Photo by Ron Sinfelt.

In years past, anglers used to speak of the winter doldrums, using the cold months to work on their fishing tackle, catch up on the "honey-do" list, and get ready for the upcoming spring season. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on the length of your honey-do list), waiting for warmer weather to get out on the lake and catch some good fish is a thing of the past.

Wintertime water temperatures put many freshwater fish into a "won't bite" mode, but not so for landlocked striped bass and their feisty cousins, the hybrid striped bass. Striped bass prefer colder water and while they do slow down once surface temperatures reach the mid 40s, stripers readily feed throughout the day, even in January.

Across Middle Tennessee are three reservoirs that vary significantly in their structure, size and characteristics, but the one thing all three of these lakes -- J. Percy Priest, Tim's Ford and Old Hickory -- have in common are a fantastic winter fishery for striped bass. Even though the weather is cold, Tennessee is blessed with waters that don't freeze through the winter and provide great overlooked fishing opportunities.

Many anglers also claim wintertime fishing for striped bass is easier because large schools of baitfish group up during this time looking for warmer water. All an angler needs to locate striped bass that feed on these roving schools of bait is to watch the sky for birds diving into the bait; hungry stripers and hybrids are never far away.

Anglers can take their choice between artificial and live bait tactics. Whether slow trolling in search of feeding stripers or anchoring in a likely spot and waiting for the fish to find you, these three lakes are ready to provide the adequately dressed winter striper angler with plenty of action.

PERCY PRIEST
Percy Priest is a 14,200-acre impoundment of the Stones River. Priest was constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and is a relatively shallow, fertile lake. The size of striped bass in Priest may not compare with the size found in some other Tennessee reservoirs, but the numbers of stripers in the lake make for much higher catch rates. While Priest may not be considered a trophy striper impoundment, it contains some of the biggest hybrid striped bass found anywhere in the country.

"Wintertime on Priest often means being on a lake within a few miles of a city of over 1,000,000 people and having the lake all to yourself," claimed striped bass guide Don Schleicher. Schleicher began fishing Priest in the late 1980s when his wife's grandfather, the late Joe Thompson (co-host of "The Tennessee Outdoorsmen" TV show) introduced him to striper fishing on Percy Priest Lake. Overall, weather systems and regional climate make Priest an ideal location for growing the baitfish that stripers and hybrids feed on. The lake is very fertile due in part to the surrounding landscape and the lake's water flow.

"One of the things I like best during winter is that you can fish all day long with just a 5-gallon bucket of shiners," Schleicher said. "The cooler weather doesn't require anglers to use intricate bait tanks to keep delicate baits alive."