This year is flying by. It seems like yesterday we were kicking off the season with the Bassmaster Classic and now here we are getting ready for the third stop of the Bassmaster Elite Series.
I like it that way though, and this is my favorite time of year to fish, so I’m excited to get this one started. This week we are fishing Norfork and Bull Shoals lakes in Arkansas. We will fish the first day on Norfork, the second and third days on Bull Shoals, and then the final day back on Norfork. This adds an interesting twist as to how you split your time up during practice and so forth. Since we are fishing two different lakes, B.A.S.S. was nice enough to give us an extra practice day for this one so that helps. I’m actually writing this on Sunday night, and I have already spent the day on one of the lakes. Here’s what I saw.
There will be no shortage of fish caught this week. It will be a nice change of pace after the grinder at Winyah Bay. I saw fish in all three stages of the spawn today, and there are a lot of fish actually locked on beds right now. I’m sure that will play a key role in many people’s game this week. I’m sure I will sight fish some as well, but I also found a couple of ways that I can catch them just fishing. That’s what I really wanted to find. Sight fishing is good and all but I personally don’t like to depend completely on that game. I’ve been burned that way before.
I think the real key this week will be figuring out how to get a big bite. The guy who catches a 4-pounder or two each day will separate himself in a hurry. I saw lots of fish on the banks today, but I did not see anything over about 3 pounds. Fish of that quality were few and far between. They do live in both of these lakes though so I’ll keep looking.
One thing that excites me about these lakes is the fact that you can catch big smallmouth and largemouth, as well as some good-sized spotted bass. The lake I cut my teeth on back home is that way, and any time I’m fishing a lake with gin-clear water and smallmouth in April makes me feel at home. Smallmouth normally play a factor on these types of lakes, especially this time of the year.
As far as techniques we will see this week it will be across the board; from crankbaits to swimbaits to shaky heads there will be fish caught a lot of different ways. If I had to narrow it down to one bait and one technique for the situation at hand though I would go with a wacky rig. Nothing fancy there but it just flat out works this time of year. When I throw a wacky rig I use one of two different baits – either a Zoom Trick Worm or a 5-inch Yamamoto Senko. I like the Trick Worm in super-clear water when I’m fishing fairly shallow. I throw the Senko when I want a little bigger profile or I need to skip the bait under docks or overhanging trees. The Senko has enough weight to skip really well.
I rig both baits with a Mustad 1/0 KVD drop shot hook tied to 10 pound Vicious braid with an 8 pound fluorocarbon leader. The rod I use for this is a MHX EPS81MXF. This has become my absolute favorite spinning blank and I use it for 90 percent of my spinning rod applications. This rod is 6-foot, 9-inch in length and is medium power with plenty of backbone to handle big fish but with just enough tip to put the bait where I need it. This is the same one I caught the 9-3 on at the St. John’