Lake Sinclair Fishing Report – Jan. 21, 2024

Outdoor writer Ronnie Garrison with two of the three bites he got during the Spalding County Sportsman Club tournament at Lake Sinclair on Sunday, Jan. 21.

The Spalding County Sportsman Club held a tournament at Lake Sinclair on Sunday, Jan. 21. To say it was cold would be an understatement! The air temperture ranged from 18 degrees before warming only to 40 when anglers got off the water. The water temps were 43 to 45 degrees. Little River was very muddy, and the lake was stained downstream of the mouth of Little River. Beaverdam Creek was also heavy stained. I did not go up the river above Beaverdam.

Only five club members showed up for the tournament. I got three bites, one on a chartreuse and white spinnerbait with one chartreuse and one red Colorado blade. Another bite came on a Rapala CCR 8 crankbait, which is no longer made. And my final bite came on a Bitsy Flip black-and-blue jig with a blue Zoom Creepy Crawler trailer, tails dipped in chartreuse JJ’s Magic.

My three bass weighed 8.45 pounds for first place, and my 3.96-pounder was big fish. It hit a jig at 1 p.m., and a 3-pounder hit spinnerbait at 8:30 and I had a good keeper on the crankbait at 9 a.m. I may have had one more bite on the jig. All of the bass hit on rocks in 3 to 5 feet of water, and the biggest one was near a dock, too. I was fishing the crankbait and spinnerbait very slowly, just moving the bait along.

Raymond English had three bass for second place at 5.82 pounds, and he said all three hit shaky head worms very shallow. The other three fishermen zeroed.

Yes, sometimes it is TOO COLD to fish! The air temperature was 18 degrees on Sunday, Jan. 21 at Lake Sinclair.