Last week I reported we were receiving a major influx of water from the south. This week the same has held true and the increase in water volume has been steady. The water level at my dock appears to be about 1.5 feet above winter pool which is down slightly from last week. The surface temp is holding at 46 degrees and the water color in the lake is clear to murky. TVA has been releasing a little more water than is entering the reservoir, which is creating a slight fall and a great deal of current in the lake.  Despite the cold teperatures fishing remains pretty good for several species. Things could get pretty interesting over the next severl days as we have a shad kill developing.

Bass …  My good friend Brandon Hunter and Mike Taggart of Hendersonville, Tn. were able to slip out a few hours Sunday afternoon to fish for bas and had pretty decent luck on Jerk Baits. Their best catches were made by positioning the boat in water 10-12  feet deep and casting towards the bank working the bait slowly pausing 5 – 10 seconds between jerks. Most strikes came in 8 feet of water. Being patient and fishing main lake points and rip rap banks was the key. The bass were suspended and the lazy action of the Lucky Craft Pointer was too good to pass up. Way to go guys !!!

When the water temp hits 50 degrees or so it’s a excellent time to throw a jerk bait. Also when you’re fishing in declining water temps, pausing a little longer than you think you should is a good idea too. Let the fish tell you how long you should wait between jerks.

Crappie  … fishing is still pretty darn good if you are willing to brave the cold temperatures. Most everyone that has been out has been catching fish and some good ones too by vertically fishing minnows over submerged brush & stake beds. One of my neighbors has been walking the rip rap banks around the marinas and catching some pretty good black crappie in 5-6 feet of water casting a jig or a jig tipped with a minnow. Wind blown banks have been especially productive. The crappie are cooperating, you just need to get out there and get amongst them.

Stripes …  and yellow bass are being caught by trolling the ledges or casting crank baits or rooster tails along the main lake points and at the mouth of the bays. If you use a rooter tail type lure cast it and let it sink to the bottom and remember to use a slow but steady retrieve. You can still catch quite of few of these if you stay after them and some pretty good ones too.

Sauger … No report due to gates being open at Kentucky & Barkley Dams.
 
Catching any Smallmouth Bass? …  Recently I’ve read posts on some of the fishing forums suggesting that the smallmouth bass population is not what it used to be on Kentucky Lake. I'd like to offer up my perspective on this subject.  

Early in the year I discussed this subject with some of the best sticks on Kentucky Lake and one thing was painfully obvious … it isn’t a wise decision to be solely dependent on the smallmouth for a five bass limit to win a tournament. Many anglers call them "ghost fish" because they’re here today and gone tomorrow. The consensus was that quality smallmouth weren’t showing up at weigh-in time like they had in the past and in general the numbers were down. Statements like this really peaked my interest and left me somewhat puzzled since I felt Kentucky Lake has all the ingredients to be a top notch smallmouth lake; good water quality, plenty of current & rock … and  we all know how much smallmouth love current & rock … and a seemingly unlimited food source.  Besides I’d rather catch a smallmouth bass than any fish that swims.

As a fishing guide I’m challenged to find new areas that hold fish and new techniques to help my clients catch them. Community holes just don't cut it day in and day out.  I needed to develop a plan that complimented my “Ledge Fishing “pattern. It was obvious that I was going to have to make a commitment to find new areas that held fish if my clients were to be successful.  I decided to focus on investigating offshore shell beds.  In particular, I was searching for any bed that had some type of irregular structure. On days that I wasn't guiding or after I had finished for the day, I used my electronics to locate shell beds that I felt had promise and marked them for future reference.  The ones that I was most attracted to were 8-10 feet deep with either a rock pile or depression on them.

I’m sure many of you have seen the massive schools of baitfish that roam in open water, they’re everywhere. Shell beds are the beginning of the food chain and attract these schools of baitfish.  I soon realized that any shell bed that had a rock pile or a depression usually held baitfish and therefore bass with a lot of them being smallmouth.  However, smallmouth didn’t hang around very long if there wasn’t any bait, instead choosing to roam in search of their food supply.   Largemouths on the other hand were more home bodies and had a tendency to stay put and wait things out. This in itself made the smallmouth very difficult to pattern at times. Therefore labeling the smallmouth a “ghost fish” is somewhat understandable.

During the March thru November period this year, I logged my daily bass catch by species and location where I caught them. A couple of things were evident. When it came to fishing offshore shell beds smallmouth made up a considerable portion of my bass catch and current was a huge factor. While not quite as structure dependent as their largemouth cousins, when current was present smallmouth really locked in on the shell beds with structure on them. Find one of these sweet spots with bait and it was “game on”! Otherwise they appeared to spend a huge amount of time cruising in search of schools of baitfish.  

Over time I also became aware of some traits that were directly related to smallmouth caught offshore.  Hook one and often there were followers that could be easily caught and I noticed they normally schooled by size. When my clients or I hooked a smallmouth, sometimes it regurgitated and 99% of the time it was a shad. Smallmouth caught close to the bank regurgitated crayfish almost all the time and comparatively speaking were loners. Also it was rare to catch a largemouth in with the smallmouth; it was about as common to catch a white bass or spotted bass instead. I suspect with the smallmouth being a schooling fish and the more aggressive feeder it just outworked the largemouth.

After processing all this information, I wondered could it be a combination of factors such as water clarity, enormous baitfish populations and fishing pressure that has changed the smallmouth’s way of life to which we anglers haven’t adjusted. Angler friends of mine that fish lakes all over the country as well as our lake have mentioned that our smallmouth are beginning to mimic Great Lakes smallmouth by schooling offshore. Interesting?  

They say “If you do things the same as you always did you‘ll probably get the same results” pretty well sums up how I went about searching for smallmouth. It wasn't until I changed my way of thinking that I started catching smallmouth with regularity. Since I hadn’t been catching as many smallmouths before I adjusted my approach maybe my view on the subject is skewed, but it appears to me that the smallmouth bass population is thriving based on my catch ratio.
Let me know what you think! … I’m sure there’s more to this than I know but for now I’m going to keep working my plan. Hopefully I’ll get a little better at figuring them out and proficient at catching them too. I sure hope so … nothing fights like a Kentucky Lake smallmouth bass!

If you access my website at http://www.kicknbass.net and go to the "Fishing Articles" page you’ll find an article titled “Shakeyhead surprise”. It talks about shell beds, fishing techniques and what gear I use to catch some of these smallmouths.

By the way the upcoming fishing season will be here before you know it and it promises to be the best ever. Don’t miss out! Book a trip now to go Crappie fishing with Kick’n Bass Guide Service!

Bass Wishes!
Randy Kuhens