January Bass at Jordan
with Greg Vinson
January weather often drives bass fishermen indoors since watching others catch fish on TV is much warmer than fighting the cold in a bass boat. But wise bass fishermen are out on Jordan Lake fighting big spots this month. Jordan is an excellent place to catch some quality fish right now.
Jordan is a 6800 acre Alabama Power lake on the Coosa River 25 miles north of Montgomery. It backs up to the Mitchell Lake dam and connects to Lake Bouldin with a short canal. Jordan was built in 1928 and Bouldin added in 1967. Bouldin is a better largemouth lake but the big spots live in both and are the target of most bass fishermen this time of year.
Coosa River lakes are known for big spotted bass and Jordan is one of the best for them. Its has many steep rocky banks and points that are favorite structure for spots this time of year and the current that usually moves through the lake make them feed more, even in the colder water.
Greg Vinson grew up in the area and has been bass fishing all his life. He fished many tournaments with his father and joined the Kowaliga Bassmasters bass club in Tallassee as soon as he was old enough to be a member. His first full year in the club he won the point standings.
For several years Greg fished local tournaments and did well. In 2004 he made the state team and qualified for the Southern Regional Bassmasters Tournament. There he was the top fisherman on the Alabama team and made the national championship. That really fired him up to fish bigger tournaments.
In his first BFL tournament ever, he won on Lake Martin in 2005. That year he finished 4th overall in the points standings and qualified for the Stren series, where he was the top rookie. He made the top ten in that series the next two years and that was his introduction to professional bass fishing.
Although he had a good job he decided to go for it and fish professionally in 2006. In 2008 he qualified for the Bassmasters Elite Series through the Southern Opens and was the fourth place rookie on that top trail last year. He will be fishing the Elite series again this year.
Skeeter Boats and Yamaha Motors are two of Greg’s major sponsors on the Elite trail and he is also sponsored by Davis Baits jigs and spinnerbaits and NetBait plastics.
Greg writes a fishing column for Lake Martin Magazine and co-hosts the Sportz Blitz TV show with Brent Pritchard on Charter Network Channel 80. You can see that show on Sundays from four to five PM and on Saturdays from eight to nine AM. Although he grew up on Lake Martin and still fishes it, he considers Jordan his home lake and spends a lot of time on it.
Greg says spots are easy to pattern on Jordan in January. They are holding on main lake and major creek points and banks with easy access to deep water. Although they have not started to move to a pre spawn pattern, they are feeding heavily on baitfish getting and can be caught on a variety of lures.
A variety of baits will catch those spots and Greg relies on a Davis jig, X Wire spinnerbait and Shakey Head jig head. He rigs a NetBait T-Mac or finesse worm on the Shakey Head and puts a three inch NetBait twintail trailer on his jig. He says the twin tails give a little more action and resemble swimming shad, and he often dyes the tips of the tails chartreuse, a color Greg says drives spots crazy.
A Bandit 300, Bomber Fat Free Shad or Norman Deep Little N are his choices in crankbaits and Greg starts off with a shad color but also goes to a chartreuse bait, especially if the water is stained. Each of those crankbaits have a little different action and Greg tries to offer each to the bass until he finds what is working best that day.
A jerk bait will sometimes pay off in the cold waters but it has to be worked slowly. Greg says he will let his Pointer 78 sit still for up to ten seconds between jerks, giving the sluggish bass time to hit it.
On some spots a Davis X Wire spinner bait with one willow leaf and one Colorado blade imitate the shad and slow rolling one right on the bottom can be the best tactic to use.
A Carolina rig will catch bass on Jordan, too, and Greg sometimes uses a finesse worm on one but he keys on bigger rocks this time of year. A Carolina rig is harder to work through the chunk to boulder size rocks he fishes but if the wind is strong it may be needed to keep your bait on the bottom.
Try all these baits on the following ten spots Greg showed me in early December. They will hold bass now and the bass will feed on them some time during the day.
1. N 32 35.670 – W 86 17.253 – If you go into Lake Bolton and head toward the dam you will see a point on either side with big signs on them. This is an old dam built so they could work on the main dam and when it was taken out a lot of rubble was left on the bottom. It narrows the lake down above the dam so there is a strong current here is there is any power generation.
