Entry 156-4

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

Cold-Front Fishing

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: What other tactics do you use in December?

Brauer: Yesterday, I mentioned how to fish warm fronts that come through during the month of December. Besides warm fronts, we also have some really-severe cold fronts that happen at this time of year. You may fish four or five days of a warm front, and then suddenly you get that blast of Arctic air that freezes water and busts pipes. Since tournament fishermen don’t get to pick the days they fish, whether we’ve got stable weather warm fronts or cold fronts, we have to be prepared to fish in any weather. For this reason, when a cold front moves onto the lake, remember to scale back the size of the baits you use if and when that cold front hits.

When a cold front comes in, some of my favorite tactics to use are the Strike King 3X Finesse worm on a jighead and the Bitsy Bug jig. The Shakey Head worm and the Bitsy Bug aren’t my strongest fishing tactics; I’d much rather fish big jigs and spinner baits at this time of the year, however, the bass don’t really care what I like to fish.

Meeting the bass’ needs is a much-more-critical factor in catching the fish than using tactics and lures that I prefer. I fall back to finesse tactics and use little baits, light lines to try and give the bass a plate they’ll eat. You can be like me and say big bass want a big bait moving slow during cold weather, and many times that’s appropriate. However, when you have a cold front come through, you’ve got to downsize your baits, downsize your line and present those bass an hors d'oeuvre rather than a 16-ounce steak.

When a cold front hits, I fish spinning rods with 8-pound-test line. Another secret I’ll learned is that when the water’s cold, I look for the clearest water I can find and use my green-pumpkin Strike King 3X Finesse worm. I fish these smaller baits on the same type of cover that I’ve fished the spinner bait, the jig and the Wild Shiner, outside channel ends, bluff banks and the outside edges of grass beds in the South. I’m looking for shallow water with deep water close by.

Bass get in a bad mood when they’re in cold, clear water on bright sunshiny days. This bad mood is similar to what happened to a bulldog when someone takes its tennis ball away from it. The bulldog won’t want to play or bite, it just will want to lie on the porch and let the world go by. So you’ve got to give the bass a bait that’s subtle, not intimidating that they don’t have to work very hard to catch and something that they will eat even if they’re not hungry.

When I fish the Finesse worm on a jighead, I drag it along the bottom. There are a lot of guys who really shake the bait when they’re dragging it on the bottom like this, but I don’t. I believe that that 3X material is sensitive enough that when I’m dragging the bait, it naturally has all the movement that the worm needs to attract the bass. So I don’t shake the bait.

Next: Bitsy Bug in December

Contents:

• Part 1: Water Temperature Helps Your Jerkbait
• Part 2: Jigging for Wintertime Bass
• Part 3: Slow-Rolling Spinner Baits
• Part 4: Cold-Front Fishing
• Part 5: Bitsy Bug in December