What's A Trophy-Sized Smallie? by Vernon Summerlin
The best way to know what a trophy-sized smallie is by putting your hands
together in front of you and spread them until you smile. That's a trophy.
Many lakes in the state have length restrictions, and that's your minimum.
I think an 18-inch smallmouth would satisfy most anglers; it'll weigh close
to four pounds. So let's call a four-pounder a trophy.
Looking at a map of Tennessee, working our way from left to right, we have
to make our first cast into Percy Priest lake. But first some . . .
Smallmouth Bass Basics
First, I suggest you take a box of jigs, finesse baits, and a bucket of
tuffies or shiners fishing. Second, (and personally) I think spinning gear
is more appropriate for smallies with line ranging from four- to six-pound
test. Third, a topo map of the lake will help you locate smallie topography.
If you are fishing a river-run lake like Watauga, Watts Bar or Boone, I
recommend casting to main lake structure near the channel. Then move to
secondary river bars or islands that have a gradual slope before dropping
into the channel. Slack water and eddies around these structures are
superior places to fish because this is where smallmouth bass find food
easy to catch. (Note: Some lakes, like Cherokee, are drawn down by as much
as 50 feet and current is not going to happen - unless it floods, then you
better stay home.) There may be some current, however, in the upper ends of
these drawn down reservoirs.
The good thing about fishing for smallmouth in winter is that they tend to
run in packs. Hanging one smallie is a good indication there are more
around about the same size. If you catch several small smallies, move
elsewhere to find your trophy. You may only have to move but a couple of
yards to find it.
If you are on a non-river-run reservoir such as Priest, Tims Ford or Dale
Hollow, you should still be hitting the main channel structures but also
hit some of the big creeks areas looking for rocky or gravel flats and
humps. Try to locate creeks that are spring fed or have some current. Water
that's a couple of degrees warmer makes a big difference in your catch rate
during the wintertime.
After casting where the bottom is less than eight feet deep with a
Texas-rigged short worm (six inches or less), turn to your trusty jig. A
quarter-ounce black jig with a black Uncle Josh 101 pork trailer cast into
eight feet of water and worked down to about 20 feet should cover the
smallmouth's hang out.
A finesse bait - a short worm or tube on a Kahle hook will be more
attractive to inactive smallies. With their metabolism at the lowest point
of the year, they may have to be coaxed into biting. You finesse them by
offering them something small and easy to eat.
When smallies are aggressive put on a bigger bait, an imitation crawfish,
so the loud splash says "come and get it!" The bait that makes a lot of
noise bouncing over the gravel gets eaten by the active smallies. This
noise also helps the fish locate the bait since they can hear it from over
30 feet away, out of sight. Never mind that it's too cold for real crawfish
to be about, the bait still looks good to smallies.
Gravel and boulders on points and banks are two more good features to look
for. If they meet a clay bank, so much the better. These bass like that
transition between the two textures.
Drifting tuffies or shiners is more conducive to fishing the flats and
bluffs. I suggest you put out a line rigged with an 1/8-ounce egg sinker
held by a split-shot about two feet above a number 1 or 1/0 Kahle hook.
Drop it to the bottom then reel in a couple of cranks to fish the minnow
about two feet off the bottom while drifting over a flat next to the
channel or along a ledge.
Now let's look at five top trophy smallmouth lakes.
Percy Priest
Guide, Gene Austin of Nashville (615-871-4109), started winter fishing in
the seventh grade when most of us were looking at girls or guys.
He fishes a 1/16-ounce hair jig, often called a fly, that is designed with
the hair bunched at the head. The fly is cast with a six-foot ultralight
rod on six-pound test line. Austin says that a "naked" brown and orange fly
is best, no minnow.
The small fly's design allows it to fall very slowly. Austin will "pop"
the fly off the bottom. This motion causes the lure to suspend momentarily
because of the bunched hair. Austin says that he has caught a world of
smallmouth with this method and calls it one of the deadliest smallmouth
lures around.
He says this method works best at transition zones, where a bank of rock
changes to mud, or off bluffs with shelves at 10 feet.
The best smallmouth areas are banks, points and islands along the main
channel below Hobson Pike Bridge and along lower Suggs Creek. Water is a
little warmer in the lower part of Priest and it runs clear, whereas the
upper end gets muddy with frequent winter rains and is colder.
If you fish from Cooks Recreation Area on the main channel to Seven Points
to Bear Island, you should hang a trophy. If the water isn't too stained,
the area around Hong Kong Island and Poole Knobs has yielded seven-pound
smallies.
