When it comes to seasonal patterns, striped bass are unusual fish. This is primarily due to the striper's fondness of cold water. Unlike sunfish species such as bass, crappie and bream, a striped bass' metabolism ramps up as the weather and water cools off. Often relegated to only the deepest waters of a reservoir during the warm months, stripers get full run of a lake when water temperatures fall in the winter and become uniform within a lake. Dissolved oxygen levels are at their highest during cold weather due to a lack of micro-biological activity and because cooler water holds more oxygen. This renewed level of activity makes cold weather a great time to get on the water and find trophy striped bass willing to bite.

Micah Brown from Tullahoma understands what cool weather means to striped bass fishing. Brown was a full-time striped bass guide in Kentucky five years ago, where he operated the largest striper guide service in the country, overseeing and operating six boats per day, resulting in over 1,400 charters per year. Brown was also a leading contender on the National Striped Bass Association tournament trail, finishing in the top 10 every year he fished the trail. After moving to Tennessee, the guide was featured in the Outdoor Channel's television show "Striper Bound" in 2005 while working as a full-time youth pastor in Tullahoma. Currently, Brown continues his pastoral duties and operates Tennessee Trophy Guide Service, as well as partnering in a striped bass oriented tackle shop. Brown takes Tennessee Sportsman readers on a tour of his two top picks for wintertime striper fishing in the Volunteer State.

CHEROKEE LAKE
Cherokee Lake is one of the oldest of the TVA lakes. The lake spans a total of 30,300 acres within its 59-mile length. Its 463 miles of shoreline touch Hawkins, Hamblen, Jefferson and Grainger counties. Cherokee contains what biologists refer to as a "large biomass," meaning the lake has a great carrying capacity for forage fish -- primarily threadfin shad, gizzard shad and alewives -- which support rapid growth and large overall sizes for striped bass.

When targeting Cherokee stripers during the winter, Brown said he will travel as far up the Holsten River as he can get.

"I want to be as far away from the dam as I can get," he said. "You can go way up the river and find water that's as shallow as 8 to 12 feet deep. That's where I'm going to go pull planer boards."

Brown will get into the headwaters at the upper part of the lake and put out three planer boards on either side of his boat. His bait of choice for this tactic is to use a 12- to 15-inch gizzard shad. Brown hooks the shad in the nose with a No. 5 treble hook. Since the only stripers that can handle that size bait are fish in the 20- to 25-pound range, he spools his 7-foot medium-heavy rods with 65-pound braided line.

"Trying to find these fish on the graph is probably not likely," said Brown. "The water is very shallow and the fish won't stand much boat traffic. It's best to seek out likely looking spots and just put your time in fishing these areas until you come across a good fish."