roadwarrior

I have caught all my biggest largemouth between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM on the hottest bluebird days of summer on a Senko. They were all caught around structure, one near cover but none in cover. More generally, during the hottest part of the day I find bass suspending in shade (around boat docks for example) in deep water (10+ feet) near deeper water or a nominal current (creek mouth or channel draining into the main lake or cove). I have caught small bass during the day in grass, but I don't think that's where big bass like to hang out during the heat of the day. Timber in deep water on the shady side of a bluff is another suggestion. I feel like most bites are reaction strikes. Big bass are opportunists and will strike when prey or your lure is close, but they do not actively feed in the middle of a hot summer day. As a side note, none of this applies to smallmouth bass in a river. I believe they suspend near structure and in current all the time and I think they feed constantly, at every opportunity.

"How To Catch Hot Water Smallmouth" in this month's Bassmaster magazine is an excellent read. Roger Stegall, a professional guide at Pickwick Lake, is one of three featured anglers. The bottomline is structure, which should come as no surprise. If you are interested in catching smallmouth on a river/ lake system using artificial lures, read this article. There's nothing really new, but maybe it will help you on your next outing. BTW, I'm going to stick with fishing live shiners BELOW the dam.

MH = medium heavy (a grade between medium and heavy).

Well, I prefer light line too, but NOT in heavy vegetation. In addition to heavier line, you also need a MH or heavy power rod so you can horse those big girls away from the spinach or pull them out of it. This is one of those situations where braided line on a powerful rod is the right choice.

ball_coach_1, Isn't it interesting that some lakes really are color specific? I generally believe that the profile and action of the various soft platics is far more important than color. That being said, I almost always use dark colors, but on certain lakes specific colors have proven to be consistantly more productive.

I have caught my biggest bass on Senkos, but for the last two seasons I have caught more bass over 5 lbs on the Fat Ika. I have just recently fished the Ika (smaller version of the Fat Ika) with much success. I fish these baits weedless and weightless only. For deeper water where weights are needed, I like the Kut-Tail rigged with a jighead, the Kreature T-rigged and Gitzits. I'll occasionally throw a lizard, C-rigged. The soft plastics I mentioned are all very effective and give bass something with just a little different profile and action. I think you will find that some variety in your presentation willl produce more and larger bass. I'm a Senko man too, but these other baits produce for me.

Gary Yamamoto's "INSIDE LINE"

Grasshopper, A journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step in the right direction.

Big smallmouth prefer live bait. I have had some success with Lucky Craft Pointer 128, Rapala Husky Jerk (blue & silver with an orange belly), Spook, Sammy, plastic lizards and baby diaper yellow Gitzits. Artificials seem to be most effective on smallmouth under 5 lbs, the bigger fish are not as easily fooled. Far more important than your lure selection is where you are fishing. Smaller fish inhabit the shallow water, the bigger fish will be in deeper water around structure and if you are on a river, in current. p.s. I did catch one 6 1/2 lb smallie on a Micro Munch jig last spring, but I dedicated twelve fishing hours to jig fishing (two hours on six diffferent days) and that is the only fish I caught. My partner was killing 'em on live shiners and kept asking me, "Are ya learning anything?".

Cover is important to largemouth but has very little to do with smallmouth. I know there are exceptions, I've caught a couple of nice smallies fishing in grass for largemouth, but generally, smallmouth are all about structure and on a river, current. Since most of my fishing is on a river, my favorite structure is big boulders. I also target rock piles and transition, especially channel drops, ledges, humps and deep pools. I avoid cover, creeks and still water when I'm smallmouth fishing. That's where those nasty largemouth hang out and steal your bait! But if you want a combination and some great action, you might want to focus some of your time on those spots on the river, too.

