“You’ve got a lot better chance for a big fish at Badin -- a fish 6 pounds or better,” Chandler said.

And that big fish is liable to come on one of three basic lures: a jerkbait, medium-running crankbait and a jig.

“The jerkbait has taken over cold-water fishing; it’s not a secret anymore,” Chandler said. “It’s not the only thing you can catch ‘em on, but it’s a good bait. If the water temperature moves up 2 to 5 degrees in a week’s time, they’ll move up into 5 or 6 feet of water. You can catch ‘em on a Speed Trap or a Shad Rap -- a crankbait that you can fish real slow. And the other bait is a big jig, either a 1/2-ounce or 3/4-ounce. I throw a 1/2-ounce most of the time; sometimes you can go to a 1/4-ounce jig because the lighter jig doesn’t fall as fast; it’s a slower presentation.”

A blueprint for one of Chandler’s January bass holes would be a rocky bank that has a channel swing nearby -- either the main Yadkin River or a major creek channel.

“I don’t really have any favorite places, but I tend to catch most of my fish from the Alcoa area to Palmer Mountain -- that’s always good in the winter -- but also in the upper end of the lake, around Circle Drive and the Lake Forest area,” he said. “I’m looking for rocky banks that will be near a channel, or deep banks with rocky corners. Most of the places I catch fish are close to a channel, where you can sit in 25 feet of water and cast up into 2 feet. And there are a lot of banks at Badin where you can be sitting 10 feet off the bank and be in 20 feet of water. And you look for clear water -- the clearer, the better.”

Chandler said that boat position is one of the single most-important factors in catching winter bass. Instead of sitting over 25 feet of water, casting into 2 feet, he puts the nose of his bass boat very close to the bank and casts ahead, parallel to the bank.

“The key is fishing parallel to a steep bank,” he said. “A lot of people will sit out and cast to the bank, but their baits are out of the strike zone for all but about 2 or 3 feet of their casts.”

Chandler typically starts with a Rattlin’ Rogue jerkbait in gold/black. He cranks it down to about 4 or 5 feet deep and starts twitching and jerking it back to the boat, a slow retrieve that will get the attention of bass that are close to shallow water.

“You can get it down 5 feet, and the bass will be looking up anyway, looking up for something to eat,” he said. “I think they’re feeding primarily on shad.”

Chandler fishes Shad Raps or Speed Traps the same way he fishes a jerkbait -- s-l-o-w-l-y. Ditto the Rattleback jig he prefers, trimmed with a Zoom Super Chunk trailer. His favorite color combinations: brown/copper, green pumpkin and black/blue.

“A lot of your bigger fish are caught on a jig,” he said. “You won’t catch many, but if you do catch one, he’ll be a good one; you’ll be able to put him in the livewell.”