Category Archives: Bass Fishing

Bass Fishing Information

Fishing Wisconsin

For the past few years (in 2004) I spent the first couple of weeks of September fishing in Wisconsin and got home last Thursday from this years trip. The fishing in Wisconsin is quite different than what we have here and the trip is very enjoyable.

In Wisconsin bass are not fished for like they are here. There, walleye are the quarry for food and muskie and northern pike are sought for their fight. In fact, muskie fishermen say all other fish, including bass, are just bait. Since bass don’t get a lot of pressure, the fishing for them is much better in many lakes.

Weather there is very different, too. The host of our group said he had seen everything from 90 degrees to snow on the ground on September 1st, and we had a little of everything while I was there. Most mornings the temperature was in the low 40s and a jacket felt good. It warmed up to 80 a couple of days, but the humidity was low, so even that felt cool.

Water temperatures were in the mid sixties, a good range for bass to be active. Local fisherman told me that was about the normal range all during the summer. The week before I left to go up there the water temperature here at High Falls and Jackson was 87 degrees – 20 degrees warmer. Bass here were deep and not feeding very good.

Most days up there I was able to catch a good many bass by fishing shallow water. My best day I had 8 smallmouth bass up to three pounds and three big pike that all hit while fishing water just a couple of feet deep. My partner caught a 4 pound largemouth that day as well as several smallmouth, and had a 40 inch muskie follow his bait right to the boat. We both got a good look at it.

The reason I go to Wisconsin is for a small tournament set up by a group of fishermen on an internet newsgroup. We talk about fishing all year, posting messages and pictures. Then we get together in the spring in Tennessee and in the fall in Wisconsin. It is a lot of fun meeting folks and fishing with them after talking on the net all year.

We fish Boom Lake in the city of Rhinelander, a 1800 acre group of lakes on the Wisconsin river. This lake does get a good bit of fishing pressure, and bass are harder to catch. The minimum size is 14 inches and it is easy to catch a lot of 12 and 13 inch largemouth and smallmouth, but you can’t keep them.

In the tournament I weighed in 5 keepers at 8.5 pounds and placed second out of 20 people. That made me feel good since two of the fishermen are local guides and two more live in the area. I pulled my boat 1138 miles one way to fish waters I am not familiar with and still placed pretty good.

Smallmouth fight much harder than largemouth and a 13 or 14 inch smallmouth will really give you a good pull. And the waters there are not like what I am used to fishing. Shallows are filled with Lilly pads and other types of water weeds, and stumps fill them, too. A lot of the bass we caught hit topwater baits like the Zoom Horny Toad and pike would give you a thrill when they exploded on it.

Most of my fish hit a Yamamoto Senko cast to shallow cover and allowed to settle to the bottom. I had three smallmouth and two largemouth during the tournament, and three of them came on the Senko. The other two hit a 4 inch Zoom worm. I caught a lot of bass too short to bring to the scales on those baits during the tournament, too.

I am already looking forward to the trip next year.

Lake Eufaula Club Tournament

Bass fishing was very good for most of the 11 members of the Spalding County Sportsman Club in our May tournament. In 18 hours of casting, we landed 75 bass weighing about 170 pounds. There were 12 five fish limits and the only person that didn’t catch a keeper went home early Saturday.

Zane Fleck won with ten bass weighing 29.63 pounds, including a 5.30 pounder, one of the best two day catches I can remember in the club. But Niles Murray was very close in second with ten bass weighing 29.43 pounds and had a 6.32 pound largemouth for big fish.

JR Proctor was third with ten weighing 25.56 pounds and landed his personal best largemouth with a five pound plus fish. Raymond English placed fourth with ten at 25.48 pounds and had a 5.67 pounder. My ten weighing 22.54 pounds was fifth and Kwong Yu placed sixth with nine at 20.60 pounds.

Those weights show the quality of fish you can catch at Eufaula right now. And we don’t really know the lake well since we fish it only once or twice a year. Add to that, in a children’s charity tournament on Saturday, it took five weighing more than 22 pounds to win by guys that fish it often.

