Smallmouth Fishing in Winter on Elkhorn Creek

For me its about two weeks in winter before I have cabin fever. Any day I'm not working and the temperature get into the 40's or higher I'm going fishing. November threw February can be some of the slowest months to me. I still try to go fishing at least 2 times a month just to help motivate me threw the cold, bone chilling winter. Now I realize fishing will not always be successful in the winter as the spring or fall but it helps me enjoy life and not mope threw this depressing season. Creeks and small rivers have been the most productive in the winter for me. Smallmouth bass are usually what i target in the winter due to them being less lethargic than other fish species.
Smallmouth Bass or (Bronzebacks) are a great fish to target in the winter. They prefer water temperature in the 50 to 65 degree range but they still eat thoughout the winter. With me living in Lexington, Kentucky I have numerous places to get my arm tugged by a smallmouth. The most popular and productive is Elkhorn creek. This creek is about 90 miles lone and has two major arm that branch out from the main that is 12 miles long. Back in the yearly 2000 it was rated the top 10 smallmouth streams in southeast. This creek is considered a senic creek and is protected by the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. Jeff Crosby, central region fisheries biologist for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) says. "This creek has good habitat and water quality, decent water flow through all seasons, and active management from the KDFWR." These things combine to make the Elkhorn a thriving fishery.
I love to fish Elkhorn creek in the winter. Although its colder and the fish are more lathargic It makes it nice when you have your own spot to yourself. During the hot summer days you can get on Elkhorn before the sun comes up and you still will not be the only one their. This creek has all kinds of fish species in it. Smallmouth are the most common but their is also alot of Largemouth, crappie, bluegill, pearch, and during the spring walleye and saguer. This creek is great to wade and float with a small boat. Their are several dams on this creek but almost all of them are designed to let you float down the spillway. These spillways on these dams also allow fish to more up or down the creek where as most other dams in kentucky do not have spillways that fish can travel up or down.
When I fish Elkhorn creek in the winter I usually throw all kinds of baits. Some of the most productive and consistant are hair jigs, tubes, and crawdead imatatiors. Hair jigs and tubes inatate dieing minnow or small bait fish. The key to fishing these baits in the winter is SLOW PRESENTION!

Cold Water Fishing in Tailwaters

Tailwaters are the discharge from dams that hold back water for flood control, hydro electric power, or just for recreation. In Kentucky, many tailwaters are stocked with trout, mostly rainbow trout but some with brown trout too. When the dam discharges water, it is pulled from the bottom of the water column. This means the water is about 50 degrees (behind lakes that are larger than 2,500 acres or deeper 200ft) and their is also high oxygen level in these waters. This means that some tailwaters will not be affected by the outside are temperature as much as you will be. The good thing about tailwaters in Kentucky is the winter doesn't effect the water temperature as much. Harrington Lake tailwaters (Dix River) and Lake Cumberland's tailwaters can offer good opportunities to catch some trophy size trout (20-23 inches).
Trout can be caught on a variety of baits including cheese and corn. The lure that I use the most is a crank bait (small fish interrupter's). They usually float and have a bill at the head of the bait. This bill is clear and helps the bait dive toward the bottom of the lake as you reel it in. I like these baits because you can catch trout even in high pressure tailwaters(tailwaters that get a lot of fishing). These lures also work so well in tailwaters is because they catches all kinds of aggressive fish ranging from the bass family to the trout family and even walleye and musky.

Their is some risks of fishing in tailwaters. For one their not the best place to bank fish unless you stay by the dam. The rocks are usually covered in algae and slick as shit. Also, most of the dam's around here have a automatic discharge when their is no precipitation. This means that until you know the tailwaters discharge schedule you don't want to wade and not get close to the dam. When the dam opens say after a rainfall of 1 inch. The discharge level will increase fast, the closer you are to the dam the faster and greater of the effect. This can make it extremely dangerous and you could drown in just a few minutes. Know if your in a boat its a little different. Boat don't get close enough to the dam to see high levels extremely fast. When i went up Laurel lake tailwaters in a boat i notices that the water went up 3 to 4 ft from when i started to when i finished. Now I was in slack water(water with no current because its deeper) so I'm sure current could make it harder to keep your boat out of the rocks. But rocks are the reason that tailwater fishing in a boat is dangerous. Their has been several death's in Kentucky due to people driving to fast and not watching for big rocks. So don't be scared of tailwater fishing but just aware and call the dam people for information about the discharge. I reside to tailwater fishing in the winter because they offer the most aggressive fish. Get online and read about Kentucky's tailwater opportunities.

Cold Water Bass Fishing

In Kentucky, the winter can make it tough for fishing for bass. Both large mouth and small mouth bass move deep in the winter. Also their metabolism has slowed down to where they choose their prey by a good meal that takes the least amount of energy to catch and eat. When they do find and eat their prey say a shad or a crawdad, it takes almost three times longer for them to digest the prey then in the summer, so they eat less and stay close to prey. Fish points that drop off in deep cover. Bass are found as deep as 60 ft deep and follow the bait fish.

From my fishing experences, I prefure to fish swift moving water in the winter like creeks and rivers. When farm ponds are frozen, water with current tends to keep from freezing due the the water moving. Current also plays a big role in when fish feed and where they position their self in the current rather than on the bank. I fish crank baits(hard baits that dive 2'-10ft and look like a minnow), jigs that inmate crawdads, and tubes that inmate dying bait fish. I fish all these baits slow and the hits are half as aggressive as the other seasons. Regardless of the hit these fish still fight and the small mouth seem to fight just as hard in the winter as in the other three seasons. I fish Elkhorn Creek, Kentucky River, and Cumberland River(above Lake Cumberland). I found fish schooled together very tightly. At Elkhorn, I caught five fish within a six foot area. Three large mouth and two small mouth and all in the 12"-16" range. This was in the middle of December and the high temp. for the day was 38 degrees. Try some of these bait and techniques when you get cabin fever and hopefully you will have some luck just like I did.