Still cold here in New England, but we've had it pretty easy so far in central CT. No snow on the ground and thin ice every where so it won't be long now. So, I'm gearing up for late winter/early spring fishing  and breaking out the jerk-baits. Late winter, if you can find open water, and early spring, are when I like to throw jerk-baits. The fish seem to really respond to this bait during this period, and if you employ it correctly, it can produce awesome results in cold weather. Using a jerk-bait this time of year, when bass fishing, can take some patience, as its extremely slow. I like to think of it as finesse fishing as opposed to power fishing. Work the bait in slow long rips of 2 to 3 feet with long agonizing pauses in between rips 10, 15, 20 or as long as 45 seconds before moving your bait, then twitch twitch pause, then long slow sweeping rip, and repeat. You want long but subtle action, not the usual jerking and twitching you would use in pre-spawn or more active warmer conditions. This is just a starting point the bass will ultimately tell you what cadence they want, but this is where I start and switch cadence as I go, but always slow when the water is cold. Picking the right bait for the job can seem impossible with all the choices out there but I like the "Bomber Long A ", its a tried and true. Remember when choosing a bait, the clearer the water the more natural you want it to appear, you want to match the most abundant forage of your body of water, and as visibility decreases brighter colors are the way to go, you want those bass to not only hear the bait and feel the vibration but see it. In these cold water conditions you want either a slow sinker or, as I prefer, a suspending bait. Anything that moves too quickly or rises is an unnatural movement in cold water and will tend to have adverse effects on your success. Now usually, I like to fish jerk-baits on medium action spinning gear with extra fast action, but this time of year I prefer a moderate fast to fast action medium power rod, the fish are sluggish and a little more give in the tip gives me that extra time so I don't rip the bait out of their mouth. I'll generally throw it on fairly light line 8 or 10 lb. test flouro seems to work best for me. The use of flouro this time of year is especially critical you want the line to stay down with your bait and not pull the nose up, impeding the way it sits during each pause. Also as we all know, flouro has a much reduced visibility in the water which can be critical to catching bass that are already in a neutral or inactive state. As with any pattern you want to target those high percentage areas and in the winter and early spring its even more critical. Bass aren't going out of their way to chase down bait when the water is so cold. Bass generally winter over in deeper water, look for areas that offer quick drop offs, 45 degree banks give bass an easy way to move vertically from shallow to deep water without expending a lot of energy they can just rise up or sink down in the water column. Points, off shore humps and channel swings that offer this are all the better and if the lake has chunk rock or trap rock along sections of bank target those as well, the rock helps absorb heat and just a few degrees in water temp can make a huge difference. Make repeated casts to single targets while paralleling the bank, you want to keep the bait in the strike zone as long as possible and it may take several casts over the same path to entice bass into a strike. Move your boat further from the bank continuing to make parallel casts with the bank moving deeper, but casting parallel to locate what depth the fish are holding in. I hope these tips will help you to catch more fish and get out there early, even though its cold.