Correll has two main strategies for catching Lake James’ smallmouth bass in January, and both of them have something to do with spending a plenty of time on the water without lifting a rod -- that is, idling or cruising around the lake, his eyes glued to the depthfinder in his boat, looking for the big black blobs that are the telltale signs of baitfish ganged up together.

“Anytime you’re fishing for smallmouths on Lake James in the winter or the summer, it’s helpful to find areas with schools of shad, because the bass will be close to ‘em,” Correll said (828/205-1429). “I always do a little scouting before I really start fishing. I ride around and look for baitfish. You’ve got to go out and find them. If you can find a big wad of baitfish at 20 feet, then you start looking for smallmouths around them.”

Correll said that smallmouths relate very little to bottom structure in the winter. More often, they’re tracking the movement of big balls of shad. Fishing can be tremendous if Correll can find baitfish that are relating to structure, sitting on top of a point or the edge of a deep drop because they aren’t likely to be moving very much, and bass can more easily set up shop to feed.

However, most of the time, baitfish are suspended over extremely deep water. Quite often, Correll said, he’ll mark big schools of shad on his depthfinder. The shad will be 40 feet deep, suspended over 60, 70 or 80 feet of water. Even if he can’t see big, individual “hooks” on his depthfinder that scream out “smallmouth bass,” he knows they’re around, normally pretty close to their prey, and he can set up and work on them.

“You can catch fish on a float ‘n’ fly, or vertical jigging with a blade bait like a Silver Buddy or even fishing live shiners,” Correll said. “I prefer the spring and fall, but I’ve had some good days in January, and you can -- especially if you get a warm spell for a couple of days and the fish move up.

“The majority of bass will be relating to the same kinds of cover that they do during the summer: main-lake points, channel bends, humps, underwater islands -- because that’s where most of the baitfish are. The smallmouths can either be relating to structure or suspended out over deep water, relating to the baitfish.”

Correll would be thrilled if all he fished during the winter was a blade bait like a Silver Buddy, because that would mean he’s mostly jigging for fish that are relating both to baitfish and to structure -- fish that are on the bottom, in good position to feed. They may be extremely deep, and Correll has caught them as deep as 75 feet, but they’ll be feeding.

“I’ll fish anywhere from a 1/2-ounce to a 1-ounce Silver Buddy,” Correll said. “You don’t have to vertical jig it; you can cast it out over a point and just kind of bump it back along the bottom. Or you can jig it right beside the boat. It works really well when fish are deep and relating to the bottom or the structure.”

And fishing live shiners on the bottom will also be very effective when fish are on the bottom.