(Editor's note: "Catching Bass with Dustin Wilks" airs three times per week on Sportsman Channel – 9:30 a.m. ET Friday, 4:30 p.m. Sunday and 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. He provides BassFans with supplemental information about each episode in these weekly submissions.)
When I was 15 years old, I went on a fishing trip with my Uncle (or "Unc", as I call him) who lives in Missouri. To know Unc is to know cold fronts and adverse conditions.
So here we go, ice covering the roads, threat of more snow, and of course lots of wind. He says we are going to have to fish a power-plant lake since all the others are frozen (typical for Unc). I was 15, so I didn't care where we went; I just wanted to fish.
He stopped for a cup of coffee, still dark outside, and we headed back to toward the highway. As we were merging on to the four-lane, we hit black ice and we spun the whole rig around right in the middle of the four-lane and ended up on the shoulder, but facing the other way. I was still clinging to the door handle and checking my pants. I looked over at Unc and he says calmly, "I’m glad I didn’t spill my coffee,” as if nothing out of the ordinary happened.
We got out and inspected the truck and boat trailer with nobody around. About a mile up the highway another vehicle was finally coming and just locked up the brakes – 1 mile away! I don’t know which has funnier, the coffee or the mile-away brake lockup with nobody around!
On that day at the power-plant lake, I will never forget the lure he wore me out on. Nothing will make you remember like a good old-fashioned butt-whooping. The bait: A white spinnerbait with white blades. How ugly is that? The ugliest thing I’d ever seen, but I've been mixing it into my arsenal ever since. It's not always the best, but for whatever reason, it works, especially in cold, adverse weather.
So on this week’s show, the first segment was fishing in late fall/early winter with the water temp in the mid 50s. This time of year, I’ve learned bass can literally be at any depth because the thermocline is gone. They are free to go anywhere, and they do.
I’ve caught bass super-shallow and as deep as 50 feet this time of year, but I prefer shallow, so I generally focus there until I realize I’m wasting my time, which for me can be a long time!
Some interesting things: My fish in the first segment came off a white spinnerbait with white blades, with one big one about 7 pounds falling for it. It was dead calm, so not ideal for spinnerbaits, but there were tons of shad around and the water was cool, so that makes a spinnerbait a bit better for that situation (though not ideal without the wind.)
When it's dead calm, topwater is what comes to my mind first, and I actually tried in a few areas. Interestingly enough, I talked to a fellow fisherman at the boat ramp who said I wouldn’t believe what he caught them on ... topwater. A big popper!
I had actually fished topwater on many occasions in the fall with water in the 50s, but it was so sunny most of the day, the only opportunity was probably really early or really late and I missed that, rushing around trying to get the show done.
While by no means did I slaughter the fish on this day, there are some things to learn here. Catching a big one first thing about actually really hurt me. It made me commit to that lure rather than change. When I catch a big one right off the bat, my tendency is to stick with that lure.
For late November, my overall weight would not have been bad on the day for a tournament, but I don’t really care about that. I just want to catch as many and as big of bass every day that I possibly can. So I should have mixed it up. Another hindsight deal.
In every day that you fish, it seems committing to a lure or mixing it up and trying different stuff can be your biggest decision. In fishing, stubbornness often pays. That's what many anglers mean by "grinding it out."
Think of the legendary specialty anglers who are known for one lure. If you do mix it up, though, you can really stumble onto some great fishing and dial in what the fish want rather than what you want the fish to bite. Both work, because hey, fish have a tiny brain that we can’t figure out.
For the second segment of the show, I fished a flooded reservoir with fish around the spawn. Greeted by pouring rain and huge cold-front wind, it too reminded me of a perfect day for Unc. This day I ran across a huge lake in 25-mph sustained winds with gusts to 40. There were 4-5 foot waves. It was my first day in the really nasty stuff with my new Caymas and it did perfectly and as advertised as the best ride in the industry, never hitting hard and slicing those big waves.
I caught a decent number of fish despite the conditions and limited time. We started late and ended early.
There are a couple of things you did not see on the show – I lost two fish in the 5-pound range that I saw bite the floating Culprit T-Rex worm. The T-Rex is a straight worm I fish both weightless and wacky with a nail in it. It is a little heavier and casts better weightless than most worms fished with these styles.
One of the big ones I lost bit in the back of a cove on a steep bank with a log going straight down into the water … I still can see the bite. Big ol' mouth coming out to eat it. The whole thing led me to consider changing my setup on my spinning rod to braid.
I’ve always had good luck with Yo-Zuri Hybrid in 8-pound on floating worms, never losing a significant number of fish. I just didn’t get a good hookset on those two big ones. So, I’ve since been fishing my floating worms on 20-pound Yo-Zuri Super Braid with a 14-pound fluoro leader with really good results. Hooksets are lethal with the braid, and it casts better, so I may have learned something to make my own fishing better. I’ll still keep the Hybrid handy, especially for small cranks, jerks and topwater, but putting that big 4/0 hook through the mouth of a 5-pounder, the braid is better.
Always be willing to learn and adapt is my takeaway from this week’s show. I learned long ago about the odd spinnerbait and was willing to change to braid on the spinning rod for floating worms.
