Photo by Tom Evans.

The air was relatively cold, the temperature hovering in the low 40s, and the sky cloudy as I loaded my canoe onto the truck, grabbed my bass rods and lures and headed south. I badly needed a fishing fix: I’d just finished a long project with a short deadline, matters complicated by the presence of my supervisor hanging over my shoulder.

Two hours later, as I drove down to an access point under a bridge on the Big Piney River, the air had cooled further, and large snowflakes began to fall gently to the river. It was beautiful -- but I questioned my sanity. Why was I fishing by myself in the middle of winter amid the beginnings of a snowstorm?

The reason was simple: because I could, and because I knew that downstream of the place at which I’d offloaded my canoe waited a winter honeyhole full of both smallmouth and largemouth bass.

I spent the better part of the last 30 years researching Missouri stream fish populations as a fisheries research biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation. My research took me to northeast Missouri, tributaries of the Missouri River and to many south Missouri Ozark streams, some flowing east to join with the Missouri River, others south, joining ultimately with the Mississippi River. It was, I must confess, a great occupation, and I loved every minute of it. It allowed me to learn the ins and outs of my favorite streams, which streams supported the best bass populations and, most important, how bass reacted during the different seasons of the year.

All streams are not created equal, however, and bass react differently during the different times of the year.

Once early in my career, I remember, I sat in a local watering hole and listened as bass anglers bragged about their winter hotspots -- areas in which bigmouths would congregate when air and water temperatures cooled. At the time, I questioned some of their thoughts and conclusions, but I changed my mind after several years of research.

My personal investigations showed that once water temperatures cooled, bass moved out of areas where I’d found them residing during summer months. The final piece of evidence came from a University of Missouri research project on Jacks Fork. Researchers studying bass populations and behavior found that when water temperatures cooled, Jacks Fork bass moved to spring areas such as Alley Spring Branch. Stream bass reacted to the cooling water by moving to nearby pools with warm spring inflows. Missouri springs flow at a constant 59 degrees, considerably warmer than the 30- to 40-degree water temperatures found in winter.

Whenever we needed bass for my research during the winter months, I’d send the collection crew to the Big Piney River to collect fish from a couple of pools where major springs entered the river. On one particular day, I was visiting one of those areas.

The snowfall increased as I offloaded my canoe, pulled on waders, loaded a coffee thermos and packed a plastic sack with a change of clothes in case I fell in during my short float. I planned to float down a half-mile or so to a spring hole on the river, spend the afternoon fishing -- by myself --and then paddle back upstream to my truck, pulling my canoe through the riffles.

The snowfall’s rate increased, giving the world almost a surreal feeling. I slipped quietly downstream.

SKINNY-WATERBASSIN’ TACTICS
Winter bass react to environmental stimuli in the same way that they deal with them during other periods of the year -- only more slowly. As water cools, a fish’s metabolism also slows, so the bass requires less food and reacts extremely sluggishly to environmental stimuli such as crayfish or minnows swimming through its attack zone.

In the winter, bass’ physical processes slow, yet the fish still feed, and will take a lure readily, as long as you present it more slowly and closely to the bass’s holding water.