Smallmouth on pea gravel banks..

[LWW]

Looks like a great weekend at the Rock, a little warmer would be nice, but atleast it should be dry! A couple questions before I head out. I have been hoping to find some smallmouth schools, but haven't beeb able to.

1.) Are the smallies still on the shallow sloping pea gravel banks?

2.) Are the smoke/watermaellon candy grubs the bait of choice?

3.) Should I fish closer to the banks, or in the 10-20ft range on bottom?

4.) Are they hanging out on the gravel points, or spread along the banks?

5.) Do they hit a swimmin grub in the middle of the water column very often?

6.) Launching at Shell Knob. Any suggested pea gravel banks? Will make a run.

Any tips are much obliged. I'm gonna find some of these scrappy dogs sooner or later!

LWW

[Bill Babler]

1 for the most part the guides are finding smallmouth on gravel and also chasing abit off the pts. early.

2Smoke pepper or smoke red fleck along with green pumpkin are working as well as anything on either a 1/4 or 1/16 oz head.

3For the next few days it's going to be a guess. With the water really on the rise we may see the fish move up to the bushes, if it gets that high. Smallies as of today were in 12 to 20 ft. and ky's 20 to 26 right on the bottom. Either drag that grub or swim it very close to the bottom.

4 With the rising water and the transition period of pre-spawn-and post spawn you just have to keep looking its not easy by any means all of a sudden. For the couple of weeks prior to all the rain it was almost easy. Now its gotten back to hide and seek

5They will if they are chasing shad. If you don't see chasers, swim the bottom conture. Position the boat in the mid to late 20's and adjust your retrieve to follow the bottom to the boat.

6 Try all the flats from Campbell Pt. to Baxter on either side of the lake. Keep your top water handy for blowups. Seems they are on a split shot about as well as the grub. Keep the boat in about 30 for the ky's and about 20 for the smallies. green pumpkin or watermellon candy works best on the frys.

Let us know how you do. They are going to be everywhere and nowhere for the next week till things settle down abit. Good luck

[LWW]

Thanks fot the info Bill. I will keep you posted on how things turn out Monday.

Good fishin to all!

LWW

[LWW]

The gravel pattern worked! I didn't catch a boat load, but I did finally catch a smallmouth by the end of Saturday. I landed about 15 fish, most just short of 15 inches but a few measured out. The pattern was consistent from Baxter's up past the Shell Knob bridge. Any gravel bank I saw on the shore, I would sit off in about 20-30ft of water and fish a 1/4oz jig head with a watermelon candy finesse worm and focus on any depth changes I could find. Thanks to the low water levels the past few months, I had a good idea of how the gravel banks contoured. I fished any ledge or any significant change in depth and really found the fish near that depth change usually in 15-20ft of water.

The gravel bite was the best bite I could find last weekend.

The water temps were low..63-66 degerees in most places. Does this extend the spawn and put alot of fish on the banks again? I didn't find many fish on the banks if they were there.

Good Fishin All,

LWW