MFBAB

We troll Bandits for crappie a lot in the summer and catch cats sometimes. I think Van Dam caught a big one on a Redeye during the classic. Of anything I've used while bass fishing, Gulp has by far caught the most cats!

I'd love to meet you RW but I'm sneaking over to Pickick this w/end, maybe the BASS guys will leve a few fish for me!

Ok, Ok, actually did think it was a little further drive than that Hey RW, seriously, is the fishing up at Wilson Tailrace much better/different that fishing below Pickwick? I haven't tried either, just curious, I've heard a lot of good things about both areas. I'd like to get around to both of those eventually but I'm just getting started on the lake right now, if I could learn something about the lower end of the lake this Spring & Summer I would be satisfied.

Fishing the tailrace up by Wilson sounds pretty fun, I'll get up there one day, it's just a long boat ride from where I have a free place to stay:)

Thanks RW! That is really helpful, I'm just trying to figure out the right type of water to be in for Smallies, I am brand new to both Smallies and Pickwick. It doesn't really matter to me if the area is getting a lot of pressure, I'm not tourney fishing, just trying to reel in something brown, lol.

Thanks RW, we didn't try Jerkbaits or cranking in general too much, maybe that would have made a difference. When you say gravel banks, are you saying straight gravel with no ledge? Most of these points we were catching LM on were ledge points that transitioned into pea gravel, you could fish down the whole ledge and not get bit until you got to the point, the windy side of the point at that, so that's what we started keying on. We caught most of our fish in Zippy Branch near the mouth of Yellow Creek if you are familiar with that area - is that the type of banks you're describing?

Where are they? I fished up there last w/end and caught plenty of Largemouth running secondary points in Yellow Creek w/ T-rigged plastics but never caught a Smallie. This was my first bass fishing trip up there so I'm in the very early stages of learning the lake but I thought I was in a good area for them. Can anyone offer some advice for Smallies in that lower end of the lake, say the area below Bear Creek to the Dam? Should we have been fishing the ledges & humps on the main channel? Thanks in advance! BTW, water temp was about 49-50 last w/end in that area.

Glenn Springs is pretty clear, at least compared to most other lakes around here, you can usually se 8-10' deep there. Arkabutla is the polar opposite of that, it is rare to have more than 1' of visibility there. The others on your list are what I would call stained water, 2-4' visibility. Of course, rains and high winds can make any lake get muddy some of the time and lack of wind and rain can make dirty water clear up periodically. As a general rule, go brighter, slower and noisier with your baits the dirtier the water & vice versa.

I totally agree Paul, I reread a lot of good fishing books every so often and there are always things that don't really click until the 2nd or 3rd time through. Also, some of what I read doesn't make sense until I'm actually fishing and then it clicks for me. I'm not saying KVD is being secretive really, I just think he has a unique way of processing the big picture and refining it down to the best bite going in the shortest amount of time. You and I could start with the exact same info but not figure it out as quickly or make the correct reactions as quickly, if that makes sense.

It isn't magic, lol. I think he just uses those search baits more efficiently than anyone else and covers a ton of water. The thing that really seperates him though is that he is able to find and refine the current pattern faster than anyone else I can think of, I would love to find out some of the cues he uses to interpret that but he ain't talking. I've seen him sharing the boat with other pros on TV several different times, they'll be fishing along and all of a sudden he just says "I know what the deal is" or something, and it is on. That light bulb doesn't go off every tourney but I honestly believe he never loses one, he just runs out of time once in a while before he gets it figured out.

A good example is KY lake, the TN river is flowing North in this section, not South. The Upper end of the lake (Headwaters) on KY lake is to the South towards the Pickwick Dam tailrace, the lower (KY Lake Dam) end is to the North in KY. It always seems bass ackards when I fish there but that is the meaning of upper and lower end.

This is usually referring to manmade reservoirs. The upper end is where the main tributaries enter the lake, usually the shallower end. The lower would be the end near the dam, deeper water.

Spoonplugging is a great read, totally changed the way I think about fishing in general, not just bass fishing. I learn something new every time I re-read that book! Having said that, I will probably never catch a bass on an actual Spoonplug:)

Thanks Paul, I found it on google, didn't come up on my other search engine for some reason. I would attach the link for others but the site isn't letting me for some reason.

Does anyone know where I can get a copy of Tracking Trophy Bass by John Hope? Or have one to sell? I've checked Amazon and Ebay with no luck. Thanks...

I use the small ones for Shaky Heads a lot and the larger sizes are great for fishing points and ledges, cast and drag or hop along the bottom. That head style is designed for rocky bottoms, they aren't going to do well flipping in wood cover or mats.

Don't know if this applies to Bass but Crappie will move in and out of spawning water several times during the spring. Females will deposit part of their eggs each time but never the whole batch at once, I guess this ensures that at least some of the fry will survive depending on the effects of unstable spring weather and water levels. As far as a good prespawn pattern, I like to focus on the breaklines, ditches, etc. that are directly attached to the spawning flats, these will usually produce all the way through the early postspawn at least. Think Skeet in the 09 classic, he was in a transition area (Ditch) leading onto a flooded spawning flat, catching them coming and going.