Kentucky Fishing » Largemouth bass

Three simple tips for catching largemouth bass in Kentucky

admin — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:25:07 +0000

Larry Williams of Murray, Kentucky used a Carolina-rigged watermelon with red flake straight 5-inch worm to catch this largemouth bass in early summer on Kentucky Lake. Williams uses a Carolina rig to fish both shallow heavy cover such as a brush covered flat or weedbed, but also to fish deep humps and ledges.

Terms such as “Texas-rigged worm,” “Carolina-rigged lizard” or “wacky rig” are part of a bass angler’s everyday lexicon. But to a beginner, the experienced anglers might as well be speaking Chinese.
The Texas rig is probably the most popular fish-catching innovation in the evolution of bass fishing. The term stems from Nick Crème and Crème Manufacturing, the company given credit for inventing the plastic fishing worm. Crème created a double-hooked plastic worm with a straight tail. He tied the hooks to a leader, and then added a couple of red beads and a propeller out front. People called it the “tourist rig” because it was so easy to catch bass with it.

The rig worked great in open water, but snagged logs easily. Crème introduced an improved version of this rig in 1964. He replaced the propeller with a slip sinker and a bead, and the double hook with one large hook. Crème imbedded the hook point into the worm to make it weedless. He called this the Texas rig.

The basic design hasn’t changed much since.

The Texas rig shines for bass around stumps, submerged trees and in weeds, because the hook is nearly snagless and the sinker punches through the cover. A medium to medium-heavy rod with a stiff tip is needed to drive the hook point through the worm and get the fish out of heavy cover.

A Carolina rig is an evolution of the Texas rig. It employs a ½- to 1-ounce egg or bullet-shaped slip sinker slid onto the main line from the reel, followed by two red glass beads. Brass is the preferred material for the weight. Brass makes a better clicking sound than lead when it contacts the glass on the retrieve.

The main line is tied to a barrel swivel. An 18- to 36-inch leader of monofilament or fluorocarbon line goes on the other loop of the swivel. The leader material is usually a lighter pound test than the main line, such as a 17-pound test main line with a 12-pound leader. A wide-gap offset worm hook goes on the business end.

This rig is versatile because it presents soft plastic worms, jerkbaits, lizards, creature baits and even live bait to hungry bass. The heavy weight of the rig allows the angler to follow contours of the bottom while covering water quickly. The Carolina rig is highly effective for fishing large mud flats, channel drops, ledges, sandbars and submerged humps. It is the go-to bait for many bass anglers fishing deep water, especially in summer and early fall.

You can also toss a Carolina rig onto a brush-covered flat or in the middle of a large weedbed. The heavy sinker on the front of the rig punches through the weeds and brush down to the bottom with the soft plastic bait hovering just above it. This method works wonders for bass on Kentucky Lake.

The wacky rig is a departure from both the Texas and Carolina rig. Several theories abound on the origin of the wacky rig, but one of the most often cited involves two novice anglers bass fishing one of the large reservoirs in Texas. They didn’t know how to thread a plastic worm onto a hook properly, so they impaled the middle of their Crème Scoundrel worms and let the ends dangle. The worms hung on the hook like a clown’s frown.

The pair threw their worms over weedbeds and caught large bass after large bass. When they returned to the dock, a couple of onlookers asked how they did. The two anglers opened their livewells and showed off some huge bass. The onlookers asked what they caught them on and the anglers held up their funny-looking worm rigs.

After some mighty guffaws, one of the onlookers exclaimed that it was the wackiest looking rig they’d ever seen. This was the birth of the wacky rig.

The wacky rig is great for fishing docks and up and under overhanging or flooded trees because you can skip it across the water. The undulating action of the worm drives a bass hanging under a dock or in a flooded tree crazy.

Soft plastic jerkbaits such as the Senko work great for this technique. They also draw strikes fished over weedbeds or stumps by pulling the worm up and allowing it to flutter back down.

Don’t let terminology stand in the way of learning to fish for bass. Get out this summer and toss one of these rigs in a lake near your home. You’ll soon become addicted.

