Entry 348-1
Catching Bass in Cold, Muddy Water with Strike King’s Mark Menendez
Editor’s Note: Every time I get ready to go fishing in the spring, a cold front often hits, knocking the bass in the head. Many times it will happen the night before my fishing trip, but since plans already have been made, I have to go, regardless of weather conditions. But at least I’m not fishing for $500,000, like Mark Menendez of Paducah, Kentucky, and the five other Strike King pros who competed in the 2010 Bassmaster Classic, held February 19-21 on Lay Lake in Birmingham, Alabama. During the Classic, the weather dropped from 50 and 60 degrees to the 20s in one week. This week, we’ll talk to Menendez to learn how to find and catch bass this spring when a cold front hits.
Part 1: Fighting Cold-Weather Bass
Question: Mark, you fought the cold weather at the 2010 Bassmaster Classic at Lay Lake. What does a cold front do to bass fishing when it hits like it did during the Classic?
Menendez: Three things that made the Classic difficult for many of us were the cold water, the cold weather and the muddy water. Bass aren’t difficult to catch in cold weather with clear water, but when you add-in dirty water, those are the toughest conditions in which to try to catch bass. Dirty, cold water is a really-good excuse to stay at home and watch “Strike King’s Pro Team Journal” on television or ESPN Outdoors.
Question: Let’s talk about cold water first. What does cold water do to bass?
Menendez: Cold water bunches-up the bass, and they can be very predictable. If you’ve got clear water or only slightly-stained water, you can have some really-good fishing. But in muddy water, the game changes dramatically. In these conditions, I’ll generally use a crankbait. Make sure the bill of the crankbait comes out of the body at a downward angle, which generally dictates a wide, wobbling crankbait, like the Strike King Series 4. Then I’ll use either a 1/2- or a 3/4-ounce Strike King spinner bait with the biggest Colorado blade I can find in the most-obnoxious-colored skirt, like orange, chartreuse, green and maybe black. 
Place a big Strike King trailer on the back of it, and fish it thoroughly around cover. Make multiple casts beside, into and through the cover.
Also, make multiple presentations because the bass can’t see as well in muddy water. The third tactic is to use a light jig, like a 1/4- or a 3/8-ounce jig with the biggest trailer you can put on the back of it. Make sure the jig has a lot of rattles and makes plenty of noise as you keep it in and around heavy cover as long as possible.
Part 2: Bad Weather and a Shad Die-Off – What Now
Question: Mark, another problem you, Shaw Grigsby, Denny Brauer, Greg Hackney, James Niggemeyer and Kevin VanDam had at the 2010 Classic was the shad die-off, created by the cold weather and the muddy water. How do you deal with that kick in the head, because bass don’t really have to eat bait when there’s plenty of food falling right in front of their faces?
Menendez: You have two options when the area you’re fishing has a shad die-off. You either have to keep a lure right in the bass’s face for a long time, until the bass finally decides to take the bait, or you have to do just the opposite and make the bait come by the bass so fast or with such a strange action that they react to the bait and bite it out of instinct. 
I’ve really worked on learning how to get a reaction bite, because if you can get a bass to bite instinctively without thinking, then that fish doesn’t have to be hungry to eat your bait. The Strike King Strike Shad helps me get that reaction bite. I’ve fished this lure on extremely-light line and been able to grind out a few of those reaction strike bites.
Question: What’s another lure you like to use to get a reaction strike, when a shad die-off occurs or bass get lockjaw?
Menendez: I like to use the small Shadalicious as a swim bait. I’ll keep this bait high in the water column and attach it to a jighead. I’ll swim that Shadalicious in areas where I see the shad dying-off. You’ll occasionally get a bass that sees that Shadalicous swimming erratically and mistakes it for a live shad. I’ve found that most of the time the bass that will hit the smaller-sized Shadalicous during a die-off will be the bigger bass.
Question: What color Shadalicious do you like?
Menendez: When I fished the Bassmaster Classic, the chartreuse shad colors seemed to get the most strikes. This color has a little purple in it, and the lure shows up really well in the water, even though the water’s muddy. Of course, you have to have the Sexy Shad color. Regardless of where you fish and which lure you fish, that color has proven time after time that bass will eat it.
