Hole Lotta Hot

Five Tar Heel lakes with steam plants heat the water and make winter fishing sizzle.

“Hot holes” they’re called. Wherever electric power is generated, a byproduct is a large volume of hot water. Cool water from a nearby lake or river is pulled into the power plant, circulated through the plant to condense steam and permit it to be recycled through the plant. The water drawn into the plant is warmed and discharged back into the lake or river.

Such discharges are carefully regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and state agencies — in North Carolina the state agency is the Wildlife Resources Commission.

The “warm water discharge,” as it’s called, creates a portion of the lake or river where water temperatures are noticeably higher than elsewhere in the aquatic ecosystem. Fish, being cold-blooded critters, are attracted to such discharges, particularly during cold water months.

During winter, two factors bring game fish to hot holes. One factor is warm-water-dependent baitfish — shad in particular — are drawn to the hot holes. The second is the metabolism of gamefishes — black bass, stripers, catfish — is enhanced by warmer water.

During the coldest mornings of the year, the lake below the discharge canal will be blanketed in fog caused by warm water meeting cold air. Extra safety precautions are warranted due to lowered visibility.

There are several hot holes in North Carolina which provide excellent winter fishing. Here are several, with tips for fishing them.

Lake Norman

Lake Norman, the largest impoundment wholly within North Carolina, has two hot holes — south of the Marshall Steam Plant near N.C. 150, and the other is east of the McGuire Nuclear Plant near Cowans Ford Dam.

“I fish down there a bunch,” said Drew Montgomery, a fishing guide who specializes at Lake Norman of the warm-water discharge near McGuire.

“It’s a place where an angler can catch 20 or 30 bass a day.”

His secret?

“The biggest thing is lure selection,” he said. “I use little-bitty baits, 1/16-ounce jigheads. Usually I tip the jigs with Berkley Power Minnows, curly-tail grubs or 3-inch Senkos.

“The best colors are a natural bait fish-looking sort. On a cloudy day I may throw something chartreuse.

“Basically, I follow what I call the ‘rule of three.’ If I see fish busting on the top three times in the same place, I’ll idle over there. But I don’t chase fish. Mostly I just wait until bass — largemouth or spots — show themselves.

“Everybody wants to cast and cast and cast. When the fish come up, the casters aren’t ready. The casters have their lure in the water and the fish are somewhere else. If you cast blind, the fish will come up where you can’t reach them.”

Montgomery said he believes current from the discharge is a key element in creating activity among bass.

“They may not be moving all day, though they are there,” he said. “When the current comes up, they’re triggered to feed. You may have to wait.”

Warm water from the McGuire discharge flows into Lake Norman, circulates through Ramsey Creek and then leaves the creek and heads for the dam.

The discharge near the Marshall Steam Plant flows toward the narrow part of the reservoir near the juncture of the Catawba River and Mountain Creek near Marker 13. The impact of the warm water discharge is minimal below Marker 13. Further, as Lake Norman is narrowed again at N.C. 150, the warm water impact is usually constrained between Marker 13 and the highway.

Lake Wylie

Lake Wylie, wedged at the North Carolina-South Carolina border west of Charlotte, also has two warm-water discharges.

One is on the South Fork River below the Allen Steam Plant. The other is at Big Allison Creek below the Catawba Nuclear Plant.

Warm water from the Catawba plant is only slightly warmer than water in the creek and the hot hole does not attract fish in winter as does the discharge from the Allen Plant.

Clyde Osborne fishes the Allen Plant hot hole steadily all winter.

“They’re in there in the winter, no doubt about it,” he said. “Best time of day is early, just as the sun is coming up.

“Going into the hot hole, there are rocks on the right hand side. Be sure to hit the rocks. In fact, there are rocks all the way into the discharge canal.”

“The best lure is a Fluke, albino-colored. I rig the Fluke on a No. 4/0 wide gap worm hook. Make the Fluke look like a dying minnow. Lots of shad come up in there and don’t make it.

“If I want to fish a little deeper, I cut an inch or inch-and-a-half piece of lead and stick it in the body of the Fluke or wrap some lead around the hook.”

How deep should one fish?

“I’ve done best when I could barely see the fluke in the water,” he said. “Sometimes it may need to drop a little more.

“If the power company is running water, I just cast, hold on, and let the fluke drift in the current.”

Osborne may be one of the lake’s best best topwater bass anglers.

“If the fish are really active, busting shad on the surface, I’ll throw a Pop-R or Pop-N Image,” he said of winter fishing at the Allen Steam Plant discharge. “One of the baitfish patterns works best.”

Below the discharge canal, the South Fork River narrows sharply at the N.C. 2524 bridge. As a result, warm water often backs into coves and cuts between (perhaps even above) the discharge and the bridge. This portion of Lake Wylie is heavily developed and boat docks and piers abound.

One day Osbourne and a visiting angler caught a dozen or so 2-pound largemouth by using white floating worms in one of the coves where warm water had backed up.

We cast worms toward piers or fallen trees in the water. As the worms disappeared from view, it was Katie-bar-the-door.

