Living on the shores of one of the hottest bass fisheries on the planet, Bassmaster Elite Series pro Randy Howell will be spending all winter fishing on Alabama’s Lake Guntersville. The offseason from pro tournaments allows him to hone his skills and practice new techniques as he prepares for next season.
This winter, he says it will be a mix of fishing with his forward-facing sonar and some old-school fishing without it, as next year’s schedule has some events that allow the technology and some that won’t. Both approaches likely account for some great fishing this offseason, and Howell shared how he approaches both fishing styles during the winter months.
‘Scope Season
The winter months are prime time to use forward-facing sonar, and Howell will use his Lowrance Active Target plenty, primarily with a minnow on a jighead and a jerkbait.
“As we move into the colder months in the fall, across the country, most of the baitfish start to group up offshore,” he began. “We’ve learned so much with forward-facing sonar about baitfish and how they migrate, and they will start to rise to the top of the water column, and the bass will be right there with them, where we always used to think they were sitting on a rocky bluff or around a brush pile. Now, we know they’re just swimming around out there everywhere.”
One of the easiest ways to target these fish is with a jighead minnow, and Howell has his setup dialed in to get the most out of the rig. “I fish it on my 7-foot, 3-inch medium Daiwa Tatula Elite spinning rod, which has the AGS guides, so it’s super light and very sensitive,” he said. “The rod is made for a drop-shot or shaky head, but also works great for fishing a minnow. I fish it with a Daiwa Tatula LT MQ spinning reel and like the larger 4000 size because you can pick up your slack much faster when a fish hits it and runs right at you after you hook them.”
For line, he prefers the XBraid SS112 in 15-pound test with a 12-pound Daiwa J-Fluoro leader. “I don’t use a real light leader, and that braid is a sinking braid, which allows you to get the bait down really fast and be really effective for hitting specific fish you see on the screen,” he added.
Howell will decide between a minnow and a jerkbait depending on where the fish are on the screen. “If they are floating higher in the column under bait, that surface to 10-feet range, I’ll throw the jerkbait and fish a minnow when they are deeper than that,” he said.
For his jerkbaits, he uses a 7-foot, Daiwa Tatula Elite medium-light small crankbait and jerkbait rod that he designed. “It’s an excellent rod for a jerkbait because it has a soft tip, parabolic bend, and shorter handle to work the bait much easier,” he said. “I fish it with a Daiwa Tatula Elite 100 SV 100 reel in the 7.1:1 retrieve, which casts a great bait on 12-pound J-Fluoro because it has a deeper and SV spool.”
Go for the Grass Fish
When not using his forward-facing sonar, Howell likes to fish grass with a ChatterBait and Yamamoto Zako on the back during winter. “When the grass starts to die down a little bit when it’s getting cold, those mats will break up and you can find more holes and openings in the grass,” he said. “Targeting those will work all winter and into the early spring. Those fish in the grass are just different fish than those out chasing baitfish; some stay related to vegetation and along the bottom all year.”
For fishing his ChatterBaits, Howell uses a rod he designed, a 7-foot, 4-inch medium-heavy Daiwa Tatula Elite designed for big topwaters and bladed jigs. “I fish them with a Tatula Elite SV TW 150 reel with a 7.3:1 retrieve and 16 to 20-pound Daiwa J-Fluoro,” he added. “The J-Fluoro is very thin, and you can go up a size or two and not sacrifice any casting distance. It’s also spooled onto the spool perfectly, where it doesn’t criss-cross at all, making it very smooth when you put it on your reel.”
Fishing during the winter can be done many ways, and you can go offshore with your electronics or stay shallow and fish whatever grass you can find. Both approaches can pay big dividends in the winter months, and Alabama’s Randy Howell will be using both this year as he prepares for his next Bassmaster Elite Series season.
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