North Carolina bass pro Mike Goodman relies on a Heddon Sonar to catch smallmouths and other gamefish that pile up beneath ledges throughout the cool months. Learn how.
When Mike Goodman finds baitfish at the bottom of a ledge and the water temperature has fallen beneath 50 degrees, he doesn’t worry about seeing bass on his graph. If the bait is present under those conditions, the gamefish are among them, the North Carolina tournament pro has found.
Using a 1/2 ounce Heddon Rattling Sonar Flash, Goodman usually can catch those fish, and he enjoys some his best days of the year as the mercury begins to drop. “As the water temperature gets lower, those fish just get more concentrated,” Goodman said.
Specifically, Goodman looks for quick-dropping ledges on the edges of broad flats, often at creek channel confluences or hard bends in inundated creek channels. He also has found that fish pile up beside roadbeds when road edges drop sharply.
On Lake James, which is Goodman’s backyard lake, he primarily targets the lake’s chunky smallmouths when he fishes a Sonar in winter holes; however, he also catches largemouths, walleyes and crappie. “If a fish eats shad, you’re can catch that kind of fish using this technique,” Goodman said.
“This is a great way to fish fast in the winter and to really take advantage of concentrations of fish – and it works best on bluebird days, when other techniques don’t tend to work very well,” Goodman said.
Goodman always positions his boat on top of the flat or the roadbed and casts into the deeper water. On Lake James, he typically is over 20 feet or so and is casting into 40 or 50 feet. In a shallow lake, the drop could be 10 feet or less. The key is that it must be a true ledge, not a slope.
Goodman casts the Sonar as far as he can throw it and lets it flutter all the way to the bottom. Then he works it back by jerking the bait up off the bottom and letting it fall again. The Sonar vibrates when it’s lifted and flutters when it falls. Most fish hit the bait on the fall, and when the fish are really piled up, the Sonar often won’t find bottom on the initial drop.
Because Goodman targets fish that are keying on concentrations of shad, he prefers shad-imitating color patterns. He pointed toward blue flash Sonar as a favorite. He fishes the Sonar on 12-pound-test Silver Thread and attaches the bait to the line with a 5/8-inch Excalibur Hold-Tite Snap. Sonars are made with three line-tie holes, each of which creates a different action. Goodman uses the center hole.
Unlike the case with some other winter techniques, anglers don’t have to be concerned about detecting light strikes with this technique. A bigger concern would be having a big smallmouth yank the rod from an angler’s hands. “You just have to hold on when those big smallmouths come to get it,” Goodman said.