The fishing was fun, too, since most fish were caught shallow. I caught two of my biggest fish each morning on frogs around grass beds. A bass hitting a topwater frog is exciting, and the four I caught swallowed it. I had a hard time getting the bait out of their throats.

The first day I got two before 6:30, within 30 minutes of blast off, but then it got tough.
I did not catch another fish until 2:00. Then they started biting again and I landed five more keepers and several short fish in the next two hours, all on shaky head worms.

Sunday morning, I had three at 6:30, two on a frog and one on a spinnerbait. Then between 8:00 and 8:30
I caught two more on a jig and pig. That was it, I did not catch another keeper, but I felt too bad to fish hard and went in early.

The most frustrating thing about not feeling good and not being able to fish like you want to is looking back and wondering. Last year at the same time of year I caught some good fish casting a lightly weighed worm in lily pads, swimming it through them.

Although I had two rods rigged and ready for fishing that way, it is hard work and I never tried it. But after the tournament Niles told me he and Raymond, fishing together, caught their fish doing that. I wish I could have fished that way.

Go to Eufaula now for great camping and fishing, enjoyable wildlife viewing and a relaxing way to spend a few days.

Cody Hahner ST. CROIX PROFILE

ST. CROIX PROFILE:

FLW Pro/STC Pro Staffer, Cody Hahner
Press Release

Park Falls, WI (June 4, 2019) – Cody Hahner, age 26, is one of the youngest St. Croix pro-staffers. An electrical worker from Wausau, Wisconsin with a penchant for muskies, Hahner is also an up-and-coming bass pro who broke onto the on the FLW Tour last year with a rousing rookie season. He cashed a few checks and qualified for the prestigious 2018 Forest Wood Cup.

Hahner came late to bass fishing, growing up – as many Midwesterners do – with a love of walleyes and a serious musky obsession. “It wasn’t until I learned that colleges had bass fishing clubs that I made the switch,” he recalls. “Once I realized I could fish and travel while still in school, I chose to attend the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point, because they had a reputable team. Everything just snowballed from there.”

After graduating college and joining the FLW, Hahner got off to a fast start during his inaugural season. The sophomore jinx has him off to a slower beginning this year. Even so, Hahner remains determined to excel on the circuit.

“Nothing a little hard work can’t fix,” he says without hesitation. “I’ll probably head home at some point and fish for bass and musky on my home waters. Once I start figuring out those fish, I’ll be back fishing the trail with renewed confidence. I absolutely love the competition in bass fishing, but taking an occasional breather to simply focus on the fun of fishing is one trick I use to refresh and get back in the groove.”

That’s some wise thinking. Even at a relatively young age, Hahner is displaying some of the traits most successful veteran pros seem to have in common, including a passion for hard work and a willingness to adjust and try new approaches. He’s also really serious about choosing his fishing rods.

“These are your main tools,” he says pointedly, “so you need high quality, durability and sensitivity and a fair price,” he explains. “That’s one reason I like St. Croix Rods. They have the right tools for so many specific tasks, and yet many can also cross over from one technique to another. That gives me the flexibility and versatility to really stay in the game.”

Take largemouth bass, for example. Hahner points to a 7’ 4” medium-heavy moderate Mojo Bass Glass casting rod as his all-around favorite. “It’s a crankbait rod that can also be used for chatterbaits,” he notes. “It’s comfortable to hold, super accurate, has significant backbone and loads with a slight delay, which is perfect for lures that require the fish to really get a good hold before the hook is set.”

For bronzebacks, Hahner prefers a 7’ 6, medium-light, extra-fast Legend Elite series rod, noting it’s super-sensitive and perfect for throwing spy baits and hair jigs. “Even with the spy baits, which have tiny treble hooks, when I stick a fish on that rod it stays buttoned,” he says.

