Hemphill pro talks winter crankbaiting
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Hemphill, Texas native and professional bass fisherman Dave Mansue knows what to look for to find winter bass.
The tournament veteran and current PAA president doesn't mind fishing jigs for winter bass, but he’d much rather throw a deep diving crankbait — and he often does.
The Yamaha pro knows that if he can find baitfish, bass won’t be far behind, and they’ll nearly always hit one of the diving lures.
“The key to winter crankbaiting is getting your lure down as fast as possible, then moving it as slowly as you can,” Mansue said. “I call it ‘worming with a crankbait,’ because you move the lure with your rod, not your reel. In the colder water we have now, bass certainly aren’t chasing lures very far so you need to let them have as much time as possible to get it.
“It’s just the opposite of how we fish deep diving crankbaits in the summer.”
Since much of winter crankbaiting depends on locating shad and other baitfish, Mansue has developed a checklist of places and conditions where he may find them, regardless of which lake he’s fishing.
At the top of the list is 10 to 15 foot water adjacent to deeper depths. The steeper the depth change, the better Mansue likes it.
“I need the 10 to 15 foot depth for my crankbait,” he said, “but both baitfish and bass need the deeper water for comfort and safety. I normally fish in the main lake or on primary and secondary points in the large tributaries, since these are areas where I normally find those types of depth changes.
“Long points, ledges, creek and river channels that run close to these points, and bluffs, are all places I look for baitfish.”
Mansue said finding bait balls is key to locating bigger fish.
"The bait itself will frequently gather in big schools, and these schools are large enough to show up well on your electronics,” he said. “I like to ease along the edge of a breakline, or criss-cross over the top of a point, and just study my depthfinder. When I do see a big school of baitfish, I can often see the bass around them.
“But even if I don’t, I know they’re nearby, and these are the bass that will hit a crankbait.”
Mansue prefers clear water in the winter, and on some lakes the clear water will also have submerged vegetation like milfoil or hydrilla. Baitfish and bass will usually stay around places like this — either right over the top of the vegetation or suspended along its deeper edge. Still another place he looks for baitfish is around flooded timber, where they may be suspended in his 10 to 15 foot crankbait range.
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