JORDAN LAKE / COOSA RIVER, ALABAMA
By Reed Montgomery / Reeds Guide Service (205) 663-1504
Birmingham, Alabama
Website www.fishingalabama.com

Impounded 1928
Lake level: Full Pool
Water Temperature: Mid-70's
Water Clarity: Clear
Air Temperatures: Lows upper 50's-low 60's / Highs upper 70's-low 80's
Weather this week - Cloudy, some light rain and showers, sunny by weekend




CATCHING BIG, SPOTTED BASS ALL ALONE ON ALABAMA'S JORDAN LAKE, ON A CLOUDY, RAINY DAY!




Fishing all alone in the rain does have its rewards. Especially when your fishing with a topwater lure, like a zara super spook while fooling Jordan Lake's big Coosa River spotted bass. Tempting these very temperamental bass into exploding on your well placed offering, often calls for precise casts. Especially when it is repeatedly cast among the many types of cover like Jordan Lake's aquatic weeds, its various types of wood cover, and loads of rock cover like rock bluffs, man made rip-rap rocks, sea walls and boulder-strewn banks!

After a previous guided trip to Jordan Lake earlier this week, I had a day off, so I did what I like to do on my day off...go fishing! Right now Jordan Lake is one of the best Coosa River Lakes for an angler to have a real good chance at fooling some really big Coosa River spotted bass into hitting a variety of lures. Especially when using topwater lures, like my favorite, the James Heddon Zara Super Spook. Not only did this mid-week trip mean I would have less company while on Jordan Lake, but it also fell on a cloudy, rainy day. Just the way I like it! Actually, I only saw a couple of boats all day!

I launched in the lakes headwaters, located just below the Hwy. 22 bridge that crosses the lake, within sight of upstream Mitchell lake dam. In Jordan Lake's headwaters there are a few boat ramps. I launched at what was previously called, "mama jeans" boat launch, now its, "Coosa River" boat launch. It was dawn and I headed up the lake to the tail race waters of Mitchell lake dam. I began my day fishing the lake's rock bluffs and its boulder-filled banks. Fishing the spook, my day began with an explosion, heard nearby I'm sure in the calm of that very quite morning, on a dimly-lighted bank loaded with wood and rock cover.

The three, brand new Gamakatsu hooks held tight, my rod bowed-up double and the first battle of a new day had begun.

The big, spotted bass went crazy! No, not jumping out of the water, like its cousin the smallmouth bass would immediately do upon hook up, but plowing for the lakes bottom in attempt to set itself free from any one of those three treble hooks that featured nine hooks in all! I loosened the reels drag after I saw the bass and knew a few hooks were holding tight. Its good I did.

As I went to net the trophy spot it took off again, now pulling off the loose drag on a reel loaded with 20 pound test monofilament line. Still, I hoped everything held tight. I just wanted to land this beast, take some pictures, and then let it go! Which was much easier said...than done. But shortly, accomplished.

It was the first light of a new days dawn, about 6 a.m. Central time and as I looked down at the short, fat, and very stocky spotted bass now laying in the bottom of my boat, I wondered just how big it really was. So out came my scales. Five pounds 2 ounces! I decided to place the big spot in the live well. Maybe get a "book end bass" or two to go with it! For I knew that big, spotted bass often mingle together, feed together and they run together, often in some big schools, often with these bass all in the same weight class. So my thoughts were, "maybe there were more nearby!"

I fished hard, even breaking out 9 other pre-rigged rods and trying it all. Nothing. I even returned after working a bank across the river, with still, nothing. Maybe it was a loner. Then, I heard it.

Busting bass! Within a short cast away bass were tearing into a school of threadfin shad, so I fired off the spook and immediately I hooked up. But it was not the trophy spotted bass I was hoping for. It was a school of striped bass, most looking to be in the 3-4 pound range, so I just enjoyed catching and fooling about a dozen or more stripes for the next 30 minutes or so. Then they stopped and I could not get a bite! Spoiled again by schooling bass! The light rain began and my thoughts raced as fast as my Ranger boat eventually did, to a small pocket located only a few miles down the lake.

My next stop had it all. Weeds, with mixed in standing timber and stumps, lining a rock bluff bank. Perfect spotted bass habitat, all located near some very deep water. Places big spots linger. Especially on a cloudy, rainy day with no one to mess with them...but me. So I cut off the outboard motor and slowly trolled in with the trolling motor. Stealth, sneaking in on some big bass that did not even know I was there.

I like the company of good friends and often I take them along, but the thing about fishing all alone is this; there is only you and the bass. So every move you make gets you closer to your quarry. You can line up the boat any way you want, without another angler to consider. You do, actually sneak up on these bass and you can place a lure right where they live among over hanging trees, or up under bushes lining the bank.