As for those muskies, Hahner is dialed in on two preferred choices. He likes a 9’ Premier extra-heavy rod for tossing large rubber baits like Lake X Tullibees and Lake X Toads. For working slow-moving big plastics and blade baits, however, his choice is an 8’6” extra-heavy fast Mojo Musky series rod.

For other millennial anglers hoping to join the pro fishing trail, St. Croix’s young pro-staffer offers three simple tips:

“First, don’t fret too much about the business end of things, that will mostly take care of itself as you get established. Second, be genuine to those you meet. Doing so will help you go a lot further in this sport than you otherwise might. Lastly, get on the water as much as you can to continue gaining experience and learning from your mistakes. That’s how the best pros get ahead and stay there.”

That’s sage advice from a budding professional who’s already wiser than his years.

#stcroixrods

About St. Croix Rod

Headquartered in Park Falls, Wisconsin, St. Croix has been proudly producing the “Best Rods on Earth” for over 70 years. Combining state-of-the-art manufacturing processes with skilled craftsmanship, St. Croix is the only major producer to still build rods entirely from design through manufacturing. The company remains family-owned and operates duplicate manufacturing facilities in Park Falls and Fresnillo, Mexico. With popular trademarked series such as Legend®, Legend Xtreme®, Avid®, Premier®, Tidemaster®, Imperial®, Triumph® and Mojo®, St. Croix is revered by all types of anglers from around the world.

What Is Your Biggest Bass?

What is your biggest bass? Do you have a goal, a hoped-for weight to catch? I have always wanted to catch a 12 pounder, but that hope is fading. I landed a 9-pound, 7-ounce bass in a February club tournament in 1991 at Jackson Lake, but have never broken it.

Part of the problem is where I fish. Big lakes where we have club tournaments seldom produce big bass anymore. A trip shiner fishing in Florida or to a lake full of big bass, like Lake Fork in Texas, does not appeal to me. And catching one out of a farm pond does not really challenge me to try to do it.

Back in 1972, a year after Linda and I got married, we spent the month of August at Clarks Hill. We had a month to do that after I was discharged from the Air Force in June and spending most of July in Maryland with her parents. We left Clarks hill in late August to move to Griffin and start teaching here.

One night at dinner with my parents, I said I was going to catch a 12 pounder before we left. After all, I was fishing all day, every day. Daddy said that if I did, he would have it mounted for me. Linda asked how big a bass she had to catch to have it mounted, and he said eight pounds.

Some mornings Linda got up with me and went out fishing. We trolled from my parents big outdrive ski boat, the only boat we had. I would bring her in mid-morning before it got miserably hot but go back out and troll until late afternoon when she went back out with me.

As fishing luck would have it, late one afternoon we trolled across a shallow point that dropped into the Heart Creek Channel. Suddenly her Mitchell rod bowed and the drag on her Mitchell 300 screamed. I stopped the boat as a huge bass came up trying to throw her Hellbender, one of the few plugs available back then.

That bass jumped three more times, scaring us, just knowing it would throw the bait like so many did. When she fought it to the boat I though my trembling hands and shaking legs would keep me from netting it, but somehow, we landed it.

At Raysville Marina that bass weighed eight pounds, ten ounces. Unlike most bass I caught, it did not get smaller after landing it. True to his word, we took it to a taxidermist in Augusta, the same one that mounted my first deer, and daddy paid. I’m not sure which of the three of us was most proud of that fish.

Although I continued to fish every day until time ran out, I never caught a twelve-pound bass, or even came close.

I have lost a couple of bass that would have weighed twelve pounds or more. One fall afternoon in the 1970s at Jackson Lake I hooked a huge bass on a Wiggle Wart crankbait.

It never jumped like Linda’s eight pounder, but when it rolled on top my heart almost stopped. It was the second biggest bass I had ever seen, much bigger than Linda’s. I could tell it was very old by the way its body looked.

The bass did not fight hard. There were no strong runs, just a heavy, steady pull. I fought it several minutes and got it within 10 feet of the boat when it came to the top and turned on its side, giving up.

