Lately I’ve discovered a great one-two punch for cold weather Florida bass.

You can still flip, but let me offer a couple of fun alternatives:

The Rapala Glidin’ Rap is a big bait that resembles a native wild Florida shiner, especially in the Golden Shiner color pattern offered by Rapala. Designed for northern toothy critters and saltwater fish, it may be a bit much for bass in other regions, but along peninsular Florida, bass frequently eat shiners that are one-third the length of their own bodies. I have confirmed this with biologists at the University of Florida and, more importantly, with the bass themselves.

I swam a Glidin’ Rap over a deep grass bed the other day. It drew an absolutely violent reaction. What fun! If I had missed that fish I would have thought it was a 5-pounder. It may have actually weighed two.

The trick to that fish was a fast retrieve and a pumping rod tip. That was before a recent cold snap.

Here in North Florida we’ve seen overnight lows in the 30’s recently. It was as cold here Sunday night as it was in Chicago, according to a TV meteorologist. When that happens, the topwater bite disappears quicker than cash at Christmas time.

I found a cure.

Similar to the Glidin’ Rap, but smaller and with a tendency to run deeper, is the Rapala Sub Walk. I have used the Mossback color to pull largemouth up from water as deep as 14 feet in a lake where bluegill are the prime forage and the water is clear as the air we breathe.

It’s a great change up in places where bass have seen too many jerkbaits. It will likely work in any region of the country as long as the water is not downright muddy. A big, knocking, internal rattle calls fish out of grass and helps them find the lure when visibility is reduced.

The Sub Walk sinks slowly when left on a slack line. You can count it down and work it back at a preferred depth. I caugth a limit of tournament size bass in a couple of hours with a more aggressive cadence. Use it as you would a fluke. Same places. Same conditions. Same retrieve. But with the Sub Walk you have the advantage of a pair of trebble hooks instead of a single hook.

Your strike-to-catch ratio will skyrocket.

And if you come to Florida armed with a Glidin’ Rap and a Sub Walk this winter/spring, you’ll have plenty of strikes to convert into catches.

 

-Good Luck!

Vance