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[strangercreek]

So a lake near me here in southern Illinois (Kinkaid) has been stocked with smallmouth for the past 5 years. Most of the smallmouth fishing I have done in my life has been on streams and rivers here in MO,as well as natural lakes in Minnesota and New Hampshire. I haven't had the opportunity to chase them in a large reservoir yet. Does anyone want to walk me through the process of finding smallies on a large reservoir?

It's a pretty typical southern Illinois lake. Mostly clay bottom, with limestone bluffs and sections of shale--both shelves and crushed, and rock rip rap for erosion control. It has plenty of laydowns and a defined weedege to about 15 feet. The upper end is shallow and turbid most of the year and the lower end is is deep and stays clear-except after a heavy rain or lots of boat traffic. The only smallies I have caught were within 1/4 mile of where they were stocked.

Help me out fellas.

I'm not the person to ask but I know there is a wealth of info from Al Lindner (from fishing shows, pro tournaments, etc). I have seen him on alot of fishing shows finding smallies and walleye in big lakes. It looks like he might even have some books on the subject.

Here is a link that might help

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0929384504/ref=asc_df_09293845041318520?creative=395261&creativeASIN=0929384504&linkCode=asn&tag=section_book-20

[jdmidwest]

They would be temperature dependent, deeper water or spring locations would be the first places I would try. Gravel bottoms or areas where crayfish will be located.

Is this the lake near Carbondale that used to get stocked with trout? I can't remember the name but have fished it a few times, its either Devils Kitchen or Little Grassy if I remember right.

[Stoneroller]

Let me know when you head over to kinkaid, I'll come down and we can tear that lake up. and I'll let you in on a 'secret' at kinkaid, hidden neck.

[Ill Trout Bum]

Kinkaid has been very proactive in improving their fishery over the past few years. Stocking ponds were built years ago and good numbers of smallmouth as well as walleya and largemouth bass are released into the lake in early fall. IDNR recently placed over 200 fish attractors in the lake. I have attached a copy of the lake map with the GPS coordinates.

~$nkaid Lake Fish Attractors Main Oct 2010.doc

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[Stoneroller]

i was just looking at some of the IDNR stocking data. the first year they stocked smallies in kinkaid was 2005 and that year they put a whopping 50 fingerlings in the lake.

I had a 100+ trout day at Devil's Kitchen about a month ago. the fish were jumping 3 feet out of the water that day. awesome day of fishing.

[Stoneroller]

here's a summary of smallies in resivoirs:

they will be where the gizzard shad or crayfish will be. clearly we all know that. summer, they will be holding deeper off the main lake points or suspended over deep flats. in the fall when the water drops to 60 the smallies will move up into the creeks but not all the way to the back, they will stay to the east of johnson creek for instance. the creek channel drops to 20 feet or so from the put in back towards the lake. Largemouth will go all the way back up under the bridge and sit in 2 feet of water in contrast.

the smallies will still be shallow but wont go quite that shallow, not unless there is inflow current from the creek. you can expect them to hang out up the creek arms till the water temp drops to low 50's at which point they'll move back towards the main lake and hang out in deep water where the shoreline drops down into a deeper area, usually the creek bed or a point. from say low 50's to upper 40's they'll hang out around the base of that slope, where it transitions.

once the water drops below say 48ish or so, they will pull out to the humps and deep water points in the main lake. basically just following the bait fish. crayfish won't be an option for them once the water gets below say 55ish. during cold water they'll fish more like walleye than bass, but you might catch some fat eye's fishing for them then too. a drop shot rig would work well when the water temp is in the 40's or you could try a jiggin spoon. otherwise try a suspending jerk bait, work it slowly. when the water is between 60 and 54ish try horizontal baits say less than 6feet depth. that way you can cover more water and put your bait in front of more fish until you hone in on what they want. dont be afraid to throw a 'big' lure either, their prey at this time of year is going to be larger than in the summer. I like smithwick rogues and husky jerks in the 4-6 inch range. if the water is still near 60ish you can try throwing a zara spook or a buzzbait.