Dale Hollow advice for first-timer

taking my father age 71 and my son age 18 to Dale Hollow Lake in early June and would sure like to have them catch some fish. Anybody have any experience on this lake? Got any recommendations for bait, lures, or techniques? Deep or shallow? Should we try for smallmouth, crappie, trout, walleye? Got any secret honey-holes you might want to share (maybe some GPS coordinates)? Maybe a topo map you could e-mail me? Any info at all would sure be helpful. You know how difficult it can be fishing a body of water you have never seen before. We are staying at the state park lodge which I believe is on the north side of the lake.

[QUOTE=scooterpop;287667]taking my father age 71 and my son age 18 to Dale Hollow Lake in early June and would sure like to have them catch some fish. Anybody have any experience on this lake? Got any recommendations for bait, lures, or techniques? Deep or shallow? Should we try for smallmouth, crappie, trout, walleye? Got any secret honey-holes you might want to share (maybe some GPS coordinates)? Maybe a topo map you could e-mail me? Any info at all would sure be helpful. You know how difficult it can be fishing a body of water you have never seen before. We are staying at the state park lodge which I believe is on the north side of the lake.[/QUOTE]

I highly recommend that you fish with a guide at least one or 2 days. The lake is very tough to fish. Very clear and can be a real tough lake in the day light. Most guides fish nights with black lights using jigs and pigs and jerk baits after the middle of April or First of May.. Bob Coan 931-243-3827 // Bobby Gentry 1-270-427-0419 // or call Dale Hollow One Stop for other guides... link and phone on the Dale Hollow fishing report

Night fishing will be your best bet in June to catch some fish. They are deep off points, humps and drop offs into the river channel plus in deep grass beds at that time. A guide will defineately help your cause in locating fish and techniques. Be extremely careful is you fish at night for Dale Hollow is a very dangerous and intimidating lake to run at night, especially for someone that is new to the lake. Islands, humps, twists and turns everywhere and a lot of places all look the same. It may be a little safer if they keep the water 6-8 feet above summer pool all year like they say but that still is not enough to cover the islands and other obstacles.