Jordan Lake

By Reed Montgomery
Reeds Guide Service (205) 787-5133
Website: www.FISHINGALABAMA.com

December 5, 2011

Lake level: Full Pool
Water Temperature: Mornings 52 / Evenings 56
Water Clarity: Clear main lake, some creeks stained
Air Temperature: High 55 / Lows low-to-mid 30's
Predicted Weather: Sunny weekend in the mid-50's with cool mornings in the low 30's / warmer in the mid-60's and a chance of rain Tuesday-Thursday.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 5 2011
A VERY NICE LOW-60 DEGREE DAY WITH SEVERAL SHALLOW LARGEMOUTH BASS
ON ALABAMA'S LAY LAKE

I met a couple of young brothers (young, when compared with me!) at Beeswax creek at mid-Lay lake around dawn on a cool morning in the low-30's. We will just call them Mike and Al. Mike was here visiting his brother Al that lived south of Birmingham and Al said he fished the Warrior River reservoir, Bankhead Lake regularly, where I grew up fishing as well. Mike was here just passing through. He was moving from North Carolina to Florida and he was in the service.

They were both here to catch some Coosa River breed of spotted bass, maybe even fool a largemouth bass or two and possibly luck up into a big, striped bass!

All three of these bass species thrive in Lay lake from its headwaters, to mid lake and these bass exist all the way down to the lower Lay lake dam region. From dam to dam (about 50 miles) on Lay lake these three bass species are now constantly feeding and fattening up for the winter months ahead. We hoped to interrupt their feeding and catch a few bass, with our fake offerings.

As I slowly idled the boat out of Beeswax Creek (as the dawn of another beautiful day began), I donned my toboggan, gloves and a heavy coat. They both looked over at me with a serious look on their faces and then we all prepared for the cool morning boat ride. I promised to keep it under 60 m.p.h.!

The warm morning sun felt good, as it beamed down on our now half-frozen faces, as we arrived at our first destination of the day.

A major feeder creek -- beaming with the morning fog -- welcomed us, as its very first visitors of the day. It was loaded with all types of aquatic weeds, boulders and man made rip- rap rocks, plenty of fish-attracting wood cover like stumps, trees, brush piles, laying logs and it had visible signs of bait fish.

This creek had good, deep depths of 10 feet or more, for harboring those big, wintertime bass that may retreat to deeper water during adverse conditions. It had plenty of less-deeper water, that in that 1-3 foot range, loaded with all kinds of aquatic weeds and wood cover. From over 30 years of experience fishing this one creek alone, I knew it also has some big bass, on about any morning. As I told Mike and Al, while I lowered the trolling motor in the water and then poured myself a very welcome warm cup of coffee.

So their hopes were high as we began to deceifer each and every possible bass-holding spot in that creek. The water temperature was 53 degrees at dawn.

Hopefully, this place with over a mile of weedy waters was good enough for a least a few bites, just to start off the rather cool morning, right. But the very cold night had dropped the water temperature over 10 degrees, from the day before, creating "bass lock jaw" on the normally, much better early morning bite, in this creek.

It was a very slow start for our day, with no bites in the first 2 hours of dawn! I knew there were bass here, even though we had tried every kind of open water lure and various weed less lures to, but all to no avail. So I had to make a decision. Leave this creek and go up the lake? Or go down the lake? From recent experience and seeing some good bass caught mostly down the lake in much clearer water situations, I pointed that Ranger Z Bass Boat south. It turned out to be a good move.

Lay Lake has the Coosa River breed of spotted bass found lake wide, from the lake's headwaters to the lower lake's dam. It can also have some very shallow largemouth bass on days when you least expect it. Like today! Often, while fishing in weather in the low-to-mid 70's during one of December's unexpected winter warming trends an angler can fool lots of shallow bass. But when its cold in the morning's first few hours, things change. So an angler must change his/her tactics to successfully catch bass!

There were several types of lures that produced all of the bass Mike and Al caught that day. As a matter of fact, they could have fished three-four types of lures only, on this cool, slow, but eventually successful sunny day, that became some very comfortable weather, like short sleeves! Then, that evening it became a, "partly cloudy day" real fast! Another rainy front was moving in, the barometer was falling, it got real cloudy and windy and then... the bass began to bite!

Of course then Mike and Al managed to fool a few very nice (and fat) 3-4 pound largemouth bass fishing with lures like a Zoom's white trick worm, an oversized 5/8ths ounce chartreuse and white gold-bladed spinnerbait, a Rapala chrome/blue back Rattlin' Rap and a Strike King 1/2 ounce shad-colored Red Eye Shad (both lipless lures), mostly fished in 1-4 feet of water! They fooled these shallow bass, mostly in and around the grass. Although a spot and one striped bass came on the Red Eye Shad!

The air temps that morning at dawn was in the 30's, with water temps in the low-50's. The air temp was close to 60 degrees by midday and water temps (where we fished) was close to 60 degrees, as the approaching rainy front arrived that evening. It was well worth the boat trip, running several miles down the lake, as we did find some cooperating bass, and on this day, one nice striped bass and our biggest largemouth bass was about 4 pounds!

Of course, as we launched the boat that morning we were all alone on the lake as well. But it turned out to be a rather good day, size-wise! Not a lot of bass bites but those that did bite were "well appreciated" while I once again enjoyed fishing with pleasant company, on just another day on Alabama's Lay lake fishing with Reeds Guide Service!

