February's Southern Big Bass Run

With Super Bowl XLIX now in the rearview mirror, scores of anglers across the southern U.S. and on into Texas are ready for some of the best bass fishing action of the year to commence.

As long as those six more weeks of winter weather that the pesky groundhog in Pennsylvania forecast the other day fails to materialize, at least in the southern latitudes of bass country.

While the weather in spots from Alabama's Lake Guntersville to Louisiana's Red River and many points in between can be problematic in February, the bass fishing action often isn't. If a double-digit lunker is in your angling plans this year, that is.

Take my home state of Texas, for instance, where the...