Tims Ford
When most artificial bait anglers are jigging jigs, D.D. Fuller of
Tullahoma uses a lipless crankbait. He has developed a technique that has
been very productive.
First he locates fish by using his sonar along rock bluffs on the
northwest side of the lake. Once he locates fish, he positions his boat
parallel to the bluff.
Lost Creek from the mouth to Hasty Hollow; Hurricane Creek from the mouth
to Turkey Creek boat ramp; and Little Hurricane Creek from the mouth to the
split of Rocky Branch and Long Branch fit D.D.'s description for smallie
hot spots.
He says, normally, this is where you find the warmest water during winter.
Smallmouth use the vertical rocks to maintain the desired water temperature
without traveling a long distance.
D.D. uses a 1/4-ounce Rat-L-Trap in a color that matches the forage,
usually shad. Since the 1/4-ounce Trap descends at six inches per second,
he increases the fall rate by adding a 1/2-ounce worm weight pegged with
part of a toothpick.
He makes a long parallel cast to the bluff then hand-feeds the line to
make the lure fall straight down while counting the rate of fall. When the
lure is in the strike zone, he pumps the lure two or three times. When he
starts to get a little slack in the line, he cranks the reel to maintain
contact with the lure. This is important.
D.D. repeats the pumping until the lure is directly under the boat and
then jigs it like a spoon. Then he reels it in and repeat the process. Keep
in mind that most strikes are soft in winter, so pay close attention to
your line.
Dale Hollow
You want to talk about a trophy smallie, Dale Hollow Lake is the home of
the world's record. David Hays landed an 11-pound, 15-ounce record in 1955
on the 13th of July. July, however, is not the hottest month for smallies
on Dale Hollow. December to March is the best time period.
Some guides say good winter areas on Dale Hollow are Horse and Indian
Creeks towards the dam, and Big Eagle Creek and the first couple of miles
up the Obey River on the upper end. But guide, John Cates (615-952-4294),
who uses the minnow method, says wintertime hot spots are mid-lake from
Willow Grove boat ramp in Irons Creek to Mitchell Creek.
I think we can sum it up by saying the entire reservoir is trophy
smallmouth country, some anglers just have their favorite spots.
Cates casts five-inch shiners on a 2/0 gold hook from an ultralight rod
with four-pound test line to channel bluffs, points and islands. I've
fished with him a number of times and he rarely catches less than a trophy
smallmouth.
The fish can see well in the clear water, so you don't have to sink your
bait to the bottom. They can pick out the silhouette of an injured baitfish
against the sky from 30 feet deep. At quick swim to the baitfish, and you
have a fish on.
Gene Austin, mentioned earlier, grew up guiding on Dale Hollow, and he
says from January to the second week of March is the major transition
period on Dale Hollow Lake. It's the best time of year for trophy
smallmouth bass.
Austin is a jig fisherman. As a rule he uses an 1/8-ounce leadhead with a
4-inch chartreuse, smoke or pearl grub. His jigging varies according to the
weather. If it's a bright sunny day, he starts at 15 feet deep and fishes
out to about 25 feet. He tries two or three of his best places at this
depth. If he doesn't catch anything, he goes back to fish those same spots
again but a lot deeper.
Austin tries to find a pattern early. That means catching three fish at
the same depth on the same structure. If he can get three fish, on mud,
gravel, little shelves or the side of a channel point, he knows he can go
to any of the places like that and catch fish.
On dark overcast days smallies move up and he starts fishing at 6 feet and
fishes the water down to 18 feet.
Cloudy windy days are the best on Dale. Cloud cover and wind cut down on
the smallie's visual acuity. Austin says that the windy banks are best
because of the wave action. The water becomes dingy, dislodges food and, if
the wind blows long enough, pushes baitfish near the bank. This creates
good conditions for picking up smallmouth in shallow water.
He adds that you need to give the smallies the slowest presentation you
can. Cast your jig, watch your line and be patient until it hits the
bottom. The key to fishing in winter is that you have to fish as slow as
you think you possibly can, then slow it down.
It's hard to fish slowly in the wind but it's the best time. Fish the main
channel points and the secondary points, the long tapering points that
gradually go from two feet to 50 feet deep. He recommends positioning your
boat in about 30 feet of water and fish the point at about the 10-foot depth.
Next go to little gravel banks that have a drop. There are a lot of these
located between the main channel point and the secondary points in Kyle
Branch, Indian Creek, Horse Creek, Long Branch, Lick Run and many up
Mitchell Creek. Many of these banks have shelves (locate them with your
sonar) at about 18 or 20 feet deep. Some will have three or more shelves
that stair-step. If bass want to feed, all they have to do is swim up from
30 or 40 feet. It's a very short distance from that depth to a shallow
gravel flat where food is found.
