Entry 156-2

Chad Brauer and How to Catch Bass at the End of December

Jigging for Wintertime Bass

Editor’s Note: Chad Brauer of Osage Beach, Missouri one of the hottest young fishermen on the bass-fishing circuit, has been fishing almost since he’s been walking and has been taught fishing by his father, Denny Brauer. Although Chad has had the good fortune of being under the tutelage of the one of the greatest bass fishermen in our day, he has developed his own style and techniques to compete against some of the other best bass anglers in the world. This week let’s learn how Brauer catches bass at the end of December.

Question: Is it true you like to fish a jig at this time of year?

Brauer: At this time of the year, I like to fish Strike King’s Denny Brauer jig really slowly on steep, rocky banks. You’ll usually find these areas along creek channel banks, on river bends and in other places where bass can move up and out of deep water into the 1- or 2-foot water depth on warm days. If a cold front moves in, they can pull back into 20-feet-deep water. You want an area where the bass won’t have to go very far to move from shallow water to deep water. Therefore, depending on water temperature, the bass can either be shallow or deep. If the water color is clear, as it is in most places at this time of year, you should use a brown-colored jig to imitate a crawfish. I really like the Strike King Pro Model jig the best at this time of the year.

Question: When you say you’re fishing a jig slowly, what does slowly mean, and how are you fishing this jig?

Brauer: To fish slowly, I fish with a lighter-weight jig, usually a 3/8-ounce. I put a big trailer behind it like the Denny Brauer full-size Jig Chunk. That big chunk gives the jig a slower fall and allows me to feel the bottom a little bit better. One of the important keys to fishing a jig in cold weather is being able to stay in contact with the bottom and move the jig so that it crawls along the bottom. I barely move the jig 2 or 3 inches at a time, using the tip of my rod to cause the jig to move.

When you’re moving that jig 2 or 3 inches along a steep bank, the jig may come over a rock and fall 3 or 4 feet. When that jig drops off the ledge, I push the button on my bait-casting reel and feed the jig line as it falls, so that it falls vertically rather than pendulling away from the rock as it falls. When a crawfish hops off a rock, it falls straight down the rock. A crawfish doesn’t fall out and away from the rock; therefore, if you don’t feed the jig line as it falls, the bait doesn’t appear to fall naturally. Remember, that the bait needs to appear in every way to look like a crawfish, and you want it to move and fall just like a crawfish naturally moves, crawls or falls.

Question: Are you shaking the jig when you move it?

Brauer: No, I’m not. When I crawl the jig, because of the action of that 3X Chunk trailer, the jig has a lot of natural movement and action as it crawls.

Question: How do the bass take the bait?

Brauer: At this time of the year, the bite’s very subtle and light. When you pick up on your rod tip, you’ll often feel a little bit of weight on the line. When I feel that extra weight on the line, I set the hook hard. If I’m using lighter line, then I adjust my hook set so that I don’t set the hook too hard as to break the line. But the way I adjust my hook set is not by hitting the bass with any less force, rather, I reduce the amount of drag on my reel. Then if I strike the bass too hard, the drag will slip, and I won’t break the line.

Detecting the strike is one of the most-difficult aspects of jig fishing this month. Most fishermen will be waiting for that tap, tap, tap that you normally feel during the spring or summer when you’re fishing a jig. But in most instances, bass are not going to give you a well-defined strike this month. When the water’s very cold, the bass are not going to bite aggressively, and the bite will be very subtle. Often, the bite will feel like you’ve picked up a leaf.

Any time I feel extra weight on my jig at this time of year, I go ahead and set the hook. I won’t always have a bass biting when I set the hook, but by setting the hook anyway, if there is a bass biting, I’m sure to catch him. If not, I’ve just gained a little more information on what a wintertime bass bite feels like. Many times, when I’ve used this type of technique during the winter season, I’ve caught a lot of bass when my fishing buddy hasn’t caught any fish. I know it’s not because I’m getting more strikes than my fishing buddy, but rather because I know what a wintertime strike feels like. They don’t.

Chad Brauer and How to Catch Bass at the End of December

Jigging for Wintertime Bass

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