Winter through Prespawn forage question

[acm95301]

I justed wanted to clear up something. I've been told that Crawdads..or at least some species of crawdads hibernate in winter, and that Bass begin to hunt shad Fall through winter. But I've also been told that crawdads are the prime forage of bass in winter. Then Johhny C jumped in with Sculpins!!!! Then the DFG plants trout starting around december So now I'm confused.... Do wintertime bass hunt crawdads, trout, sculpin or shad the most?

I've been under the impression that Shad was the primary forage from fall to lets say February, and then it switches to crawdads for awhile in the prespawn.

[BASSTUD]

Im no pro but i think its just a matter of oppertunity, in the winter time I fish Melones and I find myself throwing only shad pattern bottom baits and trout pattern hudds. I throw the shad pattern baits early then around noon start throwing the hudd for bigger fish, its my opinion the bigger fish feed more heavily on trout in the winter and when the bigger limits of fish come in its usually on swimbaits, butr this doesnt mean there gonna pass up a crawdad if they get the oppertunity. ( havent got anything on the hudd yet, guess im gonna have to hire Johnny C at some point for that) but this stuff can get confusing pretty easy and even seems contradicting but i think that comes from " matter of opinion"......just my 2 cents.

[FishDiver]

I went scuba diving in Folsom 7-8 times last year. The rocky areas were covered with crayfish during the warmer months. My last dive was in late-October or early-November and I didn't see a single crayfish.

[BassManDan]

A matter of opportunity indeed! Everyone in the body of water is in slow-mo, whether it be hibrenating craws, hunkered down shad, or lively trout swimming around.

Obviously we all have caught bass on a big @$$ jig in the middle of winter; obviously a bass isn't going to turn down a big tasty craw when he sees it, bet when other forage is more active, odds are the bass will be spending most of their time around them.

But keep in mind that pre-spawn is the time for crawdad imitation baits. Once the waters start warming, the craws come out of their homes and in force.