Entry 132-1
George Cochran’s December Bass Tactics
Crank 'Em Up
Editor's Note: Two-time Bassmasters Classic winner and longtime avid bass angler, George Cochran, fishes in all kinds of weather and at different times of the year.
Cochran: At this time of the year, the shad are moving to the back of the creek, and the bass will be following the shad back up the creek. Therefore, the lures I'll be fishing this month will look like shad. That's the forage base that I'm keying on this month. The first thing I want to know is the size of the shad the bass are eating. Generally, the shad at this time of the year will be from 3- to 7-inches long.
My favorite lure to fish at this time of the year is a Series 4 crankbait, one of the biggest crankbaits that Strike King makes. The Series 4 runs down about 5- or 6-feet deep, depending on the size line on which you cast it. Bigger line will cause the crankbait not to run as deep as the smaller-diameter lines will. I like this crankbait in the shad colors. I like black-and-white, blue-and-white and chartreuse-and-white Series 4 crankbaits. If the water's dingy, I'll be fishing strictly a chartreuse Series 4 crankbait, which is my go-to, tournament-winning lure for this month.
My favorite place to fish this crankbait in December is in the back of a creek with wood cover close to the creek channels. I like to fish blown-down trees, stumps or brush right beside the creek channels. At this time of the year, the bass will be bunched-up and schooling feeding on shad. The Series 4 crankbait looks just like the shad that the bass are feeding on with one difference. If you're fishing a Bleeding Bait Series 4 crankbait, your shad-imitating lure looks like an injured or a hurt shad because of the red color on the hook and on the crankbait. Bass know that an injured shad is easier to catch and eat than a shad that's not injured. Therefore, I believe that the Bleeding Bait crankbait gives me an advantage to solicit more strikes at this time of the year than other crankbaits do.
I'll be casting that crankbait toward stumps, logs, underwater grass or any kind of cover I can find on the edge of a creek channel. I'll cast past the cover, crank the bait down until I get it right beside the cover and then stop the bait. That's when the bass will most often hit the lure. I think that when a crankbait's sitting still in the water, a bass just has to attack. I think that if you can crash the crankbait into the wood, let it sit still 2 or 3 seconds and then start cranking it again, the bass thinks that shad has injured itself when it hit the wood. If you think like a bass, the bass sees the bait coming, sees and hears the lure hit the wood and then sees the lure sit still in the water as though it's stunned. The crankbait then has given the bass everything the fish needs to know to indicate he has an easy meal that he won't have to expend much energy to catch and eat. This reason is why the Series 4 crankbait fished this way this month is my favorite bait.
Another tactic that can be equally deadly this month is to look for shad, large schools of shad that will look like a ball on the depth finder. These balls of shad can be anywhere, including out in the middle of the lake, in the middle of a cove or in the middle of the creek. I've caught some huge stringers of bass using the following technique in creeks. I'll cast the crankbait past the school of shad, reel it down and through the school. When the crankbait crashes into the school of shad, the shad will run in all directions. When they do, I'll stop the crankbait right in the middle of the school. Often bass that have been following that school of shad will come up and eat that crankbait just sitting dead in the water and that spooked the shad.
Contents:
- Part 1: Crank 'Em Up
- Part 2: What to Do When the Bass Don't Bite
- Part 3: What to Do When Cranking Doesn't Work
- Part 4: Me and Mr. Money
- Part 5: How Cochran Fishes Top-Water Baits in December