Or you can expertly cast your lures on weedy points or right up in small lanes and openings within the weeds, all around isolated logs, right up in any log jam, and among the trunk and many branches of big laying trees. You can even choose to thoroughly fish every portion of a rock bluff bank featuring small, rocky pockets. Then, if you hang up its nobody's fault but yours! And you will...

Fishing this deep, main lake bank and its nearby pockets was a good choice for me that day. After all, I had nobody to suggest doing otherwise. There was not even another boat in sight all morning long! So I fished hard and I ran into schools of both spotted bass and largemouth bass, boating over a dozen bass by midday. But one particular tree, now logged in my memory banks, will forever be remembered. Why? Because it held one of the biggest school of big, trophy-sized spotted bass, that I had seen in a very long time! If only I could have caught hem all...

It was getting late. I had several spotted bass in the live well for taking some pictures when I got in, including the 5 pounder, a good solid 4 pounder and two 3 pound spots, and I had just thrown back another big spot that I did not weigh, one that was cut and bleeding, so it may not have survived in the live well. As I neared the big tree I was sitting on ready. The spook landed right along the big root jam near the bank and immediately a big spot blew up on it missing it in the process, then I saw another bass. A school of big spots! As I began to slowly walk the spook again, another blow up, this time a hook up and it was big!

Hooking the big spot on the spook, I then led it towards the boat away from the tree and then, I could not believe what I saw next. There had to be at least 20 really big spotted bass, all now following the hooked bass with the big spook hanging half way out of its mouth. I've seen this before, but not this many truly BIG spots all in one very visible school.

So instead of landing the big bass, I let it swim around a little. Then another big spot grabbed the spook, hooking it as well. Doubles! Both bass were over 4 pounds so I netted them, seeing the big school of spots following them all the way to the awaiting net, before they then all scattered. Of course I put these bass in the live well and then I went back to beating that tree down hard. I even returned in 10 minutes and caught one on a suspending jerk bait and another on a spinnerbait! Then they left (or some were now in my live well), so I got ready to head in for the day.

Especially with it raining again and thunder in the distance.

So now I had two 5 pounders in the live well, two 4 pounders and a few others. I got to thinking, "what if there is not anyone at the dock to take pictures?" So before I headed in I took some pictures of the four biggest spots. All I had was some culling beams with me and I was able to hook two on each end and then hang them on my front pedestal seat and take some pictures.

Its a good thing I did, for there was not a soul at the boat dock, nor in the lakes headwaters, or even anyone fishing nearby! I even waited until I got my boat on the trailer before releasing all the bass. Unable to get a picture of me holding these big spots (like I need another), I then just let them go, all healthy and swimming to their freedom.

To live and fight another day and give some other angler a real thrill, like I had when fishing Jordan lake for big, spotted bass! So can you, just call on Reeds Guide Service ...first!

* NOTE PICTURES - Not all websites I write for post pictures I send with these fishing reports. So go to my website www.fishingalabama.com and on the home page click on this article, located on your right, to see the picture of these big "spots" I had that day! Also see the pictures link on my website for more big spotted bass, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass and some big, striped bass taken recently!


* WBRC FOX 6 TV - See Reed Montgomery, owner of Alabama's oldest, "Reeds Guide Service" guiding on all Alabama lakes for over 40 years, with his question and answer session on Birmingham's WBRC Fox 6 TV morning show "Good Day Alabama" with Reeds "Ask the Angler"segment. Reed is on this very popular morning TV show seen state wide (for over 6 years!), he is on every last Tuesday of the month, just after 8 a.m. Central time. Call in (205) 741-7474 with your fishing related questions! Reed Montgomery's next scheduled appearance is on Tuesday, September 27 just after 8 a.m. Tune in and then call in!


* REEDS GUIDE SERVICE - Always call (205) 663-1504 on Reeds Guide Service...first! "Alabama's and Jordan Lake's oldest professional guide service for over 40 years." Keep in mind, Christmas is not to far away! A guided fishing trip with Reed Montgomery of Reeds Guide Service makes a great gift for those loved ones that love to fish. Guided fishing trip gift certificates are available for any lake in Alabama! Redeemable for all of 2012! Fish for smallmouth bass, spotted bass, largemouth bass and striped bass on any lake in Alabama, year round with Alabama's oldest, professional guide service! See my website www.fishingalabama.com for more info.

* NEW AND USED BOATS - See www.airportmarine.com

* ALABAMA'S BEST BASS TOURNAMENTS - See www.airportmarinetrails.com

* HUNTING AND FISHING - See www.marksoutdoors.com

* ALABAMA FISHING INFO, TOURNAMENTS AND MORE - See www.bamabass.com

* WORLDS BEST BASS BOAT - See www.rangerboats.com

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!