Read about all of my Fishing Adventures!
I'd be a liar if I told you this was the first fishing trip of the year. It's actually the second. Josh and I began prefishing for Pickwick last week and were unable to find anything. The entire week of teens and twenties along with minimal flow and low water levels had pushed the fish....somewhere.
The only bit of action I found was when we attempted to cross a flat way down river and found out it wasn't in three feet any more, but three inches. No damage to the boat, but it wasn't fun shedding all of my outer wear and pushing my boat off a sandbar in the 20s. We literally had one bite all day, so, I didn't figure yall would want to hear about it.
With MLK Day a federal holiday, Brad and I decided to fish Smith lake. We have been following the Smith Lake Tournament page on Facebook and every week it has taken 18-20 pounds to win. Now, I'm not saying I could do that, but if guys are catching bags like that, rain or shine, hot or cold, then maybe i could at least catch some fish, right?
I guess it was SORTA accurate.
First off, we didn't want to get there too early because, well, it was cccooolllddd. Turns out, it wouldn't have mattered because we forget they were working on the ramps at the park and we wouldn't be dunking the boat there.
Another 40 minutes worth of driving and we put in at the dam.
One of the keys that we had heard from locals and people we trust was to find the blueback herring. If you've ever fished Smith, you know it is an awfully big and deep lake and everything really starts looking the same REAL QUICK. So, we decided we would do a lot of scanning. We also noticed (later verified) that the lake levels were extraordinarily low, even for winter pool. This goes back to lowering of the water for the ramp.
We began dissecting the lake as we would most any other lake by checking main lake points. We kept the boat in about 40 feet most of the time, but rarely did we ever mark bait balls. But, when we did mark bait, we also marked fish sitting on the bottom adjacent to the first big drop of the point.
I began the day casting moving baits such as a crankbait and a jerkbait, but didn't have any bites. We were trying to cover a lot of water, so bottom contact baits wouldn't be in the cards unless we slowed down. Eventually, we found an area that we felt confident that we really needed to pick apart. This point was a gradually sloping bank instead of a quick drop. On these points were a lot of brush and trash on the bottom with fish sitting in the brush.
I began probing these piles of brush with a half ounce strike king jig and eventually had my first bite of the day. It was the fantastic spot you can see in the picture on the top. Both Brad and I were pretty excited because this was the kind of fish the locals were catching in these wildcat tournaments. Maybe we were on to something!
Turns out, what we were on to was not a great pattern, but a pattern none the less and one that was eerily similar to the pattern we experienced a few months ago. The fish weren't grouped up, at least where we were. We could get bit on almost every point that exhibited the right characteristics, and it would usually be the first cast. The issue was, neither of us were really mentally prepared for spot fishing, as they would pick up the jig and run right at the boat. I had a series of points where I had five bites that I failed to snag a single fish.
In the end, we never really found a lot of bait and we certainly didn't find a lot of fish. There is obviously something fundamentally wrong with our approach to this lake, despite the two exceptional tournaments we fished last year.
Take the good with the bad, I suppose. At least I got my first fish of the year and it was a fantastic spot!
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