The fight was over, and I just knew I would land it, but when I pulled on it to get it to the net, the plug just popped out of the fish’s mouth. It lay there for several seconds before rolling over and disappearing into the depths, never to be seen by me again.

The biggest bass I ever hooked was on a private lake near Madison. In college my fraternity had a party there for the weekend. Linda and I were married, and while most of my brothers partied, we went fishing in one of the canoes.

The lake was well managed, and the bluegill were bedding. We caught dozens of big bream casting Mepps #2 spinners for them. But on one cast, my little spinner just stopped. In the clear water I saw it not moving, just sitting by a dark object in the water, and thought I was hung on a stump.

Then it started moving. It was in the lip of a monster bass. My little Mitchell 300 outfit was no match, but I carefully fought it. We could see the bass moving to our left in the water, acting like it did not even know it was hooked.

Then it turned back to the right. The spinner was on that side and a little pressure pulled the small hooks out. It slowly swam off, seeming to laugh at me.

When I told my tale back at the party the pond owners son told me they had caught an released a 17-pound bass in that pond the year before, and they regularly caught and released bass weighing more than ten pounds. I will always wonder just how big the one I lost really was.

Its nice to have goals, even if you never achieve them. I will continue to hope for a 12 pounder and fish every chance I get. Even if it never joins Linda’s eight pounder, my nine pounder and a pair of bass I caught at Oconee in the 1980s that weighted eight pounds, eleven ounces and nine pounds, five ounces on the wall, I will keep trying to land a twelve pounder!

Two Tailwater Floats for Summer Smallmouth

Two Tailwater Floats for Summer Smallmouth Bass Fishing
from The Fishing Wire

Float for summer smallmouth


FRANKFORT, Ky. Anyone who loves floating streams for smallmouth bass out of a kayak, canoe or personal pontoon boat did not enjoy last year much at all. Many areas of Kentucky set annual rainfall records in 2018.

It seemed a 3-inch rain hit every third day from spring through fall. Streams flowed raucous and so muddy it seemed you could cut the water with a knife. These conditions are the absolute pits for fishing; you are better served catching up on yardwork.

After a rough start to this year, it seems weather conditions and rainfall levels are returning to normal patterns as we come into the warmer months, the best time of year to stream fish for smallmouth bass from a paddlecraft.

The pop-up thunderstorms common in summer may spike the flow on an average stream or free flowing river, but a tailwater such as the Green River below Green River Lake or the Barren River below Barren River Lake offer more predictable flows in summer.

“You have controlled flow in a tailwater with more stable water conditions,” said Mike Hardin, assistant director of Fisheries for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “The long range forecast calls for a return to normal summer weather patterns.”

The Green River from Green River Lake Dam downstream to Greensburg holds many fat smallmouth bass and offers excellent access. The Barren River from Barren River Lake Dam downstream to Martinsville Ford is another productive stretch for smallmouth bass.

“Green River is still doing phenomenal for smallmouth bass,” said Jay Herrala, stream fisheries biologist for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. “Green River and Barren River have good size structure in the smallmouth bass population and both rivers offer a chance to catch a 20-inch or longer smallmouth bass.”

Planning a float on either of these streams is simple. Log on to the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife website at www.fw.ky.gov and visit the Stream Fisheries page by typing “stream fisheries” into the search bar on the top right of the page.

On the Stream Fisheries page, the entry for “Lower Barren River” and “Green River, Pool 6” contain a great deal of information about the good smallmouth bass sections of these rivers, none more important than the link to the “Three Day Lake Release Forecast” from the Louisville District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Water releases from their respective dams control the fishing on these rivers. The best release levels for fishing on the Green and Barren are under 300 cubic feet per second (cfs) with 100 to 200 cfs ideal.

The first float on the Barren River begins at the Barren River Tailwater Recreation Area and ends roughly 13 miles downstream at the Barren River VPA No. 3 access. Paddlers planning to fish this stretch should launch their boats at daybreak and plan to take out at dusk.

