Old Man winter is throwing a temper tantrum. It’s bitterly cold, dark clouds are spitting snow, and the wind chill is dropping by the minute.
Time to head inside and put another log in the fireplace, right? Maybe for most fishermen, but not for Beau Browning.
For him, it’s time to hitch up his bass boat and head to the lake.
“When It’s Snowing, I’m Going”
“When it’s snowing, I’m going fishing,” said Browning, a B.A.S.S. pro who lives in Hot Springs, Arkansas. “I’ve had some of my best days when the weather is just brutal. It’s a lot like deer hunting.
“I don’t know if it has to do with the barometric pressure or what, but the fish will bite.
Granted, winter doesn’t behave the same way in central Arkansas as it does in the North Country. The lakes don’t freeze up and snow isn’t common. Still, the air temperatures and wind chills can get frigid, and fronts can produce sleet and snow.
When they do, Browning is ready. The 24-year-old pro fisherman who competes on the B.A.S.S. Elite Series learned long ago that the weather many people dread can produce some of the best fishing of the year.
“You can go out on lakes in this area like Ouachita and have the water to yourself,” Browning said. “There’s absolutely no fishing pressure. And the fishing can be crazy-good.”
Browning uses a recent outing on Lake Ouachita as proof. It was sleeting sideways and the temperature was downright cold. But Browning and a friend caught and released close to 200 fish, a mix of largemouth and spotted bass, stripers and walleyes.
Go Low
They caught those fish on one of Browning’s favorite techniques: deep-ditch fishing.
He used his electronics to locate schools of shad and gamefish holding on deep structure, then fished vertically for them. Many of the fish were caught on jigging spoons, underspins with plastic swimbaits and football jigs in 30 to 45 feet of water.
“Sometimes, we would drop all the way to the bottom and start to lift up and there was a fish on,” Browning said. “Other times, we would start to bring our baits up through suspending fish and one of them would hit.”
They also cast bass jigs with plastic trailers and dragged them across the underwater structure for bass holding tight to the bottom.
Not every deep ditch would hold fish. Browning had to search for similar deep-water structure before he could find pockets of active fish. He located three productive spots that day.
Embrace The Cold
An unusual outing? Not really. Browning has experienced many of those winter days on Ouachita, Hamilton and De Gray lakes in the Hot Springs area in the last several years.
Water temperatures will typically be in the mid-40s and air temperatures will range from 20 to 50 degrees.
“We have brutal summers around here,” Browning said. “It’s so hot that the fishing just shuts down. It’s not enjoyable to be out. “But in the winter, everything will bite. It’s one of my favorite times to get out. The fish are predictable. As long as you dress for the conditions, you can stay comfortable.”
Browning advises wearing a personal flotation device, going with a partner and telling others where he plans to fish. He learned about the basics of winter fishing from one of the best — his dad, Stephen, a longtime nationally known pro. For years, Stephen has spent the tournament off-season fishing for fun in December, January and February.
He caught his personal-best largemouth — a bass that weighed 12 pounds, 5 ounces — on a cold January day at Lake Monticello in southeast Arkansas. “I was slow-rolling a spinnerbait through a stump field,” he said. “It was a cold, miserable day, but that fish wanted to eat.”
Fish Are Where You Find Them
The elder Browning also catches bass in the depths of Arkansas reservoirs in the winter.
“We’ll catch bass from top to bottom in the winter,” Stephen said. “Never in my life have I caught bass as deep as I do here when it gets cold. We’ll catch fish from 40 to 60 feet deep here.”
Stephen also catches wintertime bass around shallow cover, which is more conducive to his fishing style. He has caught big bass on Chatterbaits, squarebill crankbaits, lipless crankbaits and spinnerbaits in the winter.
Both of the Brownings point out that they have to slow their retrieve in the cold water to make their presentation look more natural to the sluggish fish.
The bottom line? Winter isn’t the off-season for this father and son.
“A lot of people don’t like winter, but it’s one of my favorite times to fish,” Beau said. “As long as I can make it to the ramp, I’m going to be out there.”
