Top December Baits

Northern Lakes by Matt Stefan

If you live up north and you're lucky enough to have some open water in December, you can still catch a lot of good fish but you are probably going to have to fish deeper and slower.  The bait that I am choosing for December is the Berkeley Snap Jig. This bait is one of my absolute favorites for cold water fishing. Some of you love it so much that you like to use it through the ice. The bait glides all over the place so you can get a lot of movement whether you through the ice or not. I also like to fish this in open water to make a long cast, by snapping the rod and letting the bait glide all over the place.  It does an excellent job of mimicking those bait fish that are starting to die off because your water temperatures are reaching extremely cold temperatures.

Because crayfish are hibernating at this time, the only thing fish have to eat are baits, so most of the fish is going to be preying on that easy meal. There are very few baits that do as good of a job as this snap jig.

One of my favorites is the Keitech Shad Impact 4 in. When this hits the bottom, give it a little bit of time to sit in the cold water at the bottom, because that's what a dying baitfish looks like. Soon a lot of bass will start to swim over and suck it up right off the bottom because they think that something just died and fell to the bottom. 

Lowland Reservoir by Jimi Easterling

My favorite lure in the month of December is the Flat Sided Crank-bait. It has a tight wobble that the bass cannot resist as temperatures drop during the month of December.

I like to find stained water and I am going to go target rock, wood stumps and ditches. This is a lure that can cover all the water. I will be targeting anywhere between 4-8 feet in depth during this month. 

Shallow Water by randy Blaukat

I love fishing in December and this is the time of year for jerk baits. It is no surprise that my favorite bait is the 110 Jerk Bait. This is the bait that I use the most throughout the month of December. Because of the low temperatures, the bass will begin to form packs of 2-5 and go the main lake and secondary points. For these packs of bass, there is no better jerk bait than this one.

The first thing I am going to do, is determine the angle of the point that I want to fish. I am also going to be looking for sign of baitfish anywhere between 10-20 feet of water. If I see bait fish on these points, then I will start keying in those specific points because if baitfish are there, then there will also be bass.

Florida and tVA Lakes By Miles Burghoff

December is all about cold fronts. The temperatures start to go down to the lowest they will be all season long. In the south, the shed will be affected by these weather changes. When the temperatures get to the low 40s, the shad are going to start dying or stunned. You want to use baits that imitate those stunned or dying bait fish. The best bait created for imitating this is the Suspending Jerk-bait.

I like to use high speed casting gear because a lot times you will gets surprised by bait that is coming right at your so you want to be able to pick up that slack quickly. This is why I use an 8:1 gear ratio. I like to use this at 45 degree banks and bluff walls since this is where the bass fish are going to be.

These were are top 5 December baits. Hopefully you enjoyed this blog. Please let us know if this article was helpful and if you would like more content like this at info@fishthemoment.com.