READ THE ROOM. Know your audience. Play the angles. Strategic networking is all about understanding behaviors and tendencies. Same goes for wintertime spotted bass pursuits.
Feisty and deceptively powerful, spots have kept Bassmaster Elite Series pro Matt Herren engaged for decades. The seasoned pro from Ashville, Ala., spends a lot of the year’s colder days tracking down these rapacious rascals and, in his experience, opportunity runs high when air temps run low.
“I think spots get easier to catch in the winter because they really like cooler water and they tend to group up, so it’s easier to locate large schools of them,” Herren said. “The cooler water doesn’t slow their metabolism, so they tend to stay active.”
Elite champion Will Davis Jr. agrees and offers this caveat: “They’re harder to find in the wintertime, especially on current lakes because the bait is moving so much that time of year and they’re definitely feeding up for the spawn. But they’ll be more grouped up, so feeding competition keeps them aggressive.”
Fifth-year Elite Wes Logan spends a lot of time hunting winter spots on river systems like his beloved Coosa Chain. Favoring the lower Coosa (Lay Lake, Lake Mitchell and Lake Jordan) for winter clarity and big-fish potential, Logan attributes increased winter activity to rising current levels.
“Where I fish, you have a lot of current present in the wintertime, and that allows them to group up,” Logan said. “You’re going to have more current
