“Cold Water Bass’n with Pete Gluszek”
By
Billy "Hawkeye" Decoteau
Column: The Bass Bureau
The month of October has a seductive way of enticing Bass Anglers to trade in their flipping sticks for shotguns, winterize their bass rigs and start riding ATV’s in scouting adventures tracking that elusive deer or chasing turkey.
Savvy Bass Anglers on the other hand spend their time scanning their Fishing Hot Spot maps reviewing areas with deep water close to shallow flats that were productive during the early spring, as the life cycle of our favorite finned quarry rotates into another cold-water season.
“I concentrate on two very important factors this time of year,” advises veteran B.A.S.S./FLW Champion Pete Gluszek. “Bass are cold blooded creatures, so consistently cooling water temperatures will telegraph the change in seasons. The second factor is that bass are creatures of habit traveling the same migration routes yearly, where they herd schools of baitfish onto adjacent flats.”
As the change in transitional season’s progresses, Gluszek utilizes his Humminbird Side Imaging unit to track the underwater movement. “Side Imaging and the new Down Imaging Humminbird units assist you in locating old creek channels leading to shallow flats.” Positioning his Ranger Bass boat along the channel edge, Gluszek looks for stumps and green grass lines. “These are the first places bass will migrate to when they begin to school up and go on their annual Fall Feeding Frenzy, suggests Evinrude’s professional angler and guide. (www.PeteGluszek.com)
New Jersey’s Pete Gluszek and has one word of advice for late fall cold water bass anglers, “Shallow!” This is the time of year that bass anglers have one of their best opportunities to land lunker bass. And, to make it even sweeter, if you do your homework and your timing is right you will be sight fishing. It will blow your mind when you see these monsters cruising in water depths as shallow as one foot or less,” claims the Lake Champlain Champion.
In the northeast the Cold Water Bass’n period begins to take place in mid-September covering the entire month of October and at times extending into the early part of November. However this transitional period occurs every year across the USA, so bass anglers need to pay attention to cooling water temperatures as well as cooler nighttime temperatures marking the beginning of the transitional period.
“Bass migrate to shallow water areas this time of year for the same reasons they do in early spring. These shallow water areas will be the first areas to warm up after the cooler nighttime temperatures,” suggest Gluszek. Adding, “Bass tend to snuggle up to wood and rock cover, but if shallow green grass beds can be found, anglers might come across a mother load of bass. The green grass supplies the bass with ample oxygen, causing bass to use this prime cover as a staging and ambush area for baitfish.”
Pete Gluszek prefers water temperatures ranging between 55-65 degrees. “These temperatures seem to be the most productive, and the best part of the Fall Feeding Frenzy is that the bass become extremely aggressive!”
When the bass are aggressive or schooling Gluszek suggest bass anglers equip themselves with fast moving baits such as spinnerbaits, crankbaits or topwater Heddon Zara Spooks, for explosive surface and sub-surface strikes.
“Spinnerbaits can be absolutely tremendous when retrieved with high speed gear ratio reels. Be sure to run your spinnerbait just under the surface or over submerged grass beds,” instructs Gluszek, co-founder of The Bass University. (www.TheBassUniversity.com) “But, always attach a trailer hook for short strikes. This will increase your hook-up percent and at times you just might end up with a double,” adds Pete Gluszek.
When it comes to color choice for spinnerbaits when targeting smallmouth bass, the Lake Champlain Champion has just one suggestion, “Chartreuse with Chartreuse blades!” Due to their low stretch characteristics Pete Gluszek spools either Berkley Fluorocarbon line or Berkley braided line to his high-speed reels.
“Anglers need to make long cast, so it’s advisable that they equip themselves with a longer rod!” Working rock shoals, humps, sunken islands, or windy shorelines, Gluszek launches his spinnerbaits via Denali’s 7’4” Mark Tyler Multi-purpose rod. “Once the bait hits the water, start reeling as fast as you can, with your bait just under the surface. If those smallmouths are in the area they will hammer your spinnerbait within the first 10-15 feet of the retrieve.” Pete Gluszek warns anglers, “Leaping hard fighting mammoth smallmouths have extremely hard jaws so hard setting double hook sets, are needed at times to keep them from jumping off!”
“It’s important for anglers to keep on-the-water daily logs; including water temperatures, aggressiveness of the bass, cover bass were relating to, water depth most bass came from, productive baits, and weather conditions,” advises New Jersey’s Professional On-The-Water Bass Fishing Instructor Pete Gluszek. “This will help anglers stay in tune with what’s happening in the underwater world of the bass.” Adding, “As the bite slows down, anglers need to adjust with changes in their presentations.”
When water temperature settles into the low 50-degree range the aggressiveness of the bass will also slow down signaling the transitional movement towards colder wintertime deep-water lethargic staging areas. This is when The Bass University Instructor turns to vertical jigging spoon techniques. “This is an excellent time for bass anglers seeking to improve their working knowledge in operating electronic sonar’s with advanced Side Imaging, while patterning bass movement, to book my on the-water Instructional Guide Service, suggest Gluszek. “Adding, “it is also one of the best times to increase your confidence, and actually watch the bass on my Humminbird electronics eat your bait!
Anglers interested in booking an On-The-Water guide/teaching session with Pete Gluszek, may do so by logging unto Pete’s web site at www.PeteGluszek.com or by calling Pete @ 1.609.805.2280.
God Bless and Best Bass’n
