Bass

“Basically all your reservoirs, and smallmouth and largemouth fishing gets better after the summer months into the fall and winter,” Beach said. “It can be feast or famine, you follow the shad back into the creek starting now. They’re starting to gradually move back into the creeks. The colder the water gets, the more the shad will push into the creeks and the bass will follow that.”

Beach said as long as an angler can find those schools of shad, there is a great opportunity to catch bass, who become more active in the creeks during cold weather.

Striped bass are another good target for the winter, according to Hammonds. Like the largemouth and smallmouth, anglers need only follow the shad to have luck catching them.

“You’re either gonna catch several or none, it can be frustrating,” Hammonds said.