Keith Lusher 12.28.23
Picture the scene: It’s a cold winter day. The forecasted high is 38 degrees. The sun is shining brightly with not a cloud in the sky.
For most bass anglers, these are factors that face them weekly as we see cold fronts blow through from the northwest. While it may be standard procedure for anglers to target deep water when water temperatures are cold, Chris Basey said another alternative for finding the fish is to target shallow water. Basey is a tournament angler and runs a local bass tournament. This forces him to fish year-round because of the schedule. This means fishing for bass during the mid-winter months. “I like to look for wood structure along the bank that the sun has been shining on for a few hours,” Basey said. This is because the objects that the sun has been shining on conduct heat down into the water where they are anchored. Bulkheads, pylons, and fallen tree trunks are all options for congregating schools of baitfish that attract bass.On a recent fishing trip on the East Pearl River in Mississippi, Basey entered a small canal that pointed north. The sun was raised above the eastern shoreline casting a shadow along the eastern bank. The western shoreline however was illuminated by the bright sunshine.
Basey spotted a bulkhead that spanned a section of the western shoreline. It was 10:30 in the morning so the sun had been shining on the bulkhead for over 3 hours.”
As Basey approached, he noticed his electronics lighting up with schools of baitfish. The shaded eastern bank was void of baitfish. “It was amazing to see the difference in the amount of baitfish that were huddled along the bulkhead as opposed to the shady eastern shoreline. I saw that and I knew that name of the game today was going to be targeting sunny bulkheads,” he said.
Basey was throwing a Strike King KVD Square Bill 1.0 Crankbait horizontally to the structure and started catching fish that were hanging on the outside of the baitfish. “Those bulkheads benefit the bass in two ways. First, it attracts the baitfish because of the warmer water it creates.
Secondly, it serves as a backstop for the bass to ambush from the opposite side so that the shad can’t swim away from them,” Basey said. In addition to wooden structures, Basey said there are other features to look for when the water temperatures are cold. Lily pads, rocks, and oyster shells along the bank can also soak up the sunlight and transfer heat into the water that is in contact with them.
