Badin bass beatdown

Badin Lake is a hotspot for cold weather bass

Anglers looking for some hot bass action in cold weather will find that (and more) at North Carolina’s Badin Lake, according to fishing guide and tournament angler Joel Richardson.

“Badin Lake is a great cold-weather lake. It gives up lots of quality bass this time of year,” said Richardson (336-803-2195).

And rather than pick away at single bass hunkered down in deep water or on isolated brush, Richardson said this lake’s bass offer anglers plenty of fun, as they often school on the surface.

“This is especially true when the water temperatures are hovering in the mid-40 degree range. Schools of bass will drive shad to the surface. And these aren’t dinks. These are quality bass, with many in the 3- to 4-pound range.”

And a big bonus for anglers is that stripers will also chase those same schools of shad.

“It’s not at all uncommon to catch your share of stripers while you’re casting for bass. They are mixed in, and they’ll hit the same lures bass will hit,” he said.

And in a time when forward-facing sonar is becoming more prevalent, and aiding anglers in finding bass in open water, Richardson said you don’t need any of that this month.

“You can do this type of fishing without any sonar at all. You can scan the surface, looking for the schools,” he said. “And the birds will help you. They’ll be diving down, feeding on the same shad the bass are chasing to the top.”

For those schooling fish, Richardson is a big fan of Rat-L-Traps in the chrome/blue pattern.

“Those Rat-L-Traps are good, because you can cast them a long way without much effort, so that allows you to reach those surface schools without getting too close and spooking the fish,” he said.

And when those schools go down, the same Rat-L-Traps work just as well.

“They are also good when the fish abandon the surface and go down. I’ll just let the Rat-L-Traps sink more before beginning my retrieve, and run them deeper,” he said. “And it’s good to stop retrieving and just let them flutter down from time to time. That looks like dying shad sinking, and the bass will attack those.”

And often enough, those same lures will get attacked by stripers, adding plenty of fun to the mix.

Richardson said when fish aren’t schooling, anglers can still catch plenty of bass in rocky areas, and along docks located on the main lake.

“These are areas for catching big, isolated fish. You aren’t going to catch big numbers of bass this month on docks, but if you spend some time on it, you will catch some big ones,” he said.

When targeting docks, Richardson mainly fishes 3/8-ounce jigs.

“A black/blue color combination works really well for jigs on the docks,” he said. “It’s tough to beat that color scheme.”

For the rocky points, Richardson uses crankbaits with 7-foot cranking rods and baitcasting reels with a 5:1 gear ratio that is spooled with 10-pound monofilament.

“I fish rocky places with a Bomber Model 6A, a deep-running Little N, and Strike King squarebilled crankbaits in shad patterns,” he said.