When these two anglers came in, their day was complete with plenty of brotherly smiles and some nice largemouth bass pictures I took! All while fishing Lay lake's weeds, wood cover and rock cover on a cool, but what turned out, to be a very nice day!

* On Lay Lake, even in December with the lake's winter water cooling down somewhat, there are always some cooperating bass to target!

Or you can always call on Reeds Guide Service...first! "Lay Lake's and all of Alabama's oldest, professional - bass fishing only - guide service for over 40 years."

* REEDS GUIDE SERVICE
Only one professional, Alabama fishing guide service can claim to be "Alabama's oldest professional fishing guide service." Guiding on Lay Lake for over 40 years. Reed Montgomery, owner of Reeds Guide Service based out of Birmingham, Alabama has taken anglers from all over the globe to fish Alabama's many lakes, offering bass fishing state wide, year round. Targeting largemouth bass, spotted bass, small mouth bass and striped bass. (See: the pictures link on my Website www.fishingalabama.com).

Same rates for either one or two anglers with discount rates available on two day trips, to any Alabama lake. We welcome (with several qualified guides and insured boats), corporate guided trips, family outing fishing trips, parent and child learning trips, lake residents, both the tournament angler and the novice angler. All are welcome!

Call today (205) 663-1504 or E-mail me alabassgyd@aol.com for more info. Or see my Website www.fishingalabama.com for my guide service info, seasonal fishing tips and lake reports for all of Alabama's lakes, fishing articles, fishing links, pictures and more!

GUIDED FISHING TRIPS FOR ANGLERS FOR CHRISTMAS!
* KEEP IN MIND CHRISTMAS IS NOT FAR AWAY! A GUIDED FISHING TRIP WITH REED MONTGOMERY OF REEDS GUIDE SERVICE FOR, "THAT LOVED ONE THAT LOVES TO FISH" MAKES A GREAT GIFT FOR CHRISTMAS! E-MAIL OR CALL TODAY (205) 663-1504 TO RESERVE YOUR CHRISTMAS GIFT CERTIFICATE !

* WBRC FOX 6 T V "GOOD DAY ALABAMA" - Call in with your fishing questions (205) 741-7474 as Reed Montgomery answers with his, "Ask the Angler" question and answer session. Reed Montgomery (an Alabama native) is on this very popular morning T V show the last Tuesday of each month. Reed is on just after 8 a.m. Central time.

Reed has been on "Good Day Alabama" for over 6 years on Birmingham's WBRC Fox 6 Television (seen state wide). Mark your calendar and make plans to tune in to "Good Day Alabama" morning show! Reed's next live appearance will be on Tuesday morning just after 8 a.m. on December 27 of 2011!

* NEW! ARE YOU LOOKING FOR THE SOUTH'S BEST BARGAINS? - Check out www.bargainssouth.com A great discount website to find anything at a great low price! Order online! Christmas is not far away! Find those hard-to-find (and often very cute) gifts, for those hard-to-shop-for loved ones in your life..all at the best prices in the south! Check back often for new added items! We are working on new categories! Including. Fishing items, that will be added soon...

* HUNTING AND FISHING - Check out www.marksoutsdoors.com for all your fishing and hunting needs! Great gifts for Christmas, now on sale!

* NEW AND USED BOATS - See www.airportmarine.com for new and used boats, end-of-year boat clearance sales, great parts department and expert mechanic work!

* BASS TOURNAMENTS - See www.airportmarinetrails.com Fall/Winter buddy trail now going on!

* FISHING TIPS, LAKE REPORTS, FISHING ARTICLES, BASS GUIDE SERVICE INFO AND MORE! - See www.bamabass.com

* WORLD'S BEST BASS BOAT - See www.rangerboats.com

* COMING SOON! - THE BIRMINGHAM BOAT SHOW! - See their website www.birminghamboatshow.com for more info on this huge, annual Birmingham Boat and Sport show, held in Birmingham each winter season for over 40 years! Scheduled for January 19-22 Thursday - Sunday of 2012!

* REED MONTGOMERY'S TENTH ANNUAL (FREE!) 2012 KIDS FISHING SHOW! - To be held on Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 2 p.m. at the 2012 Birmingham Boat Show! (SEE THEIR WEBSITE FOR MORE INFO.) * Donations are welcome and donators are promoted on stage by either you, a representative of the donating company, or promoted by Reed Montgomery!

REED'S 2012 KIDS FISHING SHOW DONATIONS - WE NEED YOUR HELP!
Come help us make this the best kids fishing show to date! Donations of anything shirts, hats, decals, stickers, pens, pencils, fishing lures, line, rods, reels, tackle boxes. Anything! In January of 2011 we had over 500 kids and their parents attend this very popular kids fishing show! Bring yours...its all free and lots of nice donated prizes!

* Call (205) 663-1504 or e-mail me alabassgyd@aol.com with your donations!

I will commit to giving a good "promotional plug" for all donators during the 2012 Kids Fishing Show!

Thanks and Good Fishin'!

Reed Montgomery / Outdoor Writer

Owner / Reeds Guide Service
Alabaster, Alabama (205) 663-1504
E-mail: alabassgyd@aol.com
Website: www.fishingalabama.com
" Over 40 Years Guiding, Fishing and Exploring Every Lake in Alabama For Largemouth Bass, Smallmouth Bass, Spotted Bass and Striped Bass "
Always Call on Reeds Guide Service...first!
Alabama's Oldest Professional, Freshwater Fishing Guide Service!