Fishing on Lake Travis has provided a lifetime of enjoyment for me, even in the winter after cold fronts chill the water.
A slow presentation with a small lure usually produces best when probing for deep post-frontal bass.
In our clear waters I prefer to use light line on a medium action spinning rod. A great lure choice is a 1/8-ounce tube jig with a 3 or 4 inch green pumpkin or watermelon tube.
Bass are holding in the 20- to 40-foot zone, making a vertical presentation ideal to coax these finicky fish into biting.
Use your bow mounted sonar to pinpoint these schools of deep black bass. Don’t waste time fishing barren water.
A do-nothing technique, called dead sticking, is often the most productive. Suspend the tube bait a foot or less off the bottom and just keep your rod tip motionless. A twitch or two every 30 seconds is all you need.
Bass will suction the bait gently and your rod tip will slowly bend downward. Use a smooth sweeping hookset. This whole tactic closely resembles fishing with live minnows.
Your tube bait is performing a subtle shimmy created by the movement of your boat. Any jigging by you usually results in no bites whatsoever. Just ask my partner in a cold water Travis tournament about 40 years ago. I caught the first seven bass before he finally quit jigging and just held his rod steady. We won that tournament by a good margin in 45 feet of water.
Wacky rigging a weighted Senko style worm has also been productive, just keeping slight tension on the line for a minute or more. This redefines the word “slow” but can result in fast action in the winter.
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