This stretch holds many flowing shoals rimmed with water willow, islands and stream drops. Since this is such a long float, choose lures you can work quickly such as a floating/diving Rapala style stick bait in chrome and black, small medium-diving crawfish-colored crankbaits and 1/8-ounce white spinnerbaits.

Work these lures along the willow edges of the flowing shoals and in the moving water above and below stream drops.

The next float begins at the Barren VPA No. 3 access and ends about four miles downstream at the Claypool Ramp on the south side of the Barren at Martinsville Ford.

This section of the Barren makes many subtle turns. Anglers should probe the rocky, flowing outside bends with 4-inch skirted double-tailed grubs in green pumpkin rigged on a 3/16-ounce Shakey head.

The Barren constricts between islands and gravel bars several places in this stretch, increasing the river’s flow. Tube jigs in green pumpkin rigged on 1/8-ounce heads draw strikes when slowly worked in the seam where fast current meets slower in these areas.

The Green River offers two manageable floats for smallmouth bass anglers: one about 6 1/2-miles that begins at Roachville Ford and ends at Russell Ford and another of about four miles that starts at Russell Ford and ends at the Greensburg Ramp.

Anglers should use the south side of Roachville Ford access via Thunder Road off KY 417 from Greensburg. The shuttle is much shorter than using the north side of Roachville Ford for access.

The flowing deep runs in this float hold fat smallmouth bass. A 4-inch Senko-style soft plastic stick bait in the green pumpkin magic color rigged on a 1/8-ounce leadhead is tough to beat on the Green in summer. Let the lure tumble in the current and watch the line intently. Green River smallmouths often strike subtly during the warm months.

Fly rod anglers can find great sport throwing bass-sized yellow and black cork poppers in the eddies behind boulders. This presentation also attracts hefty largemouth bass.

About halfway through this float, paddlers will notice a bluff rising in the distance when Meadow Creek meets the Green on the right. The mouth of Meadow Creek to the take-out at Russell Ford is the best smallmouth bass water on this float.

The next float is popular in summer with paddlers, but does not hurt the fishing. This section of the Green is more intimate and downsizing your lures to the Finesse TRD-style soft plastic stick baits often used for the Ned Rig presentation work fantastic in this stretch when rigged weedless on 1/8-ounce bullet-style leadheads. The best colors are green pumpkin goby and blue craw.

A rocky, deep flowing pool about half way between Russell Ford and the KY 417 bridge makes a fantastic place to fish, paddle back to the head of the pool and fish again. The flowing stretch just upstream of the U.S. 68/KY 61 bridge in Greensburg is another productive area for smallmouth bass on this float.

The take-out is on the right just after the U.S. 68/KY 61 bridge in Greensburg.

Paddlers may camp at Green River Lake State Park or stay at the lodge, cottage or camp at Barren River Lake State Resort Park. The Green River Paddle Trail offers cabins for rent at the Greensburg boat ramp in downtown Greensburg.

Enjoy floating two of the best smallmouth bass rivers in Kentucky this summer with more predictable flows than many in our state.

Author Lee McClellan is a nationally award-winning associate editor for Kentucky Afield magazine, the official publication of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. He is a life-long hunter and angler, with a passion for smallmouth bass fishing.

(Editors: Please email [email protected] for photos.)

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Kentucky Fish and Wildlife news releases are available online at fw.ky.gov

Lake Blackshear Fishing

Lake Blackshear is the most beautiful lake in Georgia. Of all the lakes I visit, I find it the most scenic and interesting. For a fisherman, miles of shallow shoreline with grass and lily pad beds with cypress trees everywhere make it look like heaven. Its tannic stained colored water looks like it holds bass everywhere.

For pleasure boaters, skiers and seadoo riders, the lower half of the lake has big open water. The upper lake, above the highway 280 bridge, is full of standing trees and stumps, protecting fishermen from all but the most foolish pleasure boaters and skiers.

Blackshear has something for everyone.

