With water temperatures low because of cold weather across most of the state, freshwater anglers are having a tough time finding active bites — except at hot-hole lakes.
One of those lake is Belews that stretches across Rockingham, Stokes and Guilford counties. Belews Creek forms the 3,863-acre impoundment and its waters are warmed by the Belews Creek Steam Station, Duke Energy’s largest coal-fired heating plant in North Carolina.
“The average water temperature across the lake is running between 52 and 55 degrees, except within a half mile of the steam plant where it’s 60-degrees plus,” said bass pro Joel Richardson of Kernersville.
Most N.C. lakes have winter water temperatures in the 40-degree range.
Richardson and John Teal placed first and second during a recent Belews bass tournament, fishing Carolina rigs and shaky head rigs in 30-feet of water and deeper with Richardson landing the tournament’s lunker, a 4-pounder.
“The main lures we’re using are Carolina- rigged or shaky head (soft-plastic) worms,” Richardson said.
A 4 1/2-inch finesse worm fished with 8-pound-test or lighter line works well with a shaky head jig. Light line imparts more action to shaky heads. Shaky head jigs come in two shapes — football and round — with a line eyelet set at a 90-degree angle to the hook shank in order to present the lure on the bottom with the hook (impaled in a soft-plastic lure) pointing upward, away from snags.
Best bites at Belews have been from dawn until 11:30 a.m., then from 1:30-2 p.m. until dark. Shaky Head bites are perceived as slight “tics” on an angler’s line in winter.
“The main baitfish in the lake are threadfin and gizzard shad, but the bass are eating little bream down deep,” Richardson said. “Two guys who caught bass had them spit up bream 2 1/2-inches long. Some of those bass have come from water as deep as 42 feet.”
Some shallow-water bass fishing also is available at Belews, Richardson said, but he hasn’t targeted those fish because they’re usually more scattered than concentrated deep largemouths.
“If a man didn’t know the lake and came out during the week, he could fish steep banks with rocks and big laydowns on them that lay out into 10 to 15 feet of water and catch fish with a shaky head worm,” he said.
Richardson said a plastic worm is difficult to beat in winter “because the water’s so clear. Belews is the only lake I know where the worm is king in cold weather, except maybe Lake Norman (Charlotte) or Lake Lanier (Georgia).”
