Dale is producing nice small mouth as winter approaches

Dale is producing quality Small Mouth
We are beginning to see the winter patterns bring the fish up out of the channels and feed through out the day.
Using live bait in 62.5 degree water keeping the bait deep is paying off.

For the past three days we have put a few fish in the boat,
Using LB staying on the normal winter spots throwing into deep water
Has paid offhttp://imgur.com/a/lI9uK
Fishing new water down around 1St Island was fun today Water temp 62.5 lake clear.
Disappointed in our numbers for the condition s we had today
But over all the quality was there

Excuse the photo mix up

Very nice size on those fish. We went yesterday and only caught 10 but didnt have any live bait, everything was on a jig. We didnt have any really big smallies, 19 1/2" was our best

Nice smallie man. Not sure if I'm going to make it down there this year.

[QUOTE=Fishin is life;550921]Very nice size on those fish. We went yesterday and only caught 10 but didnt have any live bait, everything was on a jig. We didnt have any really big smallies, 19 1/2" was our best[/QUOTE]
The people I had out didn't have any big fish, fishing for 3 days, but some of the other guides had a few over 20 during the outings .
I have yet to see more 20 plus than the 19 s, still early.......here's hoping

[QUOTE=Fishin is life;550921]Very nice size on those fish. We went yesterday and only caught 10 but didnt have any live bait, everything was on a jig. We didn't have any really big smallies, 19 1/2" was our best[/QUOTE]

I was wondering what he meant by using LB. I never thought of using live bait and was confused at first until I read this second post.

To the OP. Great Job. Those are some very nice sized Small Mouth Bass. I have never been to Dale Hollow Lake but I have read about it a lot. A old friend of mine went there to camp out and relax. But I don't think he was into fishing much. We use to scuba dive together and he never showed any interest in spear fishing or fishing with a line except on time when I went with him up to Lynnville, IN to fish at night on that strip pit.

I bought the In-Fishermen Book on Small Mouth Bass. It might be one of the Critical Concept Books by the In-Fishermen Guys. These guys approach fishing from a scientific viewpoint which is right up my alley. I'm curious and should have been a researcher. I've been told that a few times by my colleges. The Small Mouth Book talks about Small Mouth heading to deeper water and long deep points on the main lake as the water cools. But it also warned that during the Winter Months the small mouth population becomes vulnerable to over fishing as they fish are so tightly bunched up on certain spots. Years past only a very few wise fishermen knew about this and they didn't tell everyone about their secrete winter honey holes. But today with social media and the internet and books like the Critical Concept Series by In-Fisherman more and more people are learning the secretes of the small mouth bass in the Winter Months.

Have fun catching them but always remember that they are a limited resource if you take too many out of those honey holes too often.

Dale Hollow was listed as a deep clear lake on my diving guide books and I at one time years ago had that lake on my bucket lists of places to go scuba diving. But that never happened and since I don't dive anymore and most of my equipment is on the fritz or won't fit me anymore that will never happen. So I'm crossing Dale Hollow off my diving bucket list but I'll keep it on my fishing bucket list.

I also read that there are Muskie in Dale Hollow as well as big walleyes. That makes that lake a special place in my book. Tennessee has a lot of great lakes to explore.

[QUOTE=Fishin is life;550921]Very nice size on those fish. We went yesterday and only caught 10 but didnt have any live bait, everything was on a jig. We didnt have any really big smallies, 19 1/2" was our best[/QUOTE]
F IS L are the fish still on main lake or have they moved into the creeks?

[QUOTE=rickhise;550931]The people I had out didn't have any big fish, fishing for 3 days, but some of the other guides had a few over 20 during the outings .
I have yet to see more 20 plus than the 19 s, still early.......here's hoping[/QUOTE]

Most of our smallies were in the 17" range and actually a little slim, hopefully theyll be putting on their feed bags before winter. Im heading back down there saturday, hoping to get some live bait and increase our numbers when the sun gets high. Im pretty sure i saw you on the dock while i was loading my boat saturday

[QUOTE=BRS;550938]F IS L are the fish still on main lake or have they moved into the creeks?[/QUOTE]

I stay in KY waters so im always technically in a creek but most all of our bites came on the main part of the creek. The majority of our bites came off steeper banks, but both largemouth came from grass or very close. We had another 15-20 bites that we missed. Early in the morning they were choking the jig but as the sun got high it seemed they didnt wanna eat it

The better of my 2 largeheads

Hey Fishin. I'll be down there Thursday to Sunday but staying at horse creek. If I get into anything good I'll let you know. Any turnover yet?

Fished mostly around Troopers Island. My cousin caught about a 2 lb on a jig, had one on a jerk bait but line broke (bad line), fish broke water just a little after he broke the line. Probably just by looking at it when it busted out of the water maybe a 3 pounder +/-. These bites were during morning and later around 11 or so when back up toward Wisdom and had not been there very long till the wind picked up and it was bad! After it died down when back to Trooper Island and wind was still pretty bad so got out in some deeper water drifting with wind and he caught one on a spoon about 4 pounds I would say. I would have loved to told you about the ones I caught but I never even got a hit all day long. I was fishing and he was catching em. LOL