Smallmouth On Top...it's Serious Fun (Report)

[Guest csfishinfool]

Put in at Hartley Ramp (old state park) today around 11:00 am. I needed to make sure the ranger was running right before I head to Kentucky Lake next weekend.

First spot I stopped at was a flat secondary point in a creek, with the cloudy conditions and past experiance in late Sept. the buzzbait got the call right out of the gate. I never had to put it down. First fish was a healthy three pound class largemouth that crushed the bait on a short line. From there I started running flat pockets with stumps on them from Price Branch to the Dam. Ended up having three largemouth around three pounds and about 30 smallmouth that would literaly arch the water up to get to that buzzbait. Biggest smallie was about 16'', average size was about 14''. I think I had three including the 16'' incher that would have measured. My Trolling motor graph never read above three feet deep. I could see bottom the whole time. I would say half of the fish I caught came out of less than a foot of water. Water clarity was about 4 foot. The faster I could reel the buzzbait the better the hook-up percentage became. The faster you reel in that clear water the less they see of the bait. It really helps to fool them right now.

If you all try this pattern do not think you are too shallow, there is no such thing right now. For all the readers who have little ones, this is a perfect opportunity to get them on some really fun action. Nothing like watching those smallies try to jerk the rod out of your hands. And man are they juiced up right now, all the fish are really fighting hard right now. The biggest of three largemouth I caught took drag three times before I landed him. All of this came in a three hour span, I put in at 11:00 and got off the water at 2:00. I could not imagine what the morning bite would have been like.

Weather Conditions: Mostly cloudy with air temp around 70 degrees, winds very light

Water Temp: 70 degrees

Water clarity: 4 feet

Equipment: 12 pound Berkly big game Mono, 6'6 med/hvy action G-loomis, 7.1.1 Lews tournament MG reel, Strike king Buzzbait in Sexy Chartruese Shad.

[Gavin]

Good for you! Bass busting a buzzer is awesome fun!

[evnrude18]

FUN TIMES! Headed there Sunday. Hope the bite is still on after this front moves though!