A STRUCTURED APPROACH
During the winter, bass often suspend next to a hump or dropoff edge. Suspending bass can frustrate even the most diligent anglers. To target suspended bass, bounce a drop shot off the bottom or run a spoon, deep-diving crankbait or spinnerbait through the area. "Helicoptering" a spinnerbait -- or pulling it up and letting it flutter down -- can entice a lunker.

"One of my favorite ways to fish deep structure in the winter is 'worming' a spinnerbait," said Denny Brauer, a former Bassmaster Classic champion. "Throw it out and let it fall all the way to the bottom until you see slack in the line. Raise it off the bottom by raising the rod tip to the 11 o'clock or 12 o'clock position. Drop the rod tip back down, letting the bait helicopter down. Follow it down until it hits the bottom and do it again."

Most people vertically jig a spoon, dropping it to the bottom and bouncing it up and down. Small, heavy and compact, a jigging spoon gets to the bottom in a hurry, looking like a dying shad on the way down. Anglers can also cast spoons to schooling fish.

"I look for a ball of shad and jig a 1/2- to 3/4-ounce spoon around it," Kreuzer said. "In really deep water I might shift to a 1-ounce spoon. Bass hanging under the school of shad and shooting up into them is the perfect scenario. If fish are suspended off the bottom, I pull the boat back and throw the spoon into the school. I make really long casts and let the spoon sink all the way to the bottom. Then, I bounce it off the bottom and let it fall again. Bass chase the bait up and hit it when it starts to fall."

CENTRAL & NORTH LOUISIANA HOTSPOTS
Toledo Bend Reservoir
Anglers can employ these methods in almost any central or north Louisiana lake and some places in the southern parishes, but Toledo Bend probably offers the best combination of big fish, numbers and deep water in the state. Each year, the 186,000-acre reservoir along the Sabine River channel separating Texas from Louisiana produces many double-digit bass. About 65 miles long, "the Bend" offers anglers numerous coves and creek channels touching more than 1,265 miles of shorelines. It averages about 60 feet deep, but some holes drop to more than 110 feet deep. Both Texas and Louisiana routinely stock the massive reservoir with Florida-strain largemouths.

"Toledo Bend is the premier place to go in Louisiana," exclaimed Jason Pittman, a professional bass angler from Covington. "It's not unusual to hear about someone catching a 10-pounder. Just about any place on the Texas side south of the Pendleton Bridge can hold big bass in the winter. Some better places include Six-Mile Creek, Housen Bay and the Indian Mounds on the Texas side or Tennessee Bay on the Louisiana side. Main lake points are also good places to catch bass."

On the north end, several islands, humps and channels provide bass cover where the Sabine River enters Toledo Bend. In late winter, pre-spawn bass stage on these humps. When the time comes, they follow creek channels or points as they move shallow. Many bass spawn in flooded buck brush in two to four feet of water.