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Hooking Up Anglers Since 2011.
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Here we go again with some crazy spring weather pulling our water temperatures up and down. As I write this I am heading into a week of guiding and two of the mornings are calling for a low or 48 degrees. I have been around water temperatures in the low 70’s to some as low as 65. This is causing another stall in the movement of forage from their early spring spots out to the main lake and has bass and stripers doing all sorts of things. It’s going to be another few weeks of junk fishing until we see a super stable summer time bite. So let’s talk about everything that’s happening and how to tackle breaking down the lake.
Before we do that just a quick second on the MLF Heavy Hitters event from late May. I got the chance to follow of few of the guys around and my two big take aways are. 1. These dudes made stupid long cast. I’m talking they are 100+ feet away from the structure or schools of fish and they are getting well past them. With guiding that can be tough for me to get clients to sling baits that far but I am confident that was a key to a lot of the guys getting the herring eating fish to bite. 2. Keeping it simple. These guys are good about breaking lakes down quick, but also not over thinking it. Most landed on a great spinnerbait bite, chatterbait bite and frog. All super easy bites to find when the water is stained and flowing. They hit it right on the head with coming after some serious rain here. It just shows you guys that you don’t need all the fancy tech to get it done. Was impressive for to watch.
As for what is to come now that they are gone…. I think we are yet to see a true shad spawn firing off. Water temps have stayed down pretty low and you can see that the shad bite hasn’t been happening for the guys fishing the night tournaments. Look to see shad coming back up at night once we get past this evening cold snap the first week of June. I know like most guys the spinnerbait showing out caused me to pick up a few more. I have been loving tossing around the Megabass SV-3. I also love throwing around s squarebill this time of year. The Megabass S Crank 1.5 is a nice larger squarebill that deflects great!
I am starting to see bream beds being made in the bowls back in pockets pretty frequently. Some bass should be getting off the shad deal and heading back to them in the next week or so. It’s best to look for those on a bright sunny and calm day and mark them on your graph to come back to for the next month of so. For me I am a big believer in prop baits for this technique. I love working them slow around the beds to see what big bass are lurking around. My go to is a Black Label Cliff Pace Tease Propbait in bluegill.
I am also starting to see some fish move onto some brush around main lake points and around some deeper docks with their fry in tow. This can be a killer time to get on the Neko bite with a 6 Missle Baits Magic Worm or dropshooting a 4 Magic worm into the fry balls.
With bass transition out to the points its also time to start thinking about getting out some of the larger presentations like a big worm, a large creature bait or a big football jig. Some of the fish out deep are now done recovering from the spawn and are ready for a big meal. Look for fish to be on secondary and mainlake points that are close to channel swings and spawning flats. I like to rig my big worms on a 3/8oz tungston weight with a 5/0 Nano Gamakatsu off set worm hook. A Zoom Ol"‘ Monster is a great worm, but I also like throwing something the fish haven’t seen as much like a 6th Sense Ridge Worm. A Carolina Rig is also a must have for these fish that are moving out on the points. I stick with a 3/4oz weight on 20lb Sunline Sniper to a 16-18lb Sunline Sniper Leader. A Missile Baits D Stroyer is a killer bait that has a lot of draw power for thost bigs. For a football jig it’s an easy choice with a Missile Baits Head Banger. The thing comes through structue super well and have a killer hook. I also like rigging a baby d stroyer as my trailer to get a lot of movement out of the bait this time of year.
Also, a s quick side note on this report. I actually am still finding bed fish a lot of places. I don’t know how long this will last but I do think we still have a small wave of fish that are movnig up to spawn. Most i’m finding in very shallow back pockets with lots of sunlight.
Stripers are starting to run together in a lot of schools on the lower end around the dam and in bull run on some of the deeper channel swings. Topwater action should be starting up soon in those same areas.
Bluegills are starting their spawns in all areas of the lake and are a good place to take some younger kids when school gets out.
Crappies are stacked on laydowns up the blackwater and Ronaoke rivers, also along the steep channel swing banks.
Check out my baitshop section on my site for all my late spring lures to be throwing on SML!!!
This Fishing Report was submitted on 6/4/2025 9:37:45 PM by Seamus and last updated on 6/5/2025 4:12:30 AM.
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