Hyco Lake

Hyco Lake, at the Caswell/Person County border, just north of U. S. 18, is a relatively small reservoir. It serves as the cooling source for the Roxboro Steam Plant.

Its discharge canal is between South Hyco Creek and Cobbs Creek at the south side of the lake.

Because of the unusual distribution of the intake and discharge, little warm water actually moves through the lake. The intake is downstream of the discharge.

Consequently, warmed water is recycled through the Plant. Near the discharge canal and winter water temperatures may be as high as the upper 60s and near the intake near 50 degrees — much warmer than is typical for Piedmont reservoirs.

Kennon Brown, among N.C.’s well-known bass-fishing guides, lives near Hyco Lake.

“Fishing Hyco in the winter takes three lures, depending on the depth,” he said. “I use crankbaits, spinnerbaits, and Carolina rigs.

“For fishing 15- or 20-feet deep, I use the Carolina rig. Try the 4-inch Finesse-style worm. Green pumpkin or watermelon red are the best colors.”

For mid-depths, Brown recommended crankbaits.

“I like the small profile crankbaits for fishing the warm water at Hyco.” he said, “something like the Baby N or a Bandit.

“Whatever you choose, it ought to have a pretty good bill that will get the lure down — maybe 8 or 10 feet. The best colors are shad or firetiger and color depends on water color or cloud cover.”

Fat Free Fingerlings are comparable offerings.

“For shallower water, try a spinnerbait,” he said. “I use a three- or four-blade spinnerbait, something that makes a small profile.

“Hyco is not usually very stained, so lots of flash is most productive. So the colors should be all white or white and chartreuse with gold and nickel blades, whatever will create the most flash.”

Hyco Lake’s shoreline is lined with homes. Piers and docks consequently are prime largemouth locations.

“Lots of anglers seem not to know this,” he said. “But wind blows warm water around. It can dictate where the warm water at Hyco goes. If the wind is pushing warm water toward the docks, fish there.

“The best approach for fishing the piers and docks is to fish a spider grub at the deep end or edge. Again, use a small-profile rig. The best colors for spider grubs are black with blue flake, black with red flake, or some sort of brown and orange combination.”

A small jig-and-pig combination in comparable colors would also be excellent choices for winter largemouth at Hyco piers and docks.

Belews Lake

Belews Lake is northeast of Winston-Salem and straddles the Rockingham-Stokes County line. Water that cools the power plant is discharged upstream from the plant. It then cools and is drawn back into the plant in a circular flow.

Unlike at Norman or Wylie, the warm-water discharged doesn’t down the river. The upshot is the area where the warmed water circulates through the lake is rarely below 50-degrees Farenheit.

Belews Lake is clear for a Piedmont lake. During a sunny day with little wind, you may be able to see 15 or 20 feet into the water. Consequently, long casts and light line may be required.

Local anglers work deep-diving crankbaits (a Fat Free Shad in a neutral bait pattern would be an example) across points. Drop-shot rigs also are effective with a finesse worm about 18 inches from the weight.

Compared to many Piedmont lakes, Belews is undeveloped, so boat houses, piers and docks do not provide as much cover for largemouth as Piedmont anglers may know on other spots. Rather, trees which have fallen in the water constitute prime cover. Jig-and-pig combinations are excellent for bass hiding near tree laps.

Sutton Lake

Sutton Lake is little more than an oversized cooling pond.

Water is pulled from the Cape Fear River east of Wilmington and flows through the power plant, is discharged into Sutton Lake and flows back into the plant. Very little water is pulled from the river and even less is discharged beyond the lake.

As is the case at Belews, Sutton Lake remains warm all winter.

In order to slow the water flow and allow sufficient cooling, Sutton Lake has a series of dikes to disrupt the clockwise current and is fairly shallow, although it has a meandering creek channel.

Otherwise, the lake was constructed without ledges, dropoffs or multiple points. There are no boat houses, piers or docks. Some of the deepest areas are near the dikes where dirt was dredged to create the dikes.

Why bother? Every year lots of lunkers are taken from Sutton Lake.

Fish the dike walls with crankbaits and spinnerbaits. There are also marked fish attractors. Jig-and-pig combos, Texas-rig worms and lizards work near the attractors.

A major forage fish found in Sutton Lake are shellcrackers. Flat-sided crankbaits in an appropriate color would be a good choice.

Close to the dikes, a shallow crankbait, perhaps a Balsa Model B, should draw strikes. Lipless crankbaits are other prime suggestions for Sutton Lake largemouth.

Warm-water discharges from power plants are winter fish attractors. Gamefish follow baitfish and the temperature gradient to the hot holes to feed and to survive the winter.

Black bass — largemouths and spots — catfish, stripers, and crappies are among the species attracted.

In North Carolina, we do not have to stand on the ice to fish the hot holes as anglers do in the benighted North. The fish will be there.

If you’d rather stay home, gaze out the backdoor and watch dead grass grow instead of fishing our hot hole lakes during winter, you’ll be missing some really good times.