Fresh coffee, crackling fires, fleece pullovers and wool blankets all have their place this time of year. However, nothing will take the chill off a midwinter day quite like striped bass ripping line off reels -- especially when two or three stripers get hooked up at the same time. While some kinds of fish turn sluggish when temperatures drop, striped bass get fired up this time of year. The cooler water suits their preferences, and their favorite food fish stack up in big schools.

Two of North Carolina's largest reservoirs are also two of the best places in the state to get in on hot fishing when the weather turns cold. Let's look at the fine fisheries at Lake Norman and Buggs Island -- lakes that are in some ways similar but in others quite different -- and then dig into how to connect with the best winter striper fishing at each lake.

LAKE NORMAN
Fast action is the main attraction at Lake Norman, a deep, clear impoundment of the Catawba River that spreads across more than 32,000 acres just north of Charlotte. Anglers do catch an occasional large striped bass from the big lake, but stripers average 4 or 5 pounds, and fish that weigh more than 10 pounds are fairly uncommon. Fishermen ought not be deterred a paucity of trophy fish, however, because stripers of all sizes pull like trains, and Lake Norman's big schools sometimes serve up furious fishing action.

The winter months bring some of the best striped bass fishing of the year to Lake Norman. Stripers favor cool, well-oxygenated water, and through the cool months, the conditions they favor are found at all levels of the water column. Threadfin shad, meanwhile, tend to pile up in big schools. The stripers follow the food, so where there are big schools of baitfish, happily feeding striped bass typically are not far away.

Winter conditions cause a lot of Lake Norman's stripers to move to the warmer waters around the two power plants that are built on Lake Norman's shores, according to striper guide David Clubb. Clubb grew up near the lake and has been guiding striped bass fishermen full-time for eight years. Not all the fish migrate, he noted. However, enough do move to cause the warmwater discharges of the Marshall Steam Plant and the McGuire Nuclear Station to have a very significant influence on winter fishing patterns.

An important consideration for anglers is that the fish will not all be right in the "hotspots." The discharges affect considerable areas to some degree at least, and the size and whereabouts of warmed areas vary according to the amount of power being produced by the plants, wind patterns and the degree of cold that is battling the warmth. The stripers also won't necessarily be in the warmest water. They will be in the vicinity, however, because of the concentrations of shad that will stay in the warmer water.

Wind is a major controlling factor, according to Clubb, and he advises anglers to track the wind direction and strength for two or three days before a winter striper fishing trip. If the wind has blown steadily in the same direction for two or three days, warm water will have been pushed in that direction, both in the main river and in the creeks. Armed with knowledge of how winds have been blowing and a good lake map to see how waters are really oriented, an angler can then use his graph both to see how temperatures compare in different areas and to look for baitfish and for stripers.