—Story and photo by Lee.McClellan

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This time of year in Kentucky, fish deep points for success

admin — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 03:57:10 +0000

The meeting of the land and the water often points out the fish for us.
This was, it seems to say, its earthen or rocky digit extended from shore outward, “Out here.”
Rodney Hairgrove knows that straight bank is never quite as attractive to bass as one with a wrinkle on it. The irregular shape of a point, a protrusion of the shore toward the deeper recesses of the water, is a double dose of fishing fortune: On one hand, it attracts and congregates the bass; on the other, it constitutes an often glaring feature that should flag the attention of the angler and usher him to where the fish wait.
Hairgrove, 37, spends much of his time probing the waters of Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. A transplanted Texan and now for years a Marshall Countian, he operates Big Bear Guide Service out of Big Bear resort on Kentucky Lake’s western shore. When he’s not guiding other fisherman for black bass, white bass or crappie, he’s often bass fishing just for pleasure or in competition. A frequent tournament angler, Hairgrove is a regular in the check-collecting lines of area events.
Much of the fishing year, Hairgrove looks for and finds bass around points in the bays of the two canal-linked reservoirs.
“It starts early in the spring when bass start moving in during the pre-spawn, and it goes on after the spawn when fish are moving back out,” Hairgrove said. “Some of the bass never leave the bays, though. Some of the points that have a good food source and deep enough water nearby will hold fish all through the summer. They’ve got everything bass need, so there’s no reason for them to leave.”
To understand the attraction of bass to points, fishermen must remember that what you see is not necessarily what you get. While points are obvious to the eye, the portions of them that are above the water line for anglers to see are not really what counts. Bass only care about the stuff below the surface.
“What’s important is what’s under the water – what’s on the point and what it’s close to,” Hairgrove said.
“Some good points will have only maybe five feet of water up on top, and others will have 10 or 12 feet up there,” he said. “Even if it gets pretty shallow on top, I think you have to have up to 15 feet or more close by to make it a good spot as the weather gets warmer.”
With deep-water access close by, a point is more likely to be used by bass that can scoot in and out on feeding forays, Hairgrove said. When those fish are on a point, a sharp drop along one side of it will be most likely to hold them when they are there, he added.
Features on a feature – extra elements on a basic structure – are usually what make one point better than another, he said.
“It always helps to have some cover on a point – stumps, brush, stake beds or big rocks,” he said. “Especially if you’ve got cover along the edge of a sharp drop on one side of the point that’s where the fish are going to locate.”
An error that some fishermen make is to relate a point to the place where water and land meet. They sometimes tend to fish right where a point slopes into the lake and where the water is too shallow.
“Early in the morning, fish might get right up on the bank, but most of the time they’re going to be back out a way,” Hairgrove said. “Some of these points run 200 to 300 yards out into the lake from what you see up on shore.
The places that hold fish might be way off the bank.”
That’s where topographic maps and electronic depth-finders come into play.
Information not available upon first glance on the water is what is critical in deciding which points really are worth fishing.
“Probably 60 or 70 percent of the good points show up on a good topo map,” Hairgrove said. “You can see features on the map that make them good. The rest, though, aren’t legible on a map. You have to find them with a depth-finder. The points that aren’t obvious and don’t really show up on a map probably are a little better because they don’t get fished as much.”
Each productive point is different and has its own features to which bass relate. A point that is as long as a football field may boil down to a single location the size of a living room sofa where bass regularly congregate. Learn the spots one at a time and remember them to accumulate a series that can be fished in hops, Hairgrove suggested.
“There are hundreds of points on Kentucky and Barkley,” he said. “You just have to put in some time to learn the good ones and where the best spot is on each one.”
Fishing tactics on points can vary with the season of the year, the time of day and the depth and cover of the sweet spot on each. The biggest variance is depth.
“Even in the summer, early in the morning you can catch fish up and feeding on the shallow ends of points,” Hairgrove said. “You can catch them on topwater lures if they’re up on the surface.
“A lot of it, though, will be off in deeper water. You can throw plastic worms, Carolina rigs, jigs or crankbaits and get down to where the fish are.
“I like a big worm, a Texas-rigged 10-inch (Harville) Baby Huey, or later in the summer, a smaller, 6-inch worm,” Hairgrove said. “A Carolina rig with a one-ounce weight and a lizard is also good because you can cover a lot of water so quickly.
“Crankbaits are awfully good, too,” he said. “You can use Poe’s 400s, (Norman) DD22s or Luhr-Jensen Hot Lips crankbaits and get down as deep as you need to for summer bass.”
Bass naturally adapt to points as routes between deep and shallow water.
Just as they focus the attention of fish, points are a logical draw for fishermen; at least most points are glaringly obvious where they curl off the land into the water.
Knowing which points are the most generous and finding the high-odds spots on each one takes a little experimentation and study. That’s the fine-tuning. But the basics are clear: If a fisherman doesn’t recognize the bass-attracting characteristics of points, he’s missing one.

—Steve Vantreese

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Teenager yanks 10+ pound largemouth from Tom Wallace Lake

admin — Mon, 04 May 2009 03:07:40 +0000

Dana Tindall says her teenage son, who is home schooled, fishes nearly every day after school. You can bet he never before had a day like last Saturday.

