Jordan has a four-fish daily creel limit, with a 20-inch size minimum that's applicable to stripers and hybrids. Roberson believes that the ratio of stripers to hybrids in the lake is about 3-to-1. In the winter, he catches a higher ratio of stripers to hybrids than during the warmer months.

"In January, you have water temperatures in the high 40s and low 50s, and I don't think the hybrids will go up in the shallow water, back in the creeks, the way the stripers do at that time of the year. And now and then, you'll get a largemouth mixed in with the stripers."

Roberson will occasionally troll bucktails or use a jigging spoon in January when conditions are right.

"A jigging spoon will work if you can get right over the fish," he said. "It imitates a dying threadfin shad, and they'll hit it. If you want to troll in January, you need to fish a 3/8-ounce bucktail with a 4-inch (plastic grub) trailer. You have to use white and chartreuse. If it's not chartreuse, at Jordan, it's no use. You need some combination of chartreuse, green and white."

The January bite can last all day, Roberson said. There's no real advantage to getting out particularly early or staying extremely late. "The time of day doesn't matter; we catch them at noon in the winter," he said. "And the bite will be very predictable. If you catch them one morning, you can catch them the same time and place for the next two or three days before they move. You can be on the water from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. all through January and catch fish."

At Buggs Island, January is really two different months -- at least as far as fishing tactics go for Joel Richardson, who fishes mostly on the lower half of the 49,500-acre lake.

In early January, or as long as the weather doesn't break off ridiculously cold, Richardson targets stripers in the first third to halfway back in major creeks with shallow- to medium-running crankbaits.

"The first part of the month -- or if the weather has been mild -- fish can still be caught on crankbaits and bucktails in 7 to 15 feet of water," Richardson said (336-803-2195). "You want to fish the biggest creeks on the lake, the creeks with the really big channels that carry good depth a long way back -- creeks like Nutbush and Grassy. You want to fish the longest shoal you can find in an area -- where the deep water and shallow water meet."

If the winter has been extremely mild, fish will be in relatively shallow water and Richardson will target them with a Bomber Speed Shad, a crankbait that will run 4 or 5 feet deep with a very distinct wobbling action. The colder it gets, however, the deeper Richardson fishes, and he normally moves to a medium-running bait like a Zoom Z-3 or a DJ-2 flatsided bait, using some kind of a shad finish or color.

"Stripers are just like largemouths; they're particular about where they locate," Richardson said. "If they're on the edge of a flat, they'll be on the best place -- either on some kind of cover like a stump, brush or rocks, or they'll be on the sharpest dropoff. A Speed Shad will get them early, but normally, you need to go a little deeper in January. You're really looking for plugs that will run down around 9 to 11 feet.

"What you find is that the stripers will hang out on top of a point, and they'll move on and off that point. There might be one or two fish on a spot, and if you can find a place they're using, you can catch a fish, come back later, and catch more. It's like they're taking turns feeding on that one place. When one moves off it, another one moves up on it."