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Gonna have to say something real quick. There is a lot of MISLEADING ,to say the least, info on winter selection. I prefer to use crustacean imitations such as chasebaits crusty crab, doa shrimp, vudu shrimp, and jerk baits bounced on the bottom. I would choose the doa if my life depended upon it. What about you all?

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What you trying to catch? Define winter.

Man, I like something suspending, gots to have something that can be fished real slow.

2 Weight Willie wrote:Gonna have to say something real quick. There is a lot of MISLEADING ,to say the least, info on winter selection.....

I'd like to hear more about the misleading information. What are you referring to?

If I were to go out tomorrow or later today to fish, I just might, I’d bring along something shrimpy, which in my case means a tan Borski slider. I’d also try to have a tail or two rigged to a 1/16 ounce jig head like a DSL in a shrimpy color. Hammertime is a good one in the assassin series. Then I’d have something bait fish like both in the fly realm and conventional. My favorite wintertime conventional color is tuxedo. Was it Surfpunk that used to praise that color? Anyway, it’s a good winter color in my experience. I also like the saltwater assassins in the moon series. Green and blue moon. None of those has a chartreuse tail. Tequila sunrise is a good rat taii, Norton makes those.

Corkies are fun in the winter, too. Pinks, black over white. What color did saltykat use, something called redfish I think. Gold and black something along those lines, do a search, saltykat was legendary with those tsunami corky knockoffs. Whatever he wrote, it’s all true. I fished with him a few times.

Believe it or not, I like a skitterwalk this time of year. I don’t like topwater flies, but a suspending pattern like the gartside soft hackle streamer is Corky-esque. So are steve farrar blend baitfish, so are baitfish made with icelandic sheep wool. Big profiles, slow motion fishing, barely sinking, hover type of lures and flies. Rapala had the xrap. Corky, catch 2000.

I like redfish crack in whites, silvers, for winter, but I always have some in olive and black and tan. I think the black and tan and olive ones tend to check the crab and blenny box.

My problem, one of too many, is I get fixated on a particular lure or fly. I’m going to fish that SOB and make that SOB work if and until h*ll freezes over. I tend to look at changing up my presentation for too long when I should have switched to a different pattern or lure.

karstopo wrote:If I were to go out tomorrow or later today to fish, I just might, I’d bring along something shrimpy, which in my case means a tan Borski slider. I’d also try to have a tail or two rigged to a 1/16 ounce jig head like a DSL in a shrimpy color. Hammertime is a good one in the assassin series. Then I’d have something bait fish like both in the fly realm and conventional. My favorite wintertime conventional color is tuxedo. Was it Surfpunk that used to praise that color? Anyway, it’s a good winter color in my experience. I also like the saltwater assassins in the moon series. Green and blue moon. None of those has a chartreuse tail. Tequila sunrise is a good rat taii, Norton makes those.

Corkies are fun in the winter, too. Pinks, black over white. What color did saltykat use, something called redfish I think. Gold and black something along those lines, do a search, saltykat was legendary with those tsunami corky knockoffs. Whatever he wrote, it’s all true. I fished with him a few times.

Believe it or not, I like a skitterwalk this time of year. I don’t like topwater flies, but a suspending pattern like the gartside soft hackle streamer is Corky-esque. So are steve farrar blend baitfish, so are baitfish made with icelandic sheep wool. Big profiles, slow motion fishing, barely sinking, hover type of lures and flies. Rapala had the xrap. Corky, catch 2000.

I like redfish crack in whites, silvers, for winter, but I always have some in olive and black and tan. I think the black and tan and olive ones tend to check the crab and blenny box.

My problem, one of too many, is I get fixated on a particular lure or fly. I’m going to fish that SOB and make that SOB work if and until h*ll freezes over. I tend to look at changing up my presentation for too long when I should have switched to a different pattern or lure.

Ok thanks for the rec.

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Neumie wrote:

2 Weight Willie wrote:Gonna have to say something real quick. There is a lot of MISLEADING ,to say the least, info on winter selection.....

I'd like to hear more about the misleading information. What are you referring to?

Ok so yes I misstated. I should have said MISLEADING TO ME. All my life I was using live bait. So about 2 years ago I started out with lures and tried to up my game on finding the fish. So I read articles and watched instructonals and lure fishing was flunking for me. I realize that the stuff I was watching and reading about was from the east coast The east coast was still the same with structure, current, bla, bla, bla. But the behavior aspect like how there redfish run is way earlier than ours. It WAS confusing. That is the MISLEADING bit to me. Should have clarified.