Kenny Tindall Jr., 15, was fishing at Tom Wallace Lake, a popular 5.5 acre public fishing lake in Jefferson Forest, around midday on Saturday. The teenager was fishing from the bank from what he described as a “cove” near the middle of the lake. He was using a black trick worm and sight fishing to a big bass he had spotted.

“I thought she was about 7 or 8 pounds,” the youngster said.

For the rest of the story, visit Garth’s blog at the following link:

courier-journal.com | Gary Garth blog | The Courier-Journal.

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March is the Month for Big Bass

admin — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 21:05:29 +0000

Frankfort, Ky. – Several decades ago, March brought out crusty, tough men who impaled several night crawlers on a large hook and dropped the bait around any stump, tree top, log or surface debris along the shoreline of a lake or pond for big bass. These anglers used a scull paddle to move their wooden boats quietly around the water, and fished stout cane poles with heavy black nylon line to haul their catch away from the cover. This fishing technique became known as jigging.

Although Herrington Lake receives credit as the birthplace of jigging, anglers discovered the same technique also worked well in other lakes for enormous female largemouth bass.

“They would drop the night crawlers right in front of the bass and haul them out of that cover,” said “Kentucky Afield” television Host Tim Farmer. “I was once a creel clerk on Elmer Davis Lake in Owen County and I would see some really big bass come from there at this time of year by jigging.”

While most anglers nowadays have switched to artificial lures and modern baitcasting rods, the basic technique still works at this time of year because the big female largemouth bass need to eat.

“They are spawning next month and feeding up to put nutrients in them they’ll need for spawning,” said Gerry Buynak, assistant director of fisheries for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “The best way to do that is to get up in the warm shallow water and feed as much as they can. This is the final push to get ready for the spawn.”

In early March, eggs make up about 5 percent of the body weight of a female largemouth bass. By mid-April, eggs account for 15 percent of body weight.

“If you want to catch a wallhanger, now is the time to do it,” explained Buynak, who served as black bass research biologist for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife for 18 years. “Those large 6-pound or bigger female largemouth bass spawn first. They are more vulnerable to anglers than any other time of year, especially anglers fishing from the bank.”

Jigging works best after rainfall colors the water. The murky water conceals anglers, allowing them to slip up on a trophy bass nosing the bank. Farmer shot a segment for “Kentucky Afield” using this technique a couple of years ago. Although our fishing ancestors used night crawlers for jigging, Farmer used a brown jig with a pumpkinseed-colored trailer.

“It was a watershed lake in western Kentucky,” Farmer explained. “There was some color to the water and they were right on the bank. I jerked a big one out of some cover and she rolled on her side. She was huge, in the 8-pound class. I broke the line on that one, but we caught several between 5 and 6 pounds that day.”

Although anglers flock to Lake Barkley, Kentucky Lake, Lake Malone, Cedar Creek Lake and Elmer Davis Lake for big bass, Dewey Lake at Jenny Wiley State Resort Park near Prestonsburg is worth a try for anglers in the eastern part of the state. Dewey Lake has an increasing number of quality bass in its waters. Anglers can catch bass there at this time of year by jigging pockets in the weeds.

“I think most lakes in Kentucky would do well with this technique,” Buynak said. “One of our old creel clerks on Barkley Lake always said if you want to catch a 10-pound bass in Kentucky, fish in March.”

Modern jigging anglers use medium-heavy to heavy baitcasting rods and flip jig-and-pig combinations next to stumps, logs or rocks. They work the jig up and down a few times and then cast to another piece of cover, making sure the jig enters the water as quietly as possible. Trophy largemouth bass in shallow water along shore spook easily.

When possible, cast the jig on the bank and silently pull the lure into the water when fishing from a boat or the shore. This doesn’t spook bass nearly as bad as a jig-and-pig loudly smacking the water in a foot of water. Any bass close by will flee to deep water when this happens.

Bank anglers walking along the bank of a lake or a farm pond may see V-shaped wakes moving quickly out into deep water. These are likely bass spooked by the vibrations coming from your feet hitting the ground. Walk parallel to the shore a good ways away from the edge of the water when bank fishing to avoid scaring away fish. Move in a straight line to the bank to cast.

Get out now and probe shallow cover for the biggest bass of the year. To find waters close to home that hold largemouth bass, go to http://fw.ky.gov/navigation.aspx?cid=769.

