Billie:

Bass season is closed here in the winter, we were targeting pike and perch through the ice and were catching some really big large-mouth on minnows, the bigger the minnow we used the bigger the bass was!

Kraig:

If your fishing clearer water you can’t go wrong with a jerk bait. Red craw fish color lipless crank baits work well. Drop shotting and jigs are good too.

Southern Johnny:

Night crawlers have been working for me.

unmamfqlm:

The main tip is fish s-l-o-w, very slow at times. My favorite bait to throw in cool water are jigs. Preferrably 3/4 ounce or 1/2 ounce with a nice big trailer and rattle. A lot of people will say you want to size down your baits, which is true in some cases but not for baits like jigs. Bass are very slow moving in the Winter and if they go for a bait they want it to be well worth it. They won’t tend to chase down baits like they do other times of the year which is why a slow retrieve is a pretty vital. They’ll also generally be holding fairly deep as you mentioned so you of course want to give whatever you are using time to fall down to that deeper water. So again, a jig is my go to bait in the winter.

Second. if you haven’t tried any rattle traps I’d strongly suggest it. I’ve pulled out more fish on these in cool water than I have on the jigs, they just don’t tend to be as big. You can cover a lot of water with these and fish the however you want, they’re very versatile. I like letting them sink until they hit bottom then use a stop and go retrieve with a twitch or 2 in between. They have loads of different colors and sizes so buy a few and experiement. Remember, GENERALLY in stained water a darker color will do best and in clear water a lighter/natural color will do best. But for some reason in Winter I’ve pulled a lot more fish out on a crawfish color in any water clarity. That would be my 2nd choice.

Lastly, if neither of those were producing I would bust out my bigger plastic worms. 10 inch and even 12 inch Texas rigged worms have done nicely for me in the past. I tend to stick with the Culprit brand worms and occsionally Berkley Powerbait worms. As I said I like Texas Rigging best but a lot of people will Carolina Rig and Drop Shot like you said. Im not sure of the brand but there’s some pretty neat hooks that come with rattle on them that I like to use this time of year. When you’re fishing in water as cold as you are you need all of the “extra” stuff you can get imo like extra noise, flashy/flakey materials, and scents.

That was answer I posted a while back to a similar question. Although if the temp is consitently in the 70′s for a period of time I may suggest throwing some shad imitations. The warmer weather should cause the fish to start feeding a bit more and moving a bit more. Maybe try throwin a Zoom Fluke with a weighted hook or a swimbait or 2.

Grand Master Basser®:

A four-inch worm fished on a drop shot rig should work pretty well. Six, seven, even an eight-inch worm fished on a Texas rig would probably work even better. A half-ounce to three-quarter-ounce football head jig with a creature bait trailer might bring ‘em in, too. Slowing the presentations waaaay down are your best bet.