February’s prespawn worth the dire conditions

When Jeff Foster caught his 17.34-pound bass at Davis Lake two years ago, it was no fluke.

“I went there, like I always do in winter, hoping to get one bite,” said Foster, of Tupelo, whose fish is the second largest bass ever recorded in Mississippi. “My favorite time of the year is the pre-spawn and I like the coldest, rawest days I can get.

“What that does is make finding where the big bass are easier, because they go deep and they hold tight to cover. You sit in one place all day, casting to the same place, hoping eventually to get a bite.”

Foster caught his big bass on a relatively mild (40-degrees) and windless Jan. 3, 2013, getting the magic bite at 2:15 p.m. after five hours of casting. Had the fish been caught in February, just a month later, there’s a good chance the fish could have beaten Anthony Denny’s state record of 18.14 pounds set on New Year’s Eve 1992 at Natchez State Park.

“There is no doubt in my mind that if this fish had been fully loaded with eggs that it would have beaten the state record,” said Ron Garavelli, then the Chief of Fisheries for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. He has since retired. “No doubt about it all.”

Foster caught the fish on spinning gear with 8-pound Vanish Fluorocarbon line, throwing a shaky-head worm rig with a 7-inch blue Zoom Trick worm.

“We were fishing a bend in the main creek channel, where a ditch connects,” he said. “It’s a place we fish a lot in the winter. It’s perfect.”

In addition the creek channel and ditch, there’s an old stump field.

“It’s the kind of deep structure you need to fish in the winter, and there’s only one thing I throw, a shaky-head worm rig,” he said. “Throw it and shake it. Throw it and shake it. Throw it and shake it. You just have to keep throwing it and shaking it until you get one to hit it, because when it happens there’s a good chance it’s going to be a trophy fish.”

February bass are lethargic, except those few days of winter on the back end of an extended warming spell when they take advantage and move up to feed.

When it’s cold, however, the bass will be deep, more finicky and picky about feeding.

Yet, a February trip to Davis Lake can produce the bass of a lifetime.

“Don’t let the forecast bother you,” Foster said. “The colder the better.”

It’s hard to argue with a man who can produce a picture of a 17-pounder in his hands.