—KDFWR

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Questions and answers with: Dave Stewart, Bass Buster Guide Service

admin — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:20:28 +0000

Dave Stewart of Bass Buster Guide Service in Benton, Ky.Years guiding: 6. Contact number: 270-354-5039. Email: dave@kentuckylakeguide.com

Kentuckyfishing.com: How did you get started as a guide and why?

Dave Stewart: Actualy, I got started after I retired from the military in 1995. I moved to Kentucky Lake and I was living at a resort. People at the resort asked me if I could take some people out who weren’t catching fish. I helped them catch fish and this eventually became a business.

Kentuckyfishing.com: What do you like about the job?

Dave Stewart: I like he people. Outdoors people, especially anglers, have got to be some of the best people to be around. For me, watching clients catch fish has become more fun than catching the fish myself.

Kentuckyfishing.com: What do you not like so much about the job?

Dave Stewart: Winter. I hate the off season. I get bored.

Kentuckyfishing.com: What is your favorite tactic?

Dave Stewart: I primarily guide for bass; it makes up probably 95 percent of my business. For smallmouth, I love to fish crankbaits and jerkbaits in teh spring. In the summer I fish for largemouth and I love to use Carolina rigs. Kentucky and Balrkley are good Carolina rig lakes. I love to fish tubes, too. That’s kind of a trademark of mine, tube fishing.

Kentuckyfishing.com: Why do you like to fish for bass over other species?

Dave Stewart: I started ot fishing fo bass in clubs and tournaments. It just seems to be the most challenging of the fish here to catch. I enjoy taking people out, especially those who are having trouble finiding fish. I started out guiding as much crappie as I did bass. But I turned to bass. That’s where my reputation is. Ninety-five percent of my business is tournament preparation.

Kentuckyfishing.com: Are tournament anglers tougher to deal with? Are they more difficult to deal with?

Dave Stewart: Not really. You ahve to take each client as they come. Probably my most favorite clients are children — fathers and sons. But tournament types are not that hard to work with.

Kentuckyfishing.com: Do your clients have special tactics they want to try?

Dave Stewart: I find that for the majority of them, since I do a lot of tournament preparation, most people will leave it up to me. They realize one tactic is not a catch-all. But I do have a lot of people who want to try Carolina rigging.

Kentuckyfishing.com: What is your favorite lure?

Dave Stewart: As a go-to lure I’d have to say a tube. I’ve been fishing them for years and years and years. They’ve just become popular down here in the last few years. I’m not sure I’m happy about that. (laughs) My favorite lure to throw, though, is probably a Carolina rig or a crankbait. But a tube is definitely the go-to lure. When nothing else will work a tube will get you some fish.

Kentuckyfishing.com: When do you most like to fish?

Dave Stewart: I love spring. I love the early smallmouth and the pre-spawn largemouth. It’s got to be the most productive and the most fun fishing there is. Those are the days of the big numbers and the big fish.

Kentuckyfishing.com: What kind of cover or areas do you like to fish the most?

Dave Stewart: The obvious would be stumps. Old stump fields are the most productive. I also like brush piles. If you find those brush piles you can score fish. But fish like to cruise open water. So it changes all year long.

First published in The Kentucky Fishing Journal, February 2003

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Finding lazy summer bass in Kentucky

admin — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 02:41:11 +0000

Along with warm temperatures and long days, summer brings topwater action to bass anglers. Now is one of the best times of the year to catch fish on surface presentations.

“When fish are more active because of warmer temperatures this time of year, they are more likely to feed on the surface,” said Dave Dreves, a fisheries research biologist for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “A lot of people think when it’s hot, the fish don’t feed as much. Well, their metabolisms are higher, so they have to eat.”

Dreves says largemouth bass are biting on the water’s surface in ponds now, while white bass and hybrid striped bass, as well as largemouth bass, are biting in reservoirs. Smallmouth bass are feeding on top in streams. Bass generally bite best on topwater baits during the morning and evening.

Shad that were spawned a few months ago are now big enough to catch the attention of bass. Try chuggers that resemble these baitfish, such as a white or silver Pop-R or Rattlin’ Chug Bug. Dreves also recommends surface lures with propellers on the back or both back and front. Size can range from 2½ to 5 inches. Dreves suggests fishing a Zara Spook using a “walk the dog” retrieve. Use your wrist to create a rhythmic retrieve, letting the lure twitch back and forth on a slack line.

Dreves notes that since the 17-year cicada emergence has ended, bass may now key on frogs and other surface prey. Try a frog-imitating lure in green or brown.

“I grew up fishing in farm ponds where I would throw a snagless frog around the edges of the pond on top of filamentous algae – commonly called moss,” said Dreves. “You can throw a frog on top of those thick mats, and the bass will blow up through the vegetation and eat the frog. It’s a real exciting way to fish.”