There have been a couple of posts asking about fishing on a river, so I thought this old thread might be helpful.

jjcoinsky, I too fish the Tennessee River. Check the TVA website for predicted releases for the dam ABOVE the lake you are fishing. I don't actually fish the lakes much, I fish below Pickwick Dam. Regardless of where you are fishing on this system, current counts. If you are a recreational fisherman, stay home or do something else when TVA is not generating. I'm not kidding. If you're in a tournament or just have to take someone fishing, focus on largemouth and Kentuckys in the big coves, away from the main lake. Your traditional spots (grass, stump fields, trees, docks and the mouths of tributary creeks) may produce some of those big lazy largemouth that reside back in the slack water. Sorry, you're still not going to fair too well. Current is everything on the river system. It stirs up the water and stimulates bait fish which in turn activates all the predators. Without current all you can hope for is a little luck.

I've caught some stripers where the leverage has come into play, but I guess I've never caught a bass that big. When I'm fighting a big fish I try to use my forearm for leverage, but that doesn't always work. You could get one of those salt water belts that you put the rod handle in. That would solve the problem.

The majority of my fishing is on the Tennessee River, but I don't actually fish for largemouth on the river. We do catch a few, but they are incidental. Smallmouth and striper are what we really target depending on the time of year. I'll just address smallmouth on this thread. Current is EVERYTHING, nothing else really matters. As a commercial river, the water release is a function of electrical generation, barge traffic and flood control. Fishing and other recreational use is a distant fourth consideration. For smallmouth fishing we can get away with 20,000 cfs, but 40-140,000 is ideal. My fishing buddy and I fish both sides of the river. The "outside" is swifter and has better structure. This is generally much more productive, especially on lower water and in the fall. Productive stretches on the "inside" are much more defined: breaks, flats, and holes. Another area we focus on is the channel or more specifically the edge or channel drop. This is pretty well defined by navigational buoys. Our two keys for success, especially for catching bigger smallmouth, are fishing live bait and fishing deep. Smallmouth relate to current and structure, not cover. Focus on structure in deep water and in strong current. That's where the big girls live.

This is a dream trip, the brown fish needs to be at least 11 lbs (IFGA recognizes 10 lb 14 oz) or 12+ to be the Undisputed World Record (State of Tennessee recognizes 11lbs 15 oz as the state record). Both smallmouth were caught at Dale Hollow, but I'm hoping the new World Record will be caught on the Tennessee River, just below Pickwick Dam ;D.

Rule #1 Fish everyday that you can, but only days ending in a "y". Rule #2 When in doubt, fish a soft plastic, deep and slow.

I HIGHGLY recommend a Lucky Craft Pointer 128 in American Shad color. You will have an excellent chance of catching some quality bass. If you want to target some of the rainbow, either throw a smaller pointer (78 or 100 in American Shad) or Rapala Countdown in the rainbow trout pattern. Swimbaits, as I noted on another thread that's currently running, may catch some large bass, but your hook-up ratio is generally VERY low.

I bought some swim baits before I read an article by a big bass fisherman from California. As I recall, this guy fished big swimbaits exclusively, 5-6 days a week, 6-8 hours a day. Over a period of a year he claimed he averaged 1.5 bass over10 lbs per MONTH! (Approximately 3 bass for every 400 hours of fishing). Now, I might not have all the numbers right on this post, but you are still going to need some patience to fish those lures. I have been catching some quality largemouth on the Yamamoto Fat Ika, you might want to give that a try.

I like all your dream trips...but I would like to fish Southern California with one of the locals fishing for just one bass. I would like to be able to spend at least a week fishing each of the "potentials", slow and methodically. One fish, just one fish. Actually, I fish from September until April for one fish on the Tennessee River. It's not the same fish, but it's a bass, a smallmouth bass.

