Countdown to 12 pounder has begun...

[dcbasser]

LMAO
Nothing better than a good friendly competition. Suprised Billy hasn't jumped on board yet. FNF is right up his alley. I,m confident that Laurel will produce some monster smallmouth this winter so I will waive the handicap. Don't know if it can compare to Dale or not but it has gotten a lot better over the past 5 years as far as giant smallies go. Hard to catch one that is not 18 or better. I believe we have only had a couple throwbacks this year and seen several go close to 7lb in tourneys we fish. Maybe looking at throwing some FNF this weekend in our club's fish off. Water is in the low 50's and know some spots where the water is generally a couple degrees colder than the rest of the lake. So that should get me pretty close or at least close enough to try it. Good luck to you and can't wait to see pictures of them big smallies.

[biggw]

ELNUT You do know if you was to but a 12lb.smallmouth in the boat on that fnf rod you will go down in history for that one....Hope you have a good heart you will need when you see that fish for the first time..lol gl man

[Chubminnow]

Elwood...on a different thread you mentioned having a cheering section...I'd say that's a fairly true statement. In all honesty I'd LOVE to see you be the next record holder. You talk up not only smallmouth fishing more than anyone else that I know, but you also talk up plain old fishing more than anyone else I know of too, which probably inspires quite a few folks.

Now would someone hand me a towel so I can wipe this brown spot off my nose, LOL...Hey Elnutcrazyjaws, if you catch her I want an autographed picture man! If nothing else at least keep a digital handy so you can post all of the footballs you catch in two more weeks.

[elnutsmalljaws]

Went out and bought a spankin brand new 7 Megapixel digital camera just for the boat (Mainly Winter Smallie Dale Hollow Fishing) last week. Even bought the super duper memory stick that will hold 450 pictures and hope to COMPLETELY fill it up this winter. Autographed picture is no problem, heck I will even take you to the spot for FREE to show you where she came aboard. As far as my heart being in good shape from the other post, I don't know if anyone's heart is really ready to fight a 12 pounder on a FNF rod, but I will sacrifice myself for the benefit of others to test the waters to see if a 12 pounder can be landed. If it is, like I said, EVERYONE will hear me screaming my head off from a good 200 mile radius of Big Goat Island. In all reality, my goal this winter is a 7 pounder. I landed my first 5 pounder in 2004, then had 2 - 6 pounders last winter, looking to move up the scale another pound - AT LEAST.

There are guys on this board that probably have been fishing longer than I have been alive, 39 years this past Monday. Plus, I have only been fishing 3 1/2 years now but think I have paid my dues. There was MANY trips from Frankfort to Dale Hollow trying to learn FNF and the lake in general that resulted in NOTHING. Several trips where I left the house at 2am, drove 140 miles to launch, fish to dark then drive back the same 140 miles with not even a take down. My buddy Henson says I have paid my dues, and I am sure there are many here that have. I will say that it only takes 1 - 5 pounder on the FNF rod to hook you for a very long time. I have been very lucky to land 4 over 5 and 2 over 6 plus lost one that Henson says was an "EASY" 7 and was correct, so I am hooked for life. A few pieces of advise that I would give to anyone that is new to the FNF is: If you can afford it hire a guide, John Davis and Steve Headrick are the 2 that I can vouch for personally. When you hire these guides, don't hire them to not necessarily put you on fish (which is a bonus), but hire them to learn from them. I have went on 5 different guide trips and none of the 5 did I ever land the TROPHY or did we hit the mother load and boat 50 fish. I asked a million questions and learned more on each of these trips that would have taken me years to learn if I ever learned it at all. (Dave Stewarts Life Cycle of Shad information that he told me on our night trip was worth the money alone) My guides have been Gerald Bates - Stripers on Cumberland, John Davis and Steve Headrick - Smallies on Dale and Dave Stewart(twice) on Ky Lake. Enough free advertisement for these fellas back to FNF - Don't give up on the FNF too soon. Just because you don't catch a fish on your first setup, you throw in the towel. I am saying change depths, change colors, try duck feather jig, add fish dope, take off fish dope, fish bluffs, fish over deep grass beds, try black shale points, try rocky points, mix it up and try different waters. There are more 5 pound smallies in Dale Hollow than maybe any other lake on the planet you just need to find them. When you find them they will be schooled up and you could catch the mother load. Good Luck

[redneckshadrap]

The 1st time I went F-n-F fishing on Dale was with Phillip Haley back in Jan 03....

My 4 biggest fish that day went 18.5 lbs on the fly. I've yet to change from his style that he has shown me. The only thing we head knock over is flies. And he wins that battle 90% of the time, well 95%. So far with Phillip I've had 4 over 5....2 of those were in one day.
Philip is one of the least advertised part-time guides, but is known well by those that are.
Don't be surprised to here of him lipping a 9-lber this yr. He hit the 7lb mark a couple of times last yr.


But as Elnut has said you have to keep after it. It's easy to lay it down, pick up something else, and keep on fising. Then you'll look in the distance to some some ole boy "gettin-it-done" on the long rod.
Billy

[elnutsmalljaws]

"Gettin-it-done" with the long rod is correct. I had a guy in my boat last year that had no patience at all. He wanted to learn something so I took him along. He had his own equipment and had fished it before so it was not totally new to him. He casted well, worked the jig well, and did all the right things. The problem was that after about 20 minutes of no action, he laid down the long rod and went to jigging. Fishing was very tough, high blue skies, no wind, tough conditions for any fishing. I kept changing depths, retrieves and flies until my first pulldown mid to late morning and landed a 3 1/2 pounder. He picked up the long rod again and tied on the same jig, same depth and everything but after a short while gave it up again. To make a long story short, I caught 4 fish that day all over 3 with biggest just shy of 4, all on the fly and he never got a bite on any bait that he threw. Each time I landed one, he would try it again but never longer than 30 minutes before he gave up on it again. It took all day and a lot of changing to land those 4 but last I checked 4 was better than none any day. You have to have patience, persistance, flexibility and confidence to fish the fly.