From late November to the winter solstice December 20 or 21st winter fishing on Guntersville toughens up. The shortest day of the year occurs on December 20 or 21st and the winter fishing changes immediately, it's like a light gets turned on and the bass come calling.
There has never been a doubt in my mind or by the way my 14 years of history that after the winter solstice the bass fishing gets better. The late November and early December seems to be the toughest days on the water for bass fishing, then like a dose of magic the fishing turns-on once the days start to get a little longer. What happens or what changes that causes this is very simple, the bass spend less time suspending and more time feeding, as the days get longer. Their biological clock starts ticking toward the spring spawn and picks up speed, as the days get longer and longer!
Believe it or not the longer days even though measured in minutes seems to have an immediate effect on the bass feeding habits. The longer day means more sunlight, which gives more midday heat to the water and hence more active bass. Next we generally get a couple of weeks of real cold weather during January and the cold starts to really take a toll on the grass, and as the grass pulls away from the bottom the bass concentrate or school more and more each day. The more they school the more competitive they become over food and active fish become more abundant. Lastly I believe that as soon as we start gaining daylight the bass starts moving in motion for the spawn. There are always setbacks in this with extreme cold days or cold water, but they quickly recover. Bass in motion, starting the movement to the spawn stay in motion and everyday as we work toward spring just accentuates the movement.
We are about 20 days away from reaching the winter solstice and the days will start getting longer, so get ready because you will see marked improvement everyday in the bass fishing from then on.