Well guys, I know that "follow the water up" must work sometimes because I read that advice all the time from some very knowledgeable sources. But here's another option that has worked for me: In June 2002, Bull Shoals Lake was 30+ feet above full pool. The flooding occured suddenly over a two week period in late May. The submerged trees were in full leaf, some completely under, others with their tops just a few feet above water. I arrived for my outing on Thursaday. Everyone was complaining that they hadn't caught a fish, many guys were leaving. Now I'm telling you no one was catching A FISH, including the guides! Well, I'm a little distraught. So I go down to the boatdock to talk with my guide, Tim "Hot Dawg" Curtis. I tell him what I'm hearing and he just smiles, "Be down at the dock around 5:00", that's all he said. We started out on a long run up to one of Dawg's favorite arms. He stopped the boat in what appeared to be the middle of the lake, I'm talking 150-200 yards from the treeline and that's not the bank! Rigged us both up with a baby diaper yellow Gitzit and began casting into what appeared to be open water IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LAKE! Well guys, we kicked some serious butt. I ended up fishing like this for 2 1/2 days. Under bluebird skies I don't think we ever went fifteen minutes without "fish on". The key was fishing the normal shoreline and submerged trees. We tried to help some other fishermen and get them away from the brush, but they just wouldn't listen. Too bad for them.

Well guys, I know its fun to find your own spots and obviously it can be done since lots of guys do. The problem I am addressing is that everything looks the same and it all looks good. I'm going to focus on Bull Shoals just because I know the lake a little and was just there. I fished the lower end of the lake near the dam. Let's say within twenty miles of the dam there are forty primary points and at least twice as many secondary points on what I'll call the northern side of the original river channel (the other side is generally steep cliffs). All of the shoreline is owned by the Corps of Engineers, so it's undeveloped. Well boys, it all looks the same to me and it is VERY close in terms of depth, slope of the point, bottom composition and a TOTAL lack of vegetation (during high water periods some brush and trees become partially submerged). So, there must be some other subtle differences that attract bait fish and subsequently predators. It's challenging. I'm going to stick with my guide.

ball_coach_1, What I meant is that fishing a tournament on unfamiliar water requires a lot of time spent searching for bass. It also requires catching smaller bass or whatever you can to make your bag limit. Then you can target kickers. I think it was Larry Nixon that tried fishing for big bass on tour and got his butt kicked. From what I read, you just can't fish for big bass and expect to win tournaments. I generally fish the same water (Tennessee River or ponds), but when I travel I always hire a guide. I want a guide that puts me on fish, preferably big fish. Most of a lake and particularly big water, is unproductive. That's why finding bass is such a challenge.

Rick Clunn wrote about the challenge facing tournament pros when fishing unfamiliar water. The article was really about changes in BASS rules governing pre-fishing and the impact it might have. Clunn's point was that finding bass is the challenge and forcing the pros to find their own spots to fish is what really separates the men from the boys. I was fishing Bull Shoals last weekend with a guide of thirty years. We motored about ten miles to a very specific primary point. From my perspective, we passed about twenty other points that appeared to be identical to the one we fished. After pounding this point for about forty-five minutes, we pulled out and traveled twelve miles to another point where we ended up smoking them. So, the question is: Why point X instead of A-W? They all look identical. My guide, Tim "Hot Dawg" Curtis claims that 90% of the lake (all lakes) is unproductive. Through trial and error over a period of decades, Tim and a hand full of guides have identified productive areas. They don't all work all the time, but some seem to work some of the time. As a recreational fisherman, I want to spend all my time where it's most likely I can catch fish. Bass are fairly easy to catch if you can find them and that's where the guide comes in, especially on big water that you only fish a couple of times a year. Good luck to all of you tournament fishermen, I admire your efforts, but I don't want to emulate you. I want to catch big fish and lots of 'em.

I'll second that! Sweetwater, that's an excellent post. Deeper structure, a slower presentation and larger lures. It also helps a lot to fish rivers, lakes and ponds that actually have bigger fish. Not every water body qualifies. You can't catch 'em if they ain't there!

I always fish Senkos SLOW, weightless & weedless. Slow means something like at least 2 minutes per cast, if I really like the position it might be 5 minutes. On the initial drop I usually let it sit on the bottom for 30 seconds to a minute just to get the attention of a big bass. I fish the bait as long as I think it remains in "the zone", pausing 10-20 seconds between movements. I fish the Ika and the Fat Ika the same way.