Norris
TVA draws Norris down hard in the winter, but even though the water is
low, the current concentrates smallmouth on the points and makes them easy
to find. The fish are more active when there is some current.
Chris Kirk of Knoxville says the only East Tennessee lake that rivals
Norris for smallmouth is Watauga. Allen Ricks of TWRA Region IV adds
Cherokee and Boone Lakes, and the Nolichucky River to the list of best
smallie waters.
Loyston Sea is probably the best smallmouth area in Norris during winter.
Kirk says that's where the Clinch and Powell Rivers join to make the
largest pool of the lake. The water temperature is in the upper 40s, about
5 degrees warmer than the arms of the Powell and Clinch. The sea, as Kirk
calls it, has the best smallmouth habitat, shallow water close to deep
water rocks.
Kirk is an absolute believer in Berkeley Power baits. He uses the two-inch
pumpkinseed grub or four-inch motor oil finesse worm on 1/0 hook rigged
Texas style. A tight-line technique with four- to six-pound test clear line
works best for him, using 1/16- to 1/8-ounce slip sinkers. His technique
reminds me of how people fish jigging spoons. Let it hit bottom and lift it
about 18 inches and let it slowly flutter down.
Kirk fishes the main channel rocky points with shallow water close to deep
water drops. On sunny days he casts along the 45 degree chunk rock banks.
He says by afternoon the rocks warm up in and he catches fish considerably
shallower than 30 feet - as shallow as 10 feet.
When fishing around points, he suggests trying to pattern the fish by
correlating wind direction, sun direction and other factors to see if they
will be on the tip of the point or to one side or the other. Fish back and
forth around a point until you locate them. He concludes that you won't
find a fish here and there, but when you find one, you will find a group of
them.
Boone
In the winter smallmouth are from the mid section of the lake up into the
Holston and Watauga Rivers, more so on the South Holston side - anywhere
from Wagner Bend to Bluff City.
Guide Tom Richards (423-246-7628) says to look for smallmouth on brush
piles and logs. The transition from bluffs to the sandy gravel flats are
also good places.
These are the places to use live bait; threadfin shad or shiners on a
number one hook without a sinker on six-pound test line. Let the bait swim
freely. For some reason, Richards has found that the smallmouth in this
transition zone only want live bait.
Another technique he uses is putting a minnow and a Carolina rig and fish
it just like you were fishing a plastic worm. This works best on the flats
and ledges but Richards claims this bait rigs works just about everywhere
on Boone.
Between the twin bridges (river miles 33 and 34.5) close to Bluff City is
another hot spot. Richards says he catches an enormous number of smallmouth
bass on threadfin shad. But it depends what size bait you use as to size
smallmouth you catch. He recommends using five-inch shad for trophy bass.
Up the Watauga River arm, you begin catching smallies about the Volunteer
Parkway Bridge to Watauga Flats. Be sure to fish Hyder Bluff. Richards says
look for the same sand and pebble flats as on the South Holston side and
fish them the same way.
Cold Water Tactics For Trophies
A good trophy smallmouth area will have four things:
1. a shallow water food shelf,
2. a spawning area,
3. nearby deep water with
4. a sharp drop-off for quick escape.
All must be within 200 to 300 yards of each other. The key is to locate the
spawning bed.
First, look for shallow water shelves or flats with sandy or gravel
bottoms. The depths will be three to 14 feet for small bass, and eight to
14 for trophies. If you can find areas like this near large boulders, even
better. Smallies are a main lake fish, so don't look in small coves.
Now, why it is important to recognize spawning beds even in January?
Because many smallmouth relate to one area of the lake all their lives,
this is even more so among older fish. Many live and die within 200 yards
of where they were hatched. Remember that the fish will drop off into
deeper water once the water temperature falls below 55 degrees and continue
sliding deeper as the water cools.
You may find them 40 to 45 feet deep once the water temperature drops
below 50 degrees. It can be a lot of hard work and very time consuming but
it's worth it to find good smallie areas. Bigger fish are usually deeper
than smaller ones.
I believe you can take the techniques offered by the above anglers and
apply them to your favorite waters and, with persistence, come away with
your trophy.

Note: The author offers the 60-minute audio cassette "Smallmouth Through
The Seasons." Send $11 to Vernon Summerlin, 5550 Boy Scout Rd., Franklin,
TN 37064 for each postpaid cassette.