The best bass lures for winter: slow down, or go down

Published as suspending is the specification that makes this the cold-water lure. Twitch it twice, then stop — and it hangs there, at depth, not rising and not sinking. A lethargic bass that will not chase will often eat something that simply refuses to leave.

The pause is the whole technique, and in genuinely cold water it wants to be far longer than feels reasonable. Ten seconds is not unusual. Most people fish a jerkbait far too quickly in winter.

4–6 ft published running depth puts it in the zone where winter bass suspend over deeper water, which is not the same as sitting on the bottom.

The flash feather teaser on the tail is published, and it moves on the pause when nothing else is moving. Stainless through-wire construction is published too, which matters when a pike takes it. Our jerkbaits page covers the category.

Because it sinks and publishes no running depth, you choose the depth. In winter that is the point — fish sit deeper and you need to reach them, and counting a lipless down is the simplest way to fish 20 ft with a hard bait.

The yo-yo retrieve is the cold-water presentation: let it fall, lift it sharply, let it fall again. Almost every bite comes on the fall, which is exactly what a bass that will not chase is willing to do.

Over deep grass it is unmatched. Wind until it catches in the weed, snap it free, and the sudden break plus the fall triggers strikes. Nothing with a bill fishes grass that way.

Four published weights let you match the sink rate to the depth: 3/4 oz for 20 ft, 1/4 oz over shallow grass. Our lipless page covers fishing a bait with no bill.

Dragged slowly across rock is one of the highest-percentage cold-water presentations there is, particularly for smallmouth. The tentacles move constantly even when the bait is barely moving, which is exactly what you want when the retrieve has to be almost nothing.

It is published as infused with Berkley’s PowerBait scent-and-flavor formula. The claim made for a scent is that a fish holds on a fraction longer, which would matter more in cold water than warm — a bass has longer to inspect a bait before deciding, and a bait it holds onto for an extra second is a bait you hook. That is the claim, not a result we have measured.

3.5 in and 10 per pack is the standard size, published as working on light line and spinning tackle as well as Texas rigged and flipped.

Our tube baits page covers the two ways to rig one, and the internal jig head is the one for dragging on rock.

The published head design stands the worm up off the bottom with the head resting on it. A bass sitting on the bottom in cold water sees a bait standing vertically in front of its face, and that is a very difficult thing for it to ignore.

1/8 oz published as the lightest option is what makes this a genuine finesse presentation. Lighter is slower, slower is better in cold water, and 1/8 oz is about as slow as you can fish and still feel the bottom.

The 60-degree flat-eye Gamakatsu hook and a barb to hold the plastic are published. A bait that slides down the hook stops standing up, so the barb is doing real work.

Pair it with a finesse worm and fish it on a light spinning setup. Our jig heads page covers how the head shape changes the behavior of the plastic.