Bass Fishing Report - January 22, 2026
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Bass Fishing Report: January 22 - 26, 2026
A massive fast moving cold front will be moving across the nation Thurs – Fri will rapidly drop water temps in any waters not frozen over everywhere except Florida, West Coast and Southern AZ.
This will cause the bass to drop back to early Pre-Spawn and even Winter patterns this weekend.
Another good weekend to make snow angels, go sledding and watch playoff football.
One exception: If you love chasing giant bass and have forward facing sonar, this could be a good weekend to target a PB. The water may get cold enough by Sunday to cause the big Pre-Spawn females to pull back and suspend in open water in predictable locations near migration routes to spawning areas. (Points, Creek Channel Bends, Drains, Creek/Cove Mouths).
When you find them, use Umbrella rigs, Jerkbaits and Finesse Jig heads rigged with small plastic minnows using a Hover or Mid-Strolling Technique. Tap or gently shake as you retrieve just above the fish.
Quick links to your specific regional fishing forecast below
Pacific Northwest | Southwest | Southeast | Rocky Mountains | Great Plains | Midwest | Northeast
Ice-fishing for bass top tips
Top bass fishing locations for ice fishing:
Largemouth: If you can find green weeds, awesome. If not, look for wood + first break, drop-off or basin edge nearby (8–18 ft is common, but depends on the lake).
Smallmouth: More likely on rock/gravel, points, humps, and basin edges. Commonly deeper than largemouth.
High-percentage spots (both)
Sharp break next to a flat
Point that tops out shallow then drops into 15–30+
Neck-downs / pinch points (travel lanes)
Soft-bottom basins adjacent to structure (they’ll suspend here)
Top Ice Fishing Baits:
Jig + plastic: 1/16–1/8 oz tungsten or lead jig and 1.5–3” plastic: paddle tail, fluke-style, or straight tail. Colors: start natural (smoke/green pumpkin/white), then go brighter if they sniff and leave.
Small jigging spoon: 1/16–1/4 oz spoon, tipped with a minnow head or waxie
Blade bait / vibration bait
Presentation: Less is more: tiny hops, long pauses.
On sonar: if they rise to look but won’t eat, hold still longer, then give one subtle twitch.
If they follow and fade: downsize (bait and line) before you move spots.
If you mark nothing in 10–15 minutes, move. Ice bass are still location-dependent.
Gear tips that matter
Electronics help a ton. A flasher/sonar turns this from guessing into fishing.
Line: 4–8 lb fluoro (or light braid to a fluoro leader) for sensitivity + stealth.
Rod: a medium-light to medium with a fast tip; you want finesse but enough backbone.
Hooks: keep them sharp—cold water bites can be “tick… nothing.”
Timing and conditions
Midday can be best (a little warming + more light penetration).
If there’s any green weed, sunny days can turn on a bite.
Fish care and safety (quick but important)
Check ice constantly; don’t assume thickness is uniform. Bass can freeze gills quickly—unhook fast, keep them wet, and return them down the hole promptly. If you’re fishing deep, be mindful of barotrauma—consider staying a bit shallower for better release success.
Your Regional Bass Fishing Report
Best Baits, Tips, and Techniques
Quick links to your specific regional fishing forecast below
Pacific Northwest | Southwest | Southeast | Rocky Mountains | Great Plains | Midwest | Northeast
Pacific Northwest
(Washington, Oregon, Idaho)
Bite: TOUGH
Pattern: WINTER
If you can find a lake that has not iced over to fish, then dress warm and fish drop-offs, main lake basins, creek channels and deeper points with suspending jerkbaits, deep diving crankbaits and umbrella rigs first, then comb same areas with Carolina rigs and Ned rigs. If fish are not coming up, try a Spybait, Drop Shot, Jig or Jigging Spoon. Hover and Mid Strolling are effective when targeting specific fish using forward face sonar / Live Scope.
PRO TIP: If you are boat fishing with electronics, searching for large schools of bass may pay off big as we have already heard reports of big bags being caught this way.
