Entry 234-1

How to Catch Bass in January with Greg Hackney

Day 1: Bet on the Wild Shiner

Question: Greg, what’s your number-1 tactic for catching bass this month?

Hackney: You can’t beat Strike King’s Wild Shiner, which is a suspending jerkbait, for January fishing because this lure has a dying effect built into it. Once you get the lure down, you give it a jerk and stop it, and it will sit there like a baitfish that’s about to die. Then it gains energy, and after awhile, moves a little bit further in the water.

January is generally the coldest water of the year, in most areas, and the bass will be slow moving. This time of year is when the shad begin to die off. The entire country will have shad die-offs this month. The water temperature will get down into the high 30s or low 40s, even in the South. When the shad die-off, it makes them easy prey for the bass. The water’s so cold that the bass really don’t want to chase a bait. So, after you jerk the bait, and that bait sits still, the bass assumes that the Wild Shiner is about to die. The fish will ease up to lure and suck it in its mouth.

The best way to fish the Wild Shiner at this time of the year is to dead stick it (like you do a plastic worm). Once I get the Wild Shiner down to the depth I want to fish it and twitch it one time, I’ll let the bait sit still for a count of 20 seconds. You know how to count seconds, 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi…etc. When you get the first bite, you’ll know how many seconds you need to let the bait sit still before you move it. For instance, if I get a bite when I hit 9 Mississippi, then I know that’s about the length of time a bass wants the bait to sit still before it eats the lure. If I have a bait sit still until I count 14 Mississippi and don’t get a bite, I need to go ahead and move the lure. Next I’ll let it sit until I count 12 Mississippi or longer. Some days the bass will hit the lure on 2 Mississippi.

The next day they may not take the Wild Shiners until 20 Mississippi. Some days you get the lure down, stop it and barely move it with the slack in your line before the January bass will take the bait. Once you get the Wild Shiner down, you have to experiment with how long the fish want the bait to sit still and how much movement they want to see in the bait.

When the water gets so cold, like it does in January, the bass have a tendency to suspend, because the warm water is often near the surface, as well as close to the bottom. Remember that cold water sinks and warm water rises. Therefore, often the warmest water, even on the coldest day, will be near the surface, especially if the sun’s shining. Sometimes the water temperature will be the same from the top of the water column to the bottom of the water column. That being true, the bass can hold in any water depth. A suspended jerkbait, like the Wild Shiner, is easy for the bass to catch and looks natural at that time of the year. The Wild Shiner has the same action as the dying shad the bass are accustomed to eating.

Once you decide at what depth the fish are holding in, that’s the depth where you want your Wild Shiner to suspend. By varying your line size, you can get the Wild Shiner to suspend at various depths. If I want my Wild Shiner to suspend higher in the water column, I’ll use bigger line than I will if I want it to suspend deeper in the water. I don’t use fluorocarbon line at this time of the year because it sinks. The Wild Shiner is a neutral-buoyancy lure. If you use fluorocarbon line, it will cause the bait to sink rather than to suspend. That’s why I prefer monofilament line when I’m fishing the Wild Shiner.

Another key to get the Wild Shiner to suspend at the depth you want it to suspend is that you may want to change hooks. If you want the bait to sink a little deeper, use a somewhat-heavier hook. If you want the bait to suspend nose down, add an additional split ring to the nose of the lure.

Sometimes when I’m fishing for smallmouth, I’ve noticed that the smallmouth prefer the Wild Shiner to sit in the water nose down. So I may put heavier hooks on the front of the bait than I have on the back of the bait to make the lure sit in the water with its nose pointed down.

Question: What colors of Wild Shiners do you like, Greg?

Hackney: Usually I like a real natural shad color like the Shore Minnow or the Sexy Shad. If the water has a little color to it, chrome with a black back is hard to beat. On a real sunny day, when you’ve got a little bit of wind, that chrome with a black back will get the bass’s attention. The clearer the water is, the more natural I want the bait to look. Most of the time, I’ll be fishing the Wild Shiner on 12-pound-test monofilament line. You have to remember that at this time of the year, because the bass’s body metabolism has slowed down, even a big fish isn’t going to have a lot of fight in him. So my number-1 bait for this time of year is the Wild Shiner.

 

Next: Bass on the Rocks

Contents:

• Part 1: Bet on the Wild Shiner
• Part 2: Bass on the Rocks
• Part 3: Rolling Timber
• Part 4: Jig Up Big Spots
• Part 5: Hit Them in the Head