes off the last of
winter. Get out and fish.
Lee McClellan is an award-winning writer for Kentucky Afield magazine,
the official publication of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife
Resources. He is a life-long hunter and angler, with a passion for smallmouth
bass fishing.
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