Swimbaiting Frozen Smallies
AS LATE FALL bleeds into winter and tightens its grip on Northern lakes, avid anglers keep fishing.
“We’ll fish until the ice prohibits us from launching boats,” says Michigan angler Neil Vande Biezen. “And we’ll be back out there the day it leaves.”
For some, that may seem extreme. But those like Vande Biezen have learned there may not be a better time to catch big smallmouth on inland waters.
When the bass leave the shallows following the fall feed, they will school up around bait on deep flats and in holes.
It’s well-known that when you locate those schools, you can catch a few in the deeper areas with blade baits (like the Silver Buddy), tube jigs and drop-shot rigs.
But Vande Biezen likes to go