I spent Tuesday morning on Blackshear with Travis Branch, getting information for my July Map of the Month Georgia Outdoor News article. Travis owns Bucks Deer Processing and Taxidermy in Cuthbert and lives in Leesburg, not far from the lake. He loves to bass fish and knows Blackshear well.

As we rode up the lake before the sun came up, the lake was calm and beautiful, reminding me of why I love being on the water.

We started fishing a grass and lily pad bank at daylight above the bridge, running topwater baits like buzzbaits and poppers through the cover. He caught a nice bass and another one, even bigger, blew up on it but missed his buzzbait right at the boat.

As the sun came up, we stayed on shady banks fishing that pattern and caught some small bass. Then, as the sun got higher, we moved out and started pitching Texas rigged worms and wacky rigged Senkos to the base of the scattered cypress trees.

Those trees provide shade and a great ambush point for feeding bass. When the sun is at an angle, morning and afternoon, there is a fairly big shady area. But when the sun is high the fish move right to the base of the tree where the shade is just a small area.

Each tree has a root ball shaped like a donut around it, extending out about as far as the branches on the tree, and the bass find perfect cover and comfort. You have to cast very accurately, and make your bait enter the water quietly, to get them to bite. The water is usually two feet or less deep, so it is easy to spook them.

We caught several more bass fishing the trees but by 11:00 the sun was hot, so we headed to the ramp. On the way Travis showed me another good pattern. Many small creeks and coves are lined with hyacinth beds floating on top of the water.

Those thick mats offer bass a shady porch to sit under and watch for food. Punching them with a plastic bait behind a heavy sinker to get through them works well later in the summer when the water and sun is hotter.

Another good pattern is skipping a bait under the many docks around the lake. They, too, provide a nice shady place for bass to sit and wait on food. They are best when the sun is high.

If you like sausage, stopping at Striplings is a must. I always do and buy several pounds to bring home. There are two stores, one on highway 280 near Veterans State Park, and another on highway 300 near the lower lake. Both offer a wide variety of link and patty sausage, hot sausage and ham biscuits and other delectibles.

Blackshear is about two hours south of us between Cordele and Americus on the Flint River. You can go down I-75 or highway 19 to reach it. There are several boat ramps and Veterans Park has rooms, cabins, a marina and boat ramps. It is well worth the drive from here.

Lake Hartwell Club and Skeeter Tournaments

Lake Hartwell is also a pretty lake but very different. Its deep, clear, open water is filled with islands and humps and there are rocks on most shorelines. Docks line it and many sit over 20 feet or more of water. There are a few cypress trees planted on humps to mark them.

The Potato Creek Bassmasters fished our May tournament there last Friday and Saturday. In 18 hours of casting, 21 member brought 142 bass weighing about 221 pounds to the scales. There were 18 five fish limits and one fisherman didn’t land a keeper.

Edward Folker had nine keepers weighing 18.84 pounds for first, second place was Stan Wick with ten bass weighing 17.74 pounds, third was Drew Naramore with eight keepers at 17.01 pounds and Kwong Yu placed fourth with 10 bass weighing 16.42 pounds. Tom Tanner had big fish with a 4.17 pounder and placed fifth with 15.44 pounds.

Fishing was unusually tough for this time of year at Hartwell. It is a herring lake, and I think, like at Clarks Hill, the bass head to open water to feed on herring as soon as they spawn. They do not hang around shallow cover to feed like they did before herring got in the lake. If you don’t find the right place, you don’t catch much.

There was a Skeeter Challenge Tournament there on Saturday and Sunday. The winning team had 16 pounds on Saturday and 22 pounds on Sunday. There were 164 teams fishing this tournament and it took 18.97 pounds to place 66th!

In the Potato Creek tournament, I had eight keepers weighing 11.79 pounds for tenth place. If I had been fishing the Skeeter tournament, that weight would have put me in 131st place! That is why I do not fish big tournaments; I don’t think I can compete in them. I love club fishing and that is about my skill level.

