dale hollow last night

Dale hollow, what a lake. one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. and has some good smallmouth in it. but they are not very friendly to me. I fished all night last night. only caught 2 fish and both of them wouldn't have made a good sandwich. I think it's fished to death. read on the smalljaws forum, were those guys were not even counting the small ones. they caught so many. then I go fish all night and only 2 fish. I fished main lake points, secondary points in the creeks, fished some fluff walls real late in the night. fish from the the shore out to 25 and 30 ft deep. used jig, lizards, worms, tubes, bighammer swim baits, spinner baits slow rolled. rattle baits, deep diving cranks. just a beautiful night on the water, without any bites. one on a pumpkin lizard, off a main point. the other after the moon went down. on a mann's streach 25+ off a bluff wall.

Dale Hollow can be a very humbling lake. It can be feast or famine and takes a LOT of time to not only learn the lake but also to learn the habits of the smallies to try and catch them. I believe when the Smallies are in their deep water summer patterns that they migrate between the deep grass beds and the black shale/chunk rock depending on the moon phase chasing Crayfish. As the Crayfish spawn on the full moon they will be closer to the shale/rock and when the new moon is up they are around the grass. This is just what I believe in my years of fishing Dale. Learn to fish the Deep Grass Beds with jigs and soft plastics and you will have better luck but it takes time. As far as the fellas on Smalljaw, there majority of them only fish Dale and they know the lake VERY WELL. There are some outstanding fishermen on Smalljaw that really know how to put them in the boat.

as El Nuts said it's a tough lake and you have to put the time in to dial in on them.I have fished Dale for 20 years and a two fish night is definitely a good starting point and not something to discourage you.Keep on building on that....Dave

I am going to try to get down there sometime in the next couple of weeks. I got some new Strike King Bottom Dweller 1 ounce spinnerbaits that need to get wet.

[QUOTE=Tim_T;419303]I am going to try to get down there sometime in the next couple of weeks. I got some new Strike King Bottom Dweller 1 ounce spinnerbaits that need to get wet.[/QUOTE]

good luck, I tried slow rolling or { yo yoing } 3/4 oz spinnerbaits, to depts of 25 ft with no luck. used the colors red, brown, black, and orange. had to clean grass off some of them. but no hits for me monday night. those color spinnerbaits, will boat a fish or two most of the time. I counted 19 boats fishing around me monday night. I didn't do any good, I would like to hear from some of the other mondaynight fishermen, as to how they did on dale hollow.:)

Waterdog I fished Monday night and was probably one of the best nights I have had in a year or longer! I had about 6 or 7 SM (biggest 4 lb) and 1 LM and 1 other small fish. Also had 3 get off on me. Got them on points and in the grass with jig. It was a beautiful night to be on Dale that is for sure. But I have to say I beleive something has happen to the fish on Dale because it used to be you could go and it was nothing to put a few good fish in the boat but it is not like that at all anymore. It is just a hit and miss and most of the time it will be a bad night any more.

we went down on last night and had about 8 or so two were over 4 lbs we fished out of cedar hill marina. all our fish were caught in about 30 feet of water or so. that was the first time i had fished that end of the lake at night and we had pretty good luck.....

[QUOTE=BRS;419436]Waterdog I fished Monday night and was probably one of the best nights I have had in a year or longer! I had about 6 or 7 SM (biggest 4 lb) and 1 LM and 1 other small fish. Also had 3 get off on me. Got them on points and in the grass with jig. It was a beautiful night to be on Dale that is for sure. But I have to say I beleive something has happen to the fish on Dale because it used to be you could go and it was nothing to put a few good fish in the boat but it is not like that at all anymore. It is just a hit and miss and most of the time it will be a bad night any more.[/QUOTE]
hey man, thanks for the reply. I've had some good nights on dale in the past.I don't get to fish it much. but monday night was a bad night for me.I to fished jigs, and most all the points I fished had grass on them. I fished points from goat island to trooper island. and only boated 2 fish. would loved to have caught a few heavyweights. but I enjoyed a beautiful night on the water.:)