Jordan Lake is one of 3 lakes in the Research Triangle of North Carolina. Jordan is south of Durham and provides unlimited water recreation.

There are many great and well-maintained campgrounds around the lake, with Crosswinds being one of them. Nearby is the Crosswinds Marina as well as some local baitshops. The NC Division of Wildlife Resources maintains a boat ramp at Farrington Point.

Jordan's waters are home to lengendary catfish. On one occasion, my wife hooked what appeared to be a 3 footer. It was near dusk in the headwaters of the New Hope branch, just beyond Farrington point. She reeled the lazy cat next to our small 11' boat, on which there were 3 of us onboard already. While I was puzzling over where we could fit 3 feet of fish in our already cramped quarters, the fish just rolled over, silently snapped the line, and disappeared below the dark waters into our memories.

On another occassion, just opposite the Crosswinds Campground, my daughter and I got into a mess of somewhat smaller cats in a feeding frenzy. Being the dad, I had the priviledge of both baiting hooks and removing fish. Between the two of us, we could not keep 4 rods in the water at once. At one point, I was stepping on one rod to prevent it from going overboard while removing the fish from a second, and while a third was on the line being reeled in. The fourth pole was empty, waiting for bait. Those fish were so furious that day, we probably did not need bait anyway. That was the one and only time, before and since, that I quit fishing for the day just because there was enough to clean already. It was another memory of a great fishing trip at Jordan Lake.