Bartletts Ferry Fishing Report January 2012

Bartletts Ferry: Level: 1.2 feet below full pool. Temp: 56 degrees. Clarity: Clear.

Bass: Dennis Hudson said it took a little more than 19 pounds to win his most recent Saturday tournament. That angler was onto a shallow crankbait bite, catching fish in 2 feet of water with a Fat Free Shad thrown right up on the bank. But apparently he and his partner were the only ones able to find fish feeding that shallow. Most of the fish Dennis caught to take second were deep on rocky banks. He said any rocky bank with a good break will have some fish on it. Typically these are good spotted bass locations, but during the winter some largemouths will pull out and start to show up on deep rock. Dennis said that was starting to happen in mid December. Dennis said he caught good numbers and a few pretty solid 3-lb. keepers crawling a small jig across the rocks in about 15 feet of water. Once the fish stopped biting the jig, he switched over to a shaky head with a watermelon finesse worm and picked up a few stragglers. Another pattern that picked up a few fish was skipping a Senko or Trick Worm under and around docks in Halawaka Creek. Dennis expects these patterns to continue through the winter but expects the crankbait bite to pick up as colder weather settles in. With a little current, a deep-diving crankbait can be tough to beat on those same rock banks if you can keep the hybrids off your bait. And some stain on the water will sometimes get a shallow cranking bite going in the pockets. Dennis resorts to a small square-billed crankbait when this bite gets going. He’ll stick with a shad-pattern bait unless the water is very muddy. Then he’ll switch over to something chartreuse and yellow.