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Big mullet for big trout (Corky's), but tiny glass minnows are the main baitfish all winter long.
Have seen schooling redfish sipping them, and you couldn't buy a strike on anything, unless you can imitate that tiny glass minnow.
The perfect lure is 1/16-oz YoZuri sinking Pins minnow, but it takes UL to throw it.

Ron Mc wrote:Big mullet for big trout (Corky's), but tiny glass minnows are the main baitfish all winter long.
Have seen schooling redfish sipping them, and you couldn't buy a strike on anything, unless you can imitate that tiny glass minnow.
The perfect lure is 1/16-oz YoZuri sinking Pins minnow, but it takes UL to throw it.

Thanks Ron!

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A couple of years ago about this time of year I was in a sporting goods store and thought that I would look for something to an answer to your question. I had heard big lures, so that is what I was looking for. I also tend toward natural colors. So I made a selection of a Yum Money minnow. Later, in January, we were headed out to some deep water after a strong cold front. So, I threw the Money minnow, on a twist lock hook since it had a slit belly. I had 4 trout in the first 30 minutes, 3 in teens to 19" and a 23". Bite died after that, so I could have gone home, but spent the next couple of hours looking for more.

After cleaning the fish we found what they had been eating - a nice match I believe!

YakRunabout wrote:A couple of years ago about this time of year I was in a sporting goods store and thought that I would look for something to an answer to your question. I had heard big lures, so that is what I was looking for. I also tend toward natural colors. So I made a selection of a Yum Money minnow.

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Later, in January, we were headed out to some deep water after a strong cold front. So, I threw the Money minnow, on a twist lock hook since it had a slit belly. I had 4 trout in the first 30 minutes, 3 in teens to 19" and a 23". Bite died after that, so I could have gone home, but spent the next couple of hours looking for more.

After cleaning the fish we found what they had been eating - a nice match I believe!

Thank you!!!!

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It’s fun to get excited about lures.

karstopo wrote:It’s fun to get excited about lures.

It is! Butttttttt, there is a contradiction here. Ron's saying stay small and yakrunabout is saying BIG. So which one?

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Both!

karstopo wrote:Both!

So have both ready and try both but if I'm seeing a bigger bait profile then go big and vice versa?

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Definitely a plan. I generally have tiny flies in the kayak and big ol plugs like corkies and skitterwalks. Give them what they are eating.

karstopo wrote:Definitely a plan. I generally have tiny flies in the kayak and big ol plugs like corkies and skitterwalks. Give them what they are eating.

Alrighty!

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there is no contradiction.
I said big mullet for big trout (Corkys) and, otherwise, the most abundant winter baitfish are tiny glass minnows.
You even quoted me.

Ron Mc wrote:there is no contradiction.
I said big mullet for big trout (Corkys) and, otherwise, the most abundant winter baitfish are tiny glass minnows.
You even quoted me.

I know I'm sorry when I saw corky I processed it as croaker rig (don't ask why) thank you ron for the helpful info on the topic!

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It’s fun to get excited about lures.

The real fun comes when you try a new lure that is pulling in trout, left and right, and your fishing buddy says ' do you have any more of those?'

On the small side - I have had fun with the DSL burner shad in clear/white with sparkles. The burner shad is a small option in their lineup. There are other smaller lures out there, but that has worked for me, both in lights and elsewhere.

Those look good. I like some smaller stuff. Not everything needs to have chartreuse in it either.

Could a yum dinger chopped down an inch on a 1/4 jig head work?? This combo worked late fall for me.

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I like some smaller stuff. Not everything needs to have chartreuse in it either.

I agree! I mentioned the burner shad - I have a rod with a smaller selection - right now it is a Chicken Boy curly tail about 2" or a bit more. I use that or a Buggs tail, also a curly tail of similar size. Both are white or clear/white sparkly. Neither has chartreuse - tho most of what I throw seems to have some.

Also on the small side - a Johnson Splinter 1/8 oz. Years ago one of these pulled in a nice 25" red one night in some lights. I have just cleaned these up to add back into my rotation.

Chartreuse with a fast retrieve probably won't catch anything in winter - more important is natural colors and slow retrieves.

karstopo wrote:Those look good. I like some smaller stuff. NOT EVERYTHING HAS TO HAVE CHARTREUSE IN IT EITHER.

Whachoo talkin' 'bout Willis? ....does too! LOL
I'll admit, I do love chartreuse a little too much!

Ron Mc wrote:Chartreuse with a fast retrieve probably won't catch anything in winter - more important is natural colors and slow retrieves.

Probably not, but chartreuse with a slow retrieve will. I crushed the reds in the lights recently on DSL in glow w/ chartreuse tail. A cold and a little too windy night but the reds were feasting.