Pro Lesson
The 100% Winter Line
Friday, November 20, 2009
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Photo: BassFan
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With winter setting in around much of the country, odds are you're fishing deep right now. Jigs, worms and suspending jerkbaits – the name of the game is deep in late fall and winter.
But more than that, it's usually deep and slow, because in winter, you typically need to fish more slowly than at any other time of the year. Of course there are exceptions – especially along the very southern boundaries of the country where winter is more like early fall in the North – but slow in winter is a good, general rule to follow.
The need to fish slow is the result of two factors. One, bass are often not as aggressive as they are in the summer, so you need to put baits right on their faces. Two, bass as a rule are more schooled up in winter, so if you fish too fast, you risk missing a key pod or two.
Pro Jay Yelas certainly knows that. The man who's qualified for 20 straight championships – 16 Bassmaster Classics and four Forrest Wood Cups – definitely fishes more slowly and methodically in winter.
And to do that he relies primarily on a single line.
"Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon has just been a huge product the past few years that's really taken the market over," Yelas said. "It's an awesome tool for fishing, and it's about all I use in winter.
"My history with Trilene 100% actually goes way back. I was one of the first pros to get some of the test spools back in 2006, and I helped field-test a lot of it. The raw material is totally different than what they used for fluorocarbon in the past, so it's more applicable to bass fishing. It has better knot strength, more feel – it's almost the perfect line."
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Photo: Berkley
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The only time Yelas doesn't use the 100% Fluorocarbon is when he fishes a floating bait like a topwater. Not much of that in winter. Instead, his cold-weather arsenal is mainly jigs, worms and suspending jerkbaits.
"The 100% is the perfect line for that," he noted. "You can feel everything that's going on with your bait, and you can fish nice and slow and detect the lighter winter bites. Water's generally clearer in winter too, and fluorocarbon's nearly transparent so fish can't see it."
Yelas summed up his philosophy: "If you're not fishing fluorocarbon in winter, you're going to miss a lot of bites, and I think Trilene's fluorocarbon is hands-down the best there is."
Notable
> Yelas prefers the San Diego jam knot, over the palomar, for tying fluoro.
> Because fluorocarbon's expensive, he recommends using mono as a backing, so you can spool multiple times off a single box of fluoro.
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