Anglers should also try Buzz 1/4oz Chartreuse Shad/Aluminumbuzzbaits and Booyah Bait Co Booyah Pond Magic Tandem Spinner Bait 3/16oz Shadspinnerbaits for summer topwater action. “Most of the time, buzzbaits are used in the early morning,” said John Williams, southeast fisheries district coordinator for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. “Anglers switch to something a little slower and a little deeper later on.”

Some anglers prefer a double buzzbait for added noise and action. Bass strike these lures out of irritation, to get the intruder out of their territory – so the more commotion, the better. Good colors are white, chartreuse and black. Buzzbaits must be retrieved quickly so they don’t sink.

“The water’s warm so the fish ought to be active,” said Williams. “I would think burning them, with a fairly fast retrieve would work right now.”

Night fishing is warming up now as anglers try to beat the summer heat. Try Terminator® Titanium Tiny-T Buzzbaitspinnerbaits in black, fished just under the surface at night. Jitterbug 1/4oz. Fishing LureJitterbugs in black are another good choice. Use either a steady retrieve or work the lure 4-5 feet at a time, and pause for a few seconds between retrieves. Chuggers also work well at night. Williams recommends anglers try fishing these lures over shallow flats.
Finally, be patient. The thrill of watching a bass strike your lure on the water’s surface may cause you to set the hook too quickly.

“If you set the hook when you see the strike, you’ll pull the lure out of the fish’s mouth,” cautioned Dreves. “Make yourself wait till you feel the strike before setting the hook.”

From a news release from the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. For more information, visit fw.ky.gov

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Tips for keeping heat-stressed bass alive during summertime tournaments

admin — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:49:47 +0000

Bass tournaments are an exciting and popular activity on Kentucky’s lakes. However, tournaments held during the heat of summer place a great deal of stress on fish.

“We don’t promote summertime tournaments because of the potential for increases in mortality of fish,” said Gerry Buynak, assistant director of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources’ fisheries division. “We recommend that tournaments not be held when water temperatures are over 80 degrees.”

Higher temperatures mean less oxygen in the water and more stress to fish held in a boat’s livewell. If anglers don’t take measures to cool the water, maximize aeration, maintain a healthy salt balance and flush ammonia from the livewell, fish can die either during the tournament or after they are released.

“If anglers cannot move their tournaments to cooler time periods, they need to learn the best techniques for taking care of fish in warm water,” said Buynak. “If you are going to have a summertime tournament, maintain aeration and use ice and salt in the livewell.”

Anglers should first fill their livewells in the morning when the lake water is cooler. Switch the livewell to recirculate so it is not taking on warm lake water, and keep it running continually throughout the tournament day. Add two 1/2-gallon frozen bottles of water to the livewell and about 1/3 cup of untreated salt for every 5 gallons of livewell water.

“After about a three-hour period in the livewell, the ice will be melted, bass waste will be building up and you could have an ammonia problem,” said Buynak. “The recommendation is to change half the water in the livewell after three hours, then add ice and salt again.”

Taking care of fish in the livewell is only one part of keeping bass alive during summer tournaments.

“You’ve got to have the full range of resources to keep them alive,” said Dave Dreves, fisheries research biologist for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. “Proper set-up at the weigh-in is also very important.”

Tournament organizers can reduce stress on fish by lowering the creel limit, staggering weigh-in times and keeping weigh-in lines short and efficient. Summer tournaments can be held at night or shortened to four hours to reduce stress on fish. For full eight-hour tournaments, a weigh-in and release can be held halfway through the day to shorten the amount of time fish spend in the livewell.

“The big thing is, the less time in the boat, the better,” said Buynak. “At the weigh-in, have an iced, aerated trough for fish. The water should be salted and cooled 5 to 10 degrees below the lake temperature. When releasing fish, take them out further from the bank where there is deeper, cooler water.”

Fish survival is not only good for the resource, but it puts a positive face on the tournament fishing sport. Tournaments can encourage good fish handling even more by penalizing anglers whose fish die.

“A lot of tournaments have penalties for bringing in dead fish,” said Dreves. “That’s one reason anglers want to keep their fish alive. But the reason these rules were instituted was to promote good care of the fish during their time in the livewell.”

Buynak recommends anglers and tournament organizers review the B.A.S.S. sponsored manual “Keeping Bass Alive,” which outlines in complete detail the best methods for handling bass during tournaments. Basic guidelines and information on how to get a copy of the manual are available at fw.ky.gov/bassguidelines.asp.

—Kentucky Department for Fish and Wildlife Resources

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