Need some advice about Jordan

Back in the early 90s I went to NCSU and spent many a night under some of the bridges on Lake Jordan fishing by lantern light. We would catch crappie by the hundreds and on a good trip would even have a few 16 inchers on the stringer. I have only been back twice in the last 15 years and both times barely caught enough keepers to feed 4 people. We are considering making the 2.5 hour trip from Wilkes County soon in hope of taking my 3 year old that loves to fish and getting on them like that again. I have lost all my contacts in the area over the years. We seemed to have had the best luck late March or early April in the past. I have seen some posts of some nice catches already posted on here. Are they cranking up a little early this year or will we (probably) be better off to wait couple more weeks to head down? On top of no telling how much rain will mess things up. Rabbit season is going out and I am itching to start fishing. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks

If you have boat, W Kerr Scott should be good enough. Without boat, any lake is challenging.

I remember them days/ nights back in the 90's, some nights , 2 of us would catch over 300 a night! I hadn't been on jordan in about 15 years.

Yep, We used to buy a pound of minnows each and many times we used them all in a night's fishing. We never did keep many per trip, but you could catch all you wanted.

I have heard a lot of stories about people catching a couple hundred fish a night at Jordan in the 80s/90s until the size limit was put in effect. I haven't caught that many at one time but I have caught some big fish there. If you want to fish at night I would wait until around May to do that. Some of the guys that fish Jordan can tell you better than I can how the bite is at the moment but you might want to give High Rock a try since it is closer to you. The size isn't anything like Jordan but your son should have a blast catching fish especially since there isn't a size or creel limit.

I remember those nights back in the 90's where if you didn't fill up a cooler, you left disappointed. The lake is different now. You can still catch a lot on a summer night, but many will not be legal size. I believe one thing that has hurt Jordan are the perch. I don't remember catching any years ago, but they are here now. I believe the perch eat many of the juvenile fish and just not the large quantity as in the old days.

I still think Jordan is the best crappie lake in the state. Several times over the past couple of years we have caught over 100. There is a 20-fish limit and 10" minimum size, so you will not be keeping a cooler full unless there are several of you fishing on the boat. Also, where we used to catch lots of crappie at night, they are no longer in those areas. Since you are traveling quite a distance, I would suggest hiring Freddie Sinclair as your guide. He will put you on fish and make sure you have some to take home. Another thought is to see if any of the guys on the Jordan crappie tournaments could use a co-angler one Saturday.

We all call Kerr Scott the dead sea around here. I can take the canoe and fly rod up there about May/June and absolutely wear out bass, bream and crappie but rarely anything but bass big enough to eat and I don't care for eating bass. We have had a couple good days on Norman this winter on hybrids. I have a buddy with a new bass boat that is in the roofing business...so we get to go fishing in the rain quite often, the pretty days he is working. I have a 14 ft jon boat. That is about all a farmer can afford in this economy. All this rain all winter has Kerr Scott nothing but a muddy hog wallow and log yard. I just keep thinking about those excellent days and nights fishing on Lake Jordan.

I read that the river below W Kerr Scott dam is good for largemouth, smallmouth, trout and bream. I guess it has crappie as well.

Does anybody fish any of the standing timber(whats left of it!) at Jordan at night? Some guys I have worked with said years ago they spent the night there and had a cooler full of fish years ago.

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Originally Posted by turkeyfootnc

Does anybody fish any of the standing timber(whats left of it!) at Jordan at night? Some guys I have worked with said years ago they spent the night there and had a cooler full of fish years ago.

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We generally fished under the bridge at Crosswinds Marina. I remember one night 3 of us probably caught 300+ fish and only kept anything over 12 inches. We took home 68 that night. We had to park over where the fishing pier is and I remember carrying those fish back to the truck and it felt like the stringer was going to cut my fingers off before I got there. We were bank fishers so my knowledge of the lake is very limited.

Some guys at work said one night years ago they fished the timber behind the Ebenezer bridge (I think they said before it rotted at the waterline) and threw one fish after another in the cooler, slabs at that. They planned to fish the next day but while they slept in the truck a storm came thru so they headed home. They cleaned 165!