fnf/live-bait

[rickhise]

I fish almost every other on the average here on Dale, I use live bait and about the only differnece in each day are the numbers and or the size, but nearly always on fish,
the fish I catch normally down at least 35 ft. plus, & drifting for the most part, near the channel ... I know the fnf produces, thats what I try to understand after reading your results on here, I make a big effort to keep the bait i use deep.The fnf stays considerably shallower, I understand your over deep water this time of year....is that a result of the SM just being that aggressive?

water temp's 48.9 today, I think the lake may rise some, others say it wont happen,

[fisherman0625]

In my opinion all smallmouth are not going to feed at once. Smallmouth love the channel at dale. I think the fish you are always on are fish that are not "really" all that active. BUT when you take live bait and put it somewhere where it shouldnt be, THERE GOING TO EAT. As everyone probably knows, I love to fnf fish and love fishing dale. The fish we catch on fnf are fish that are activily feeding and are more zoned in on the shad movements. In my findings, after the smallmouth go into there fall and winter transition they will hang around the same places untill pre-spawn. I have even went back to places I have caught fish on fnf all throught the day and kept catching fish. I think its all about being there when some fish have decided to come out of the channel and up to feed. This is just my opinion and we all know about opinions.lol Keep up the good work though.. There are many good things about live bait fishing. you are always on top of where the fish are staging and thats the one for sure bait cause its what they really eat!

[elnutsmalljaws]

I do agee with fisherman in that when the Smallies take up their winter haunts they will be near deep water that relates to spawning grounds. I also believe that not all Smallmouth are in the feeding mode at the same time. If they were then only jigs would work at one time, only the fly another, only crankbaits another but from what I have heard and read, Jigs, Cranks and the fly have all been catching fish at Dale right now. I hear people that use their graph units and idle around to find pods of shad before they start fishing either with live bait or artificial. I can honestly say that I have NEVER done this at Dale Hollow in the winter. I continue to catch fish in the same spots over and over and over year after year and really believe they are a creature of habit and once you catch a good quality fish then that spot will reload over and over. Pretty much when Dale is at "Normal Winter Pool" we launch out of Holly Creek and I have a 10-12 spot milkrun that involves all different structure from grass beds, deep grass beds, points, black shale, banks etc and after the initial milkrun we will run the pattern that produced the quality fish for the next couple of hours before adjusting. I know we are targeting suspending fish and the spots that I know have held them over and over since 2004 when I learned to float the fly from John Davis and continued my education thru Steve Headrick and trial and error on my own. One thing about FNF, you can make minor adjustments over and over until WHAM you hit it just right. This could be something as simple as a longer pause when working the jig, shorter more aggressive working of the jig, depth change, fish dope to limit the action or no dope to let it move free and all areas in between. My dad calls it bobber fishing and maybe it is bobber fishing. But funny thing is when he looks at my digital camera and sees the PIGS that have been caught on the bobber his eyes light up, mouth drops open and his definition of Bobber fishing goes out the window. I keep saying that I will put the fly down when the sun gets up in the afternoon and throw a jig but for one I have so much CONFIDENCE in it that it is hard and two, I don't have the honey holes for jigs as I do for the fly. Next week will be another test of my "Sticktuitiveness"sp to the fly but as usual I will take 2 spinning reels with 6lb test Flouro for small jigs and silver buddy plus a baitcaster for crankbaits (just in case). Sad to say a man takes 2 fnf rods and 3 other rods and the only one that leaves the box is the All Pro 10' FNF.

[opie13]

I use the fnf or livebait most of the time and I seem to catch fish at the same spots fairly consistently. I usually bottom fish with bait around or close to the channel. Rick I looked at the Tva website and the lake did come up a little last night.