Why Don’t They Stock Bass in Big Lakes?

Why don’t they stock bass in this lake so we can catch more? I am often asked that question by fellow fishermen, and I have an answer, based on what Georgia state fisheries biologists have told me and what I have read in magazines and books.

note – I wrote this several years ago. There is now some evidence stocking Florida or hybrid strain largemouth, in suitable habitat lakes, can improve the size of bass in the population but not necessarily the numbers. But without suitable habitat, it will not work, no matter what is stocked.

When you build a new pond you normally stock it with bream, then wait until after they spawn and stock bass and maybe catfish. The bream spawn every month in the spring and summer and quickly fill the pond with small bream. They will increase in numbers until they are using all the food available. Without predators like bass, they will never grow very big because there just is not enough food to match their prolific population increases.

Bass eat bream, so they will keep the population in check. But the bass will also produce so many offspring that they will eat too many bream, causing them to run out of food and be stunted, too. That is why you should remove bass from your pond on a regular basis.

Fish will expand to fill the available space and food resources. In big lakes some species overpopulate and cause problems. Good examples are gizzard shad and blueback herring. They don’t have a lot of natural predators in our local lakes since they are and open water fish and get too big for most bass to eat. They can get so thick in lakes that they cause disease outbreaks and use up food resources.

When that happens, fisheries biologists look at stocking fish that will eat the shad and herring. Stripers and hybrids are stocked for this reason, and also to give fishermen something fun to catch. The stripers and hybrids are good choices because hybrids are not fertile and can not reproduce, and stripers can’t reproduce in most of our lakes due to limited miles of flowing water. So their numbers can be controlled.

Stocking of stripers and hybrids can be overdone, too. No matter how many you put in, the total numbers that survive are limited by food available. In an 11 year study on Smith Mountain Reservoir in Virginia it was found that stocking 200,000 stripers each year resulted in the same numbers surveying after one year as stocking 620,000 each year. There simply was not enough food to support more, so the extra fish died.

In a big lake largemouth bass usually fill all their niche naturally, reproducing to produce numbers that take advantage of space and food resources. Adding small bass will do nothing to add to the numbers of bass since they are already using up all the available food and space. The maximum numbers are already there.

There are some exceptions, of course. In the Flint River below Lake Blackshear dam the water changes levels several feet every day due to power generation. Shoal bass living from the dam to Albany can’t be very successful spawning since their beds are either too deep for the eggs to hatch or shallow enough for the eggs to hatch but left high and dry when the water drops.

The state is stocking fingerling shoal bass in this area since natural reproduction can not keep up. It can’t keep up because man has altered the habitat.

In north Georgia at Lake Nottely, fishermen that thought they knew more than the fisheries biologists stocked blueback herring. Blueback herring are a great baitfish for bass – for a time. But the little herring eat the same things as largemouth fry, and big herring will even eat little bass fry.

There is not much cover on Nottely to allow the little bass to hide, so a lot of them are eaten. Due to the huge numbers of blueback herring that have resulted, largemouth bass populations have crashed.

Nottely is the only lake in Georgia where largemouth bass are being stocked, and it is a very special situation. Fisheries biologists study each lake and determine what is best for it. If appropriate, bass will be stocked, but stocking bass in most lakes just uses up money and resources that are needed in other areas, and does nothing to increase cacheable bass numbers.

I am glad we have professional fisheries biologists to take action based on science to improve our lakes.

Tidal Waters Bassing Tips

Tidal Waters Bassing Tips with Pro Angler Bill Lowen
from The Fishing Wire

Bill Lowen fishing tidal waters


Bill Lowen had never made a 100-mile run one-way just to find the right fishing conditions, but he did it three successive days during the recent Bassmaster® Elite tournament at South Carolina’s Winyah Bay, and it nearly paid off with a victory. In three days of competition, the Yamaha Pro put more than 600 miles on his boat, the equivalent of driving a car from Atlanta to Miami.

