As he does at Lake Norman, he searches Hickory for wads of bait by watching the skies and his sonar. Because of the lethargic nature of stripers at this time of year, Green wants to provide as much provocation as possible. One key to making his fresh-caught live bait appeal to the fish is to deploy the bait on lighter line.

"I like to use 10-pound-test line," he said. "I've experimented time and again using heavier line and just one rod with the light line and almost every time the light line sees the most strikes."

The average fish on Hickory is 8 to 12 pounds and may require a little extra care on 10-pound-test line. Green is confident that even the frequent 14- to 16-pound fish produced by Hickory can readily be brought to the boat if the angler combines the line with a quality rod and reel. Green's choice is a Shakespeare Ugly Stik in medium-heavy action. With a rod as flexible as the Ugly Stik, a quality reel with a good drag system is also important and here is where the Abu Garcia 6500 gets the nod. Green is quick to point out that he loses the 10-pound-test for tournament days when he's after bigger fish, or when warmer weather rolls around and the chances of catching a 30-plus-pound fish greatly increases.

He points out that Hickory's frequent dingy water allows the use of heavier line; it's not the water clarity that makes light line a better choice here in winter, but the fact that lighter line allows the bait to behave in a more realistic manner, which results in more strikes.

Green's artificial bait of choice for Hickory is a 1/4- to 3/8-ounce roadrunner with a white marabou body. The small flash afforded by the attached spinner blade can often produce strikes where a plain hair or bucktail jig may slide by unnoticed in the dingy water. As at Norman, Green experiences better action here in the afternoon than the morning and will sometimes spend an afternoon fan-casting a roadrunner from the bow of his boat while slow trolling baits at multiple levels. His retrieve is a slow and steady 10 to 12 yards followed by a twitch of the wrist, which causes the bait to flare and flash.

"I have seen striped bass follow the lure for several yards," Green noted. "It takes that twitch to set them off, then they grab the bait."

BADIN LAKE
Moving farther east across the state of North Carolina, we come to Badin Lake, a 5,350-acre impoundment of the Yadkin River. Badin is a popular destination with anglers, boaters and a host of people who like to recreate on the water.

However, Badin is generally pretty quiet in January and that's when Mike Green keys in on this lake.

"I'll start by putting in at the Old Whitney Road boat ramp," began Green. "From there, I can go straight across the lake and catch my bait from either the mouth of Garr Creek or on farther toward the back of the creek."

The Whitney Ramp is situated off State Road 1521, which runs approximately 2 1/2 miles north of Hwy. 740, located six miles northwest of the town of Albemarle. Once the bait tank is full of average-sized (5- to 6-inch) gizzard shad, Green checks a large flat just north of Garr Creek and the railroad crossing. If that doesn't produce, he will work the Yadkin channel back toward the railroad crossing.

As at the Norman and Hickory fisheries, the angler's need to find bait precedes finding fish. After bait is aboard, the angler watches for feeding birds and for marks on his graph. Either will tell him which way to go. Unlike a channel edge, a flat area holds fish in a scattered pattern -- on a channel, the fish will pattern along the edge, but obviously, fish up on a flat have no edge hold to relate to. With average depths between 15 and 25 feet on a flat, Green runs his whole arsenal of down rods, split-shot rigs and free lines.

"It's almost impossible to fish too slow," Green said. "Some anglers will use a GPS unit to chart their speed, but I prefer to judge by the angle of the line on my down rod."