Cold water calls for heavy metal. Steel, zinc, and lead bodies fall fast to reach bass holding in the mildest and stablest environment they can find during fall, winter, and early spring -- deep water. How deep depends on the depths available in rivers, reservoirs, and lakes, plus water temperature, water clarity, current, and the activity of important preyfish.

Spoons

Vertically jigging spoons often is the best presentation when sonar shows fish suspended off bottom, loosely grouped, near schools of baitfish. During winter, bass and their prey often hold in the deep lower end of creek arms where wind is blocked and water temperature remains constant.

To jig a spoon, position the boat directly over the bass or bait, or along a key structural feature like a roadbed, stump row, or turn in a creek channel. Other good spots for winter spooning are deep main-lake points, bluffs, and manmade features like bridge pilings or abutments. Standing timber also holds fish, but try to pinpoint structure like creek channels within the flooded forest.

Hold the rod, preferably a 6- to 7-foot medium to medium-heavy-action baitcasting model, at about 9 o’clock as you free-spool the spoon to the bottom. If fish are several feet off bottom, reel the lure up just past their holding depth. Watch sonar carefully and you’ll see the spoon on the screen if the boat is still.

Work the lure by lowering the rod to about 8 o’clock, then lifting it to 10 or 11 o’clock, depending on the activity level of the bass. As the spoon falls, lower your rod with it, feeling for a tap or sense that it’s no longer falling. As you jig, keep an eye on the school, for baitfish and bass tend to wander.

Used to be, spoons came mainly in silver, a few in gold, or you could paint your own. Times have changed. Finely painted models now are available, and some with realistic fishlike features (Horizon Pirk Minnow and Luhr-Jensen Crippled Minnow). New models like Hildebrandt’s tin Bun-G-Blade and the zinc Bullet Blade fall more slowly than lead.

Some top anglers prefer an unpainted lead spoon. Others favor rattling models like Bass’N Bait’s Rattlin’ Snakie Jigging Spoon, with an enclosed rattle chamber, a bait that made profound news by capturing the Ohio record 91⁄2-pound smallmouth.

Slowly maneuver the boat along structure with the trolling motor, jigging the spoon as you watch sonar for bottom features and fish. But don’t skip a good-looking spot if you don’t mark fish, since the action of the spoon will draw them when you start jigging.

Spoons also catch fish when retrieved semivertically. Cast the spoon into the wind, then snap it upward as it simultaneously drifts toward a vertical position. Try it when wind pushes baitfish and predators toward the windward side of structure in fall or summer, when fish hold from 8 to 20 feet down.

This type of retrieve capitalizes on the instinctive response of predators to strike vulnerable objects that speed past them from tail to head. On this presentation, which leaves fish little time for decision making, strikes often are arm-wrenching and may come from black bass or the unrelated white, striped, or hybrid “bass.” These other species are down there for the same reason black bass are deep -- food and a stable home environment.

Bladebaits

Blades seem most effective when water temperatures fall below about 55°F until it cools to about 45°F. A Tennessee favorite, the Silver Buddy, is the simplest form of this genre. With its plain leadhead and stamped metal body, it’s legendary for producing giant smallmouths in the mid-South where it’s most popular. Other popular models like the Cordell Gay Blade, Reef Runner Cicada, Bullet Blade, Luhr-Jensen Ripple Tail, and Heddon Sonar each display a unique action and falling rate.

Blades excel when bass hold along fast-breaking bluffs, sunken islands, riprap banks, channels, or along the walls of mine pits. Productive structures may break at 45- to almost 90-degree angles. Rock is the most common substrate, but sunken timber may adorn structure in reservoirs and mine pits. And in some waters in winter, bass use sand or clay ledges.

Blades sink fast into the fish zone, then can be worked parallel to banks or structural walls. They allow for fishing slowly, yet covering a large area of potentially productive water. Like spoons, blades are small for their weight, matching the typically small size of baitfish black bass eat in cold water.

Bladebaits vibrate as they’re pulled up, seemingly getting the attention of inactive bass suspended or holding in bottom cover. Yet most bites come as the lure falls, often on a spiraling dive that imitates an incapacitated shad. Bass may barely bump the bait or swim off with it as if it were a succulent plastic worm.

Several models (Sonar, Gay Blade, Bandit, Zonar) have multiple holes for line attachment. The forward hole provides the tightest vibration and lets the lure run deepest. The rear hole produces a wider wiggle, stronger vibrations, and the shallowest running depth. It’s critical to use a snap to attach the blade to the line, to avoid cutoffs and to allow a full range of motion.

An overlooked category of bladebait runs with the blade parallel to the bottom, not perpendicular to it. Hogeye’s Blade Runner has a cult following among hill-country smallmouth fanatics, with Mann’s Mann Dancer broadening the appeal of this lure type. A lead ball at the head drags the lure downward more precipitously than standard blades do. In general, fish small blades on lighter line, going to 14 or 17-pound-test only with a lure weighing 1/2 ounce or more.

Tailspinners

In the 1950s, reservoir bass anglers found a place in their tackle box for the Pedigo Spinrite, a leadhead with a single treble hook set on the belly and an Indiana blade on a wire harness to the rear. In the 1960s, Tom Mann named the first commercially available tailspinner after Alabama Governor George Wallace. He designed it to dredge bottom or hug structure in deep creek channels and on ledges in hill-land and lowland impoundments.

This class of baits also works in clearer waters for all three major species of black bass. Their compact build (a 1-ounce Little George measures about an inch) ensures their effectiveness for coldwater bass, fish pushed deep by cold fronts, other weather patterns, or fishing pressure.

Tailspinners produce more vibration than other heavy metal baits, due to the throbbing of their rear-mounted Colorado blade. Like the original Spinrite, several models sport marabou feathers on the rear treble, capitalizing on that feather’s unique attraction.

Smallmouth anglers recommend fishing tailspinners horizontally, easing them just above bottom. In winter, bass often occupy deep flats, which can be precision fished with a tailspinner.

After casting a tailspinner, feel the lure to the bottom on a semislack line, holding the rod at about 10 o’clock. As the tailspinner touches down, sweep it toward you by raising the rod and reeling a bit of line. Keep your rod tip up to fish the bait over bottom cover without hanging up. Unfortunately, tailspinners are less snag forgiving than spoons or bladebaits. Carry lure retrievers that slide on the line to save baits and time.

Tailspinners excel for reaching schooling bass. Cast the little bullet and wind it fast just under the surface. Then take bets on whether the strike will come from a largemouth, smallmouth, spot, white bass, wiper, or jumbo striper. Choose tackle according to cover conditions and fish size . If conditions permit, use 8- or 10-pound monofilament.

Anglers have overlooked metal baits for summer and fall fishing. River bass sometimes hold in deep pools where bladebaits and tailspinners can be presented with short casts, yet fish effectively in the 15- to 20-foot range. Also try blades for trolling deep along structure in reservoirs, or for fishing smallmouths or spotted bass holding deep after turnover in fall.