Anna

[3dkicker]

Got out yesterday for a little while. Water temps stayed between 48 and 49 degrees in the creek we fished. Air temps in low 50's. Water vis was at 3-5'.

We found bait fish in 4-6' (not the 18-24' zone we expected) and my friend picked up this one nice bass on a RC .5. We should have brought topwater baits as the baitfish were being chased to the surface by the bass.

[carolina-rig-01]

that's a pretty fish! i love the bright colors that winter bass tend to showoff. finding bait is key to catching fish in the fall and winter, it's important all year but it's real evident this time of year. winter topwater fish are a blast but don't overlook a lipless crankbait when you find them schooled up on the surface like that. the biggest bass of my life was caught this time of year and identical conditions as you described and i caught her by burning a lipless crankbait through a school of bait fish near the surface.

[3dkicker]

I threw a 1/4 oz lipless and didn't catch a thing. We tried fast and slow retrieves and many different size crankbaits and the little RC was the only thing to catch a fish.

[carolina-rig-01]

wouldn't it be great to know if a fish you caught would have been caught if you were using a different bait. i mean if i catch one on a jig, what if i would have been throwing a plastic worm at that time. or the one you caught on a rc, what if you would have put a spinnerbait or lipless crankbait in front of her on that cast instead? something i have wondered a lot of times. anyways beautiful fish!