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Okay...I'm a trout guy, but I've recently been turned onto smallies. I need some help.
1) Are there any other lakes besides Dale and Cumberland that I should waste my time fishing for smallmouth?
2) What is the lure or bait of choice?
3) What time of year is best?
I've seen some Ky Afield footage of guys putting a boat on the shore and droppin' 3-4 rods off the back but that's about it.
Any help would be appreciated.
I like 4-5" grubs in the Spring along the grass at Dale. You can Float'n'Fly all winter. Laurel and Green River also have some good smallie populations for your location. You might also check out smalljaw.com for more info.
I've heard of float and fly and seen it talked about on this forum...what is it? Is there a web-site where I can get some info?
visit floatandfly.com
Learning tobecome a decent to good brown bass fisherman is three times harder than the largemouth in my humble opinion. It's about like trying to figure out women. Dale Hollow, Cumberland, Streams, Green River, and Laurel are your best bets. There are a few good brown bass in Barren as well but they are tough as the numbers just aren't there. Spring of the year, almost any bait will work at times. Especially suspending jerkbaits, soft and hard. Topwaters, cranks, jigs, spinnerbaits all have their time. Summertime you must go deep, smallies hate hot water temps and will not stay in them. Jigs deep are most productive. Night fishing wiil dominate from late May or early June through late in the year until the water temps dip back to the lower 70's or upper 60's. Winter time, smallmouth suspend and can be caught on a variety of lures. Alot of guys now a days will tell you when the water gets below 50 degrees that the only baits that will catch fish is the Float'n'fly. I disagree as I have had banner days on jerkbaits deadsticking, cranks, hairjigs as well. Now don't get me wrong I'm not dissing the f-n-f because it is a killer way to fish in cold water but believe me there are other ways as well and don't ever forget about the Silver Buddy and spoons vertical jigged. Didn't mean to skip Fall as it can be magical. Once the smallies venture out of their deep haunts and start staging on the points and secondary points to eventually follow the baitfish back into the creeks,it's on. Again a variety of different lures will work here, topwaters early and late in the day, cranks, jerkbaits, leadhead grubs in smoke colors and natural colors. And maybe my favorite is to fish the wind blown bank with spinnerbaits and burn them in. Oh yea hang on to your rod they may take it form you doing this technique. There are about a million more ways but these are some good starters and PLEASE, PLEASE, practice catch and release.