Top Bass Bait to use: Throw Ned Rigs
Southwest
(California, Arizona, Nevada, West Texas, New Mexico)
Bite: FAIR → TOUGH
Pattern: PRE-SPAWN→ SPAWN (NV and NM – WINTER)
Best bets you will see in the BassForecast app, are:
Pre-Spawn
Baits: Soft Jerkbait/Stickbait, Lipless Rattling Crankbait, Spybait and Ned Rig
Locations: Migration routes to spawning areas, secondary points, flats near spawning areas and transition banks.
Spawn
Baits: Jig, Shaky Head, Craw/Tube, Wacky Rig, Soft Jerkbait/Stickbait
Locations: Shallow flats, Migration routes to spawning areas, secondary points, flats near spawning areas and transition banks
Winter
Baits: Drop Shot, Spybait, Suspending Jerkbait, Spoon, Ned Rig
Locations: Main Lake, Dropoffs/Ledges, Steep Banks & Bluffs
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Southeast
(Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, East Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky)
Bite: FAIR → TOUGH
Pattern: PRE-SPAWN → WINTER
Take a look at the Bass Season heat map above and you will see how this front is affecting the seasonal fishing pattern. PRO TIP: Florida strain bass are much more sensitive to cold fronts than northern strain bass. If you can find any bodies of water to fish that contain northern strain bass, you will want to focus on those this week.
Pre-Spawn
Baits: Soft Jerkbait/Stickbait, Lipless Rattling Crankbait, Spybait and Ned Rig
Locations: Migration routes to spawning areas, secondary points, flats near spawning areas and transition banks.
Winter
Baits: Drop Shot, Spybait, Suspending Jerkbait, Spoon, Ned Rig
Locations: Main Lake, Dropoffs/Ledges, Steep Banks & Bluffs
PRO TIP: Hover and Mid Strolling are effective when targeting specific fish using forward face sonar / Live Scope. Tap or gently shake as you retrieve just above the fish.
Rocky Mountains
(Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Utah)
Bite: FAIR to TOUGH
Pattern: WINTER
See above Ice-fishing for bass top tips
Great Plains
(Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas Panhandle, South Dakota, North Dakota)
Bite: TOUGH
Pattern: LATE FALL → WINTER
See above Ice-fishing for bass top tips
Midwest
(Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota)
Bite: FAIR to TOUGH
Pattern: WINTER
On natural lakes, look for suspended basin roamers tracking bait over 25–45 ft and pick them off with blade baits, spoons, or a Damiki/hover-strolling minnow on light line. If your lake still has green edge-weeds, yo-yo a lipless crank or slow-roll a compact swimbait along the outside weedline before sliding deeper to 12–20 ft breaks with a football jig. In river systems, pick apart current seams, eddies, and bridge pilings with hair jigs, Ned rigs, and tubes; the first sunny hour can nudge fish onto rock transitions for a short jerkbait window.
See above Ice-fishing for bass top tips
Northeast
(New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, New England)
Bite: TOUGH
Pattern: WINTER
If you love a challenge, dressing up for the cold and ice fishing more than watching football, by all means dress warm and gear up for the challenge with ice-fishing for bass top tips.
See above Ice-fishing for bass top tips
Curious about the Bass Forecast Ratings and Adapted Pattern® recommendations for the weekend?
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Bass Forecast Tip:
Over 1.5 million+ Bass Forecast anglers have used these tips to boost catch rates during the cooler season.
1. Don't rely on “what worked yesterday.” It's not a solid strategy. The trickiest part of figuring out the bite in bass fishing is that patterns can change daily based on the weather, thus changing the feeding behavior of bass. Use the Bass Forecast app feature Adapted Patterns® to help adapt your strategy in real time. Bass Forecast Adapted Patterns® has predicted the winning pattern in 86% of top flight bass fishing tournaments 7 to 10 days before the tournament began.
2. Select best odds days up to 10 days in advance by getting Bass Forecast PRO inside the app. While there's no ‘guarantee’ of success on any single outing, double blind research has shown that season long average catch rates during GOOD/EPIC rated days are 68% to 305% higher than the average. Fisheries biologist research has also proven that bigger bass are caught during GOOD/EPIC days due to proactive vs reactive feeding behavior.
3. Whenever you go, the Bass Forecast Rating combined with the Seasonal Pattern guides the 3 key elements of a successful bass catching pattern.
Tight lines and happy fishing!
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