Try a hot-hole lake for late winter bass

Joel Richardson, a bass pro and guide from Kernersville, doesn’t have to go to Florida during the winter to find warm-water bass habitat.

Just a couple of long casts from his home is Belews Lake, which sprawls across four counties (Guilford, Forsyth, Rockingham and Stokes) in the north-central piedmont.

“I think it’s the best winter hot-hole lake in the state, although I haven’t fished Lake Norman in winter,” he said. “But I think it’s better than Hyco and Mayo.”

A Duke Energy creation, Belews Lake spreads across 4800 acres and parts of the impoundment have surprising depths — 110-feet deep at places.

“It’s deeper than anything at Buggs Island (Kerr Reservoir),” said Richardson (www.joelgrichardson.com, 336-803-2195, 336-643-7214).

Largemouth bass average about 2 to 4 pounds at Belews, where the winter lake temperature is a constant 60 degrees because of hot-water releases from the Duke plant.

“But there are bigger fish in here,” Richardson said. “My best bass was a 10-9. There are 10-pounders in here.”

Richardson said his winter fishing techniques can be applied at other lakes (Hyco, Mayo) that divert power-plant-heated water back into their reservoirs.

“There’s usually a 7-to-9 a.m. shallow bite,” he said. “I throw a Shad Rap or jerkbait in relatively shallow water early. Then that bite will just cut off, and you have to fish deep. That’s when I use a drop-shot or Carolina-rig.”

After the shallow bite stops, Richardson cruises deeper sections, using his fish-finder electronics to look for bait balls (threadfin shad) in 30 to 40 feet of water. Then he uses either a drop-shot rig (a 1-ounce round lead ball with an eyelet tied to the end of the line and a small hook tied directly to the line about 2 feet above his lead weight and a minnow-shaped lure threaded onto the hook) or a Carolina-rig, with a 2- to 3-foot-long leader and a soft-plastic worm or lizard attached at the end to a worm hook.

“Let the drop-shot fall straight down beside the boat and just bump it up and down off the bottom,” he said. “Bass will nearly always hit it on the fall. With the Carolina rig, throw it where you want and work it back to you in really slow, sweeping motions.”

Bass bites using either of these lures usually will be light, he said.

“It’ll feel like the lure has just got heavy,” Richardson said. “Then set the hook.”

Richardson and his fishing partner, John Peel, have won seven of the last 11 bass tournaments this winter at Belews Lake using these techniques.

“The only problem (anglers) have had this winter is (Duke Energy) pumping water from the Dan River into the lake to raise its level,” Richardson said. “They have six big pipes near the dam pumping water; not every day, but two or three times a week. When that happens, it pretty much screws up the deep bite because all that cold, dirty water fills up the bottom of the lake and scatters the fish.”