Entry 232-1

How to Catch Bass in January with James Niggemeyer

Part 1: Give Bass the Red Eye

Question: James, why are there so many trophy bass in Lake Fork?

Niggemeyer: Texas Parks and Wildlife has done a tremendous job of managing Lake Fork to make it one of the premier bass lakes in the nation.

Question: What has the state done to make Lake Fork a trophy-bass lake?

Niggemeyer: Before the lake was backed-up, a good number of brood stock ponds that held big bass was on the land that was to be backed-up. A lot of those little farm ponds and small lakes already had big bass in them, and those lakes were swallowed-up by Lake Fork. Another fact that made Fork such a great lake was that not a single tree was cut before the lake was backed-up. So, there’s a lot of structure in the lake. Flooding the timber, the bass had plenty of good habitat in which to live. Also, early on, right after the lake was flooded, Fork had a lot of hydrilla in it. When all these factors came together, Fork initially had the potential to grow numbers of really-big bass. The timber provided a place for the bass to hide out and hold, and the grass provided a great place where the baitfish could hold. Both these types of structure created fantastic habitat for largemouth bass and their baitfish.

Another thing that many big bass lakes don’t have that Lake Fork does have is a lot of offshore structure on which the fish can hold. The majority of the angling public fishes along the bank. So those bass can concentrate in that deep-water structure and never be harassed by the fishermen. I believe there’s a large number of bass that spend their entire lives at Lake Fork on offshore cover. Even when the lake received a lot of fishing pressure during the 1980s and 1990s, still numbers of big bass remained in that offshore structure that the majority of anglers never caught. The Lake Fork bass also have a tremendous number of forage fish like bluegills, crappie, crawdads and shad in the lake.

Question: What’s your favorite technique for catching bass at Lake Fork in January?

Niggemeyer: I like to fish the Red Eye Shad, which is a lipless crankbait. The best way to fish this bait on Lake Fork this month is to cover a lot of water. Believe it or not, in January, you can catch pre-spawn bass that are moving up and getting ready to spawn. One of the things that I’ve noticed is that when Lake Fork has cold water in January, the bass seem to bite a tight-wobbling crankbait like the Red Eye Shad the best. What makes the Red Eye Shad so productive is that it’s got that tight wobble that the fish want, and you can cover a lot of water with it to catch bass.

At this time of year, you have to cover a lot of water to find where the bass are holding. I usually find bass on the outside edge of the hydrilla. Now when you’re fishing a lipless crankbait like the Red Eye Shad around grass, the grass and the Red Eye Shad go together like peanut butter and jelly. This is the perfect combination of lure and cover to catch bass in January.

Another big advantage to fishing the Red Eye Shad at this time of the year is that you can adjust the speed of the retrieve you use. On not every day will the bass want the Red Eye Shad to be burned across the surface of the water. Sometimes you’ll want to cast the bait out, reel it slowly and let it just tick the top of the underwater vegetation. Then you can rip the bait free once it touches the grass. When you rip it out of the grass, let the Red Eye Shad fall and swim toward the bottom. You can use this tactic and fish the Red Eye Shad out to 10-12 ft of water, if that’s where the fish are.

The Red Eye Shad allows you to control the depth of water where you want to fish it. You can reel it fast and just under the surface. Or, you can reel it slowly and let it just tick that under grass in the water. Fishing a lipless crankbait in January on any lake should be the angler’s Number-1 go-to bait.

You can contact James Niggemeyer at P.O. Box 146, Mineola, TX 75773 or by calling (903) 312-0780 or visit his website at www.lakeforkproguide.com.

 

 

Next: Jig Up January Bass

Contents:

• Part 1: Give Bass the Red Eye
• Part 2: Jig Up January Bass
• Part 3: Spin Up Monster Bass
• Part 4: Zero Out on Big Bass
• Part 5: Give Big Bass an “S” This Month