“It was the longest run I’ve made in my career, and I was a little hesitant, but sometimes in today’s professional tournaments, especially when you’re fishing tidal water like we were, long runs are necessary,” explains Lowen. “I never had a bit of trouble with my boat or my outboard the entire week.”

Lowen led after the second day of the tournament but fell to 12th after the third day when a weather change altered his fishing location. He and several other competitors were fishing far up the Cooper River rather than staying in Winyah Bay near the city of Georgetown. Including stops to re-fuel, the 100+ mile runs took a little over two hours each way.

“Whenever I’m fishing tidal water, I try to find an area that still has deep water even at low tide, not just at high tide, and that’s what I had on the Cooper River,” continues Lowen. “The river has a completely different ecosystem than Winyah Bay, even though it’s still affected by the tide. It’s a rich environment with abundant reeds, lily pads, hydrilla, and milfoil, and historically it has produced some of the best catches in that area.

“During the first two days of the tournament, high winds kept water from receding normally during the low tide, so all the cover and vegetation where I was fishing remained underwater. The bass did not have far to move at all, but when the wind died the third day, the places I was fishing became almost dry because the outgoing tide pulled the water back out.

“Even in my best deep water areas, the water became extremely shallow because we were competing during a full moon and the tides were stronger than usual. I still managed eight or nine bites, but I lost a three pounder, which would have made a big difference for me in the final standings.”

The basic rule of tidal fishing is that when the tide comes in, fish come in with it, and when the tide goes out, fish move out with it, explains the Yamaha Pro. Many fishermen choose to follow an incoming or outgoing tide, often described as “chasing the tide,” but locating a deep water sanctuary where cover remains under water during the outgoing tide eliminates having to do this.

“On the Cooper River, my deep water areas were cuts and creek mouths near bends in the main river,” adds Lowen, “but any type of depression or depth change can be effective if it includes cover.”

Because of the wind, Lowen fished a spinnerbait during the tournament, even though he had located the bass in practice using a soft jerkbait. When the weather changed on the third day, the mood of the bass also changed. They did not hit either lure well, which is why he lost that three-pounder. He only weighed in four bass that day and missed the cut to compete the final day.

“Tidal fishing is definitely a different type of bass fishing,” smiles the Yamaha Pro. “It’s not just about moving water but also about fish that are moving, too. That’s why I look for places where the fish don’t have to move as far.

“Sometimes you have to run a long distance just to find those types of places, too, and now that I’ve made my first 100-mile runs without any problems, I won’t hesitate to do it again.”

Columbiana Inn Bed and Breakfast

On travels around Georgia and Alabama “researching” information for Georgia and Alabama Outdoor News magazines, I get to fish most bigger lakes in both states with some really good fishermen. And on longer trips, I stay in interesting places and eat at local restaurants. Some are excellent, some not so much.

On a recent trip to Lay Lake with college fisherman Ryan Branch, we caught some good fish and had fun on a beautiful lake. I spent two nights at the charming Columbiana Inn Bed and Breakfast six miles from the Beeswax Boat Ramp. I did not have my boat, but the owners said fishermen with boats often stay there and there is good off-street parking.

I missed breakfast the first morning since I had to be on the lake before sunrise, but the next morning I was served the best omelet I have ever eaten. It was served with a fruit bowl and delicious pound cake.

The town of Columbiana is a pretty antebellum town with nice people, at least all I met were, and interesting history. There is plenty to do other than fish. DeSoto Springs are not far away and there is a covered bridge park, as well as lots to see in town.

One night I ate dinner at Paradise Point Marina restaurant and had a good, but expensive, shrimp po-boy sandwich. The view of the lake and marina was great.

I had to visit Davis Drug Store while there to get a seat cushion, mine blew out of the boat, and the lady that helped me was extremely nice. And I was told the owner was a bass fisherman!

I would recommend a trip there for fishing or sightseeing, or just a great place to relax for a few days. I was there during the week and the only guest for two nights, but there were at least six rooms reserved for the weekend, so make reservations well in advance!