Lake Blue Ridge Fishing Report January 2006

Blue Ridge: Level: 13.7 feet below full pool. Temp: 48- 50-degrees. Clarity: Clear.

Bass: Slow. The largemouths aren’t hitting, and the smallmouths have slacked off, too, said fishing guide Nathan Lewis. Nathan says your best bet in January is a jigging spoon and go deep. Nathan has been fishing a 6/10-oz. Flex-it in chartreuse/white, white or white/silver, and he has been catching a few fish in the 30- to 60-foot depth. Nathan said he had been catching about 15 fish on a trip that included smallmouths, yellow perch and a few walleye. The numbers of walleye seem to be down, but size is up, with more fish above the 2-lb. mark. Look for breaks along the bottom to find fish. “The fish will usually hold so tight to the bottom that you can’t seen them on a depthfinder,” said Nathan. “You usually just look for a break. The major river bend at Point Seven has been working. The bottom breaks from about 30 feet to 55 feet, and it is usually a good place to fish a jigging spoon. John Hembree said the shallow patterns have not been working for bass at Blue Ridge. He recently caught a few fish on spoons in the 40- to 50-foot range by fishing points and breaks.