Photo courtesy TROY ROBERSON Striped bass are active now at Jordan Lake.

The white-tailed deer rut is in full swing now in piedmont North Carolina, but if hunting isn’t your first choice, you might consider striped bass fishing at Jordan Lake.

It’s one of the two hottest times to be on the lake, said guide Troy Roberson of Pittsboro.

“November and December are two of the best months to be on the lake,” said Roberson (Striper Sniper Adventures, www.stripersniper.com, 919-656-1887).

Threadfin shad move out of creeks toward deeper water and Jordan’s stripers are waiting for them at key points.

Roberson’s biggest striper weighed 18 pounds and the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission annually stocks 75,000 striped bass fingerlings in the lake.

“Water temperature is a key,” Roberson said. “When it drops to 60 degrees is when the striper bite at Jordan really turns on. It’ll stay good until it drops down to 40 degrees, then the bite shuts down pretty much.”

During the summer he uses large gizzard shad, but switches to smaller baitfish in the winter.

“You want to match the small shad that are coming out of coves,” he said. “I’ve caught stripers in November and December using 2-inch-long shad.”

The best places to look for winter stripers at Jordan are the mouths of Parkers Creek, Eagles Cove, Beaver Creek and near Buoy 3 at the S curves in the lower part of the lake.

“Stripers usually will be from 12- to 25-feet deep this time of year,” Roberson said.

His live-bait rig is a 7-foot-long medium-action Eagle Claw rod with an Abu Garcia 6500 C3 bait-caster reel with 15-pound-test Berkley Big Game line. Terminal tackle includes a 2-ounce egg weight and 4-foot leader of fluorocarbon P-Line with 1-0 Owner circle hooks.

Roberson trolls eight lines, three on each side of the gunwale and two off the stern.

Seagulls often mark when stripers are feeding at Lake Jordan.