Greg says he catches fish anywhere on this rubble field that stretches across the lake between the danger signs, but he likes to start on the left side facing the dam and works across it. He positions his boat so he can throw up the current and work his baits back with the flow of water in a natural action.
On this spot Greg starts with his jig and pig and tries to find “seams” in the current. What he is looking for is a break in the current caused by a big rock under the water. He throws his jig upstream and lets the current wash it down into the eddies at the seams. That is where the bass hold, waiting on food.
This is also one of Greg’s favorite places to throw a Davis X Wire spinnerbait. He ties on a bait with a silver willowleaf and gold Colorado blade and a glimmer blue skirt and cast it upstream. After letting it fall to the bottom he fishes it very slowly, almost like a jig, pumping it up and letting it fall back.
Keep your spinnerbait in contact with the rocks. Greg says spots will hit this bait hard and you will feel a definite thump when they take it. Use a heavy enough bait to keep it on the bottom, depending on how strong the current is running.
2. N 32 37.344 – W 86 16.340 – Go back through the canal and stop on the right side point when you get to where it opens up. There is a long ledge of rock running out off this point and you will see some kind of cement structure on it with a pole holding swift houses. This point causes a current break and the water moves into the canal when power is being generated.
Hold on the down current side and throw a jig up toward the lake and work it back over the point. You will feel the rocks as your jig washes along with the current. You can usually see the seam or current break here and you want to get your jig on the bottom where it breaks.
Also throw a jerk bait across the point and work it slowly in the cold water. Reel it down then jerk it and let it sit and move with the current. Greg says bass really don’t want to chase a bait in the cold water so offer them an easy meal. The jerk bait should look like a dying shad, fluttering then suspending before fluttering again.
3. N 32 37.475 – W 86 15.607 – Run across the lake just above the dam and you will see a clay point on the left side going toward the dam. It has a big danger sign on it. Go upstream past the pocket to the rocky point upstream of it. There is no house on the point but there is a ladder coming out of the water and a rope swing hanging from a tree. A platform to stand on and swing out over the water is on the point.
This is one of the first spots on Jordan Greg learned to fish and it consistently holds bass. It is ideal, with as steep drop into deep water and it has big rocks, not gravel, on it. That is a key in the winter.
Start on the downstream side of this point and work up the bank, casting your jig and pig or jig head worm at an angle so you can work it slowly down the drop but moving it with the current. You can also get in close and cast your jerk bait upstream and work it back parallel to the rocks out a few feet off the bank.
There is almost always a good flow of water here and the black rocks seem to warm from the sun and attract the bass. This is also and example of the points that stick out a little further than the ones around them, making them even better.
4. N 32 27.869 – W 86 15.895 – Go into the mouth of Sofkahatchee Creek past the boat ramp to the second point past it. This point starts a series of rocky points on the right side going into the creek that Greg says are real consistent areas for January spots.
Start fishing the second point with your boat out in 25 to 30 feet of water and work in, casting your jig and pig right on the bank and working it down the drop. The channel of the creek swings in here and the bottom drops fast. Current flows out of the creek across these points, encouraging feeding here.
Both a jig and pig or a jig head worm work well, and a jerk bait will catch fish here, too. Get your boat in a little closer with the jerk bait and work it more parallel to the bank, fishing it slowly for suspended fish.
5. N 32 38.225 – W 86 15.919 – Go into the creek past all the danger markers and straight ahead a big cove opens up. The creek channel goes off to your right. The point between the creek and the cove is a steep rocky hill and there is a steel bulkhead seawall around it. There is no house on the point but there is a dock on the cove side.
The point runs way out under water and there is a good drop to 50 or more feet of water on it on the creek side. Greg likes to sit inside the point on the cove side and cast his jig and pig and jighead worm across it, working up the creek side over the top of the point. He will also run a crankbait across it.
Start out in 25 feet of water and cast up to eight feet or so on top of the point toward the bank. Work the whole point with all three baits, running the crankbait over the point and bumping the bottom with the jigs. Greg says many tournaments are won by fishermen getting on this point, staying all day and weighing in 16 to 18 pounds of spots. They will feed here some time during the day.
6. N 32 39.451 – W 86 18.148 – Back out on the lake run up to the upstream point on the mouth of Weoka Creek. The main point has some camping trailers on it and a small cabin, with a post and wood seawall. Just upstream of the main point is a pier on a flat point with some grass on it and that point runs out and doglegs down toward the dam. There is a danger buoy on the point and it drops off on both sides, with over 20 feet of water between it and the main point.
Greg says this is a good place to throw a Carolina rigged finesse worm since the rocks are smaller here, but a jig and a jig head worm both work well, too. And don’t leave before running a crankbait across the point.
Sit on the creek side of the point where it drops off and fish the end, out in 20 or more feet of water, then work up the point, casting across it and fishing the top of the point. Work all the way in until you cover the eight foot depths on the point.
7. N 32 39.327 – W 86 16.674 – Run across the lake and watch for a point with a cabin with blue siding up on the hill. The point has riprap around it and there is a flag pole on the point and a duck crossing sign on the upstream side of it.
This is a good example of a main lake channel point where the water drops off fast and there is good current running past it. When the current hits the point it turns out and makes a seam and an eddy to fish on the downstream side of it. Bass hold here in the eddy and feed on the seam in the current and on the upstream side of the point, too.
Watch your depthfinder for schools of shad. If they are present the fishing will be better. The day Greg and I fished we stopped here first and he got a nice 3 pound spot. We came back to it just before dark and I got a big striper on a Sebile Magic Swimmer swim bait, so all kinds of fish feed here.
Stay out from the point and cast your jig and pig close to the bank. Let the current move it naturally and wash along like an injured baitfish. Also run a crankbait with the current, trying different speeds but letting the current do most of the moving so it looks more natural.
Greg says he likes to hit a spot like this for ten to fifteen minutes then run to the next one. He says fish will move on these places so he may hit them several times during the day, but does not stay on them a long time each visit.
8. N 32 39.279 – W 86 19.640 – Run into the creek upstream of this point, known locally as Blackwell Slough, to the bridge in it. Greg fishes the riprap points on both sides of the bridge. There is a big bay above the bride where spots live and he says they move to the bridge to feed.
Stay on the downstream side and cast up the current. Work your jig and pig or jig head worm back down the rocks, hopping them along until you get out to about 20 feet deep. Also fish the base of the outer two pilings with both baits. There are rocks piled at the base of them and bass often hold on them.
On each end of the bridge watch for eddies or seams in the current where it breaks as it comes under the bridge. Big spots often hold just inside the calmer water and watch for bait being washed along the current break so make your jig move along the break where they are used to finding food.
9. N 32 41.013 – W 86 20.061 – Run up to where the lake bottlenecks down into the river channel. There is a power line crossing here and you want to stop just downstream of it on the right side going upstream, at the last small pocket on the right before the powerlines. The upstream point of this pocket is the start of a bluff wall that runs upstream.
There is a dock with for sale sign on it – it was upside down the day we fished. Current breaks off the wall there and bass sit in any eddy they can find and watch for bait. Big rocks cause the current breaks and sometimes you can find them by the way the current moves.
Throw your jig and pig or jig head worm upstream at an angle and work it back with the current. Greg says he works his bait at about a 40 degree angle to the bank. He will fish up the bank for about 200 yards, fishing at that angle as he goes upstream.
There are dozens of places like this that hold bass on up the river all the way to the Mitchell Dam. You may have to fish for 200 yards along a bluff but when you catch a fish you should catch several in a 50 yard stretch where the school if feeding. Greg says this is a very consistent pattern all winter long since there is nowhere else for the bass to go in the river and they don’t leave.
10. n 32 48.356 – w 86 26.666 – For a change of pace, run to the Mitchell Dam and fish the dam buttresses on it. These concrete wings stick out from the dam and bass live around them all the time. There is about 20 feet of water at the base of some of them and Greg will cast his jig and pig or jig head worm up to the dam and work them in short hops along side them.
Current here may make the bass hit better but these walls are often in eddies, and Greg says bass will feed on them all the time. This is a good pattern when fishing is tough. Greg will use a one – eighth ounce jig when he can since if falls slower but will go to a heavier jig when current or wind call for it.
Give these spots a try and you will catch fish. Then use what you learn from them and find others on the lake. There are many similar places to catch some big spotted bass on Jordan right now.
Greg is guiding some for stripers and will guide for bass on Jordan and Lake Martin when his tournament schedule allows. You can call him at 334-546-1151 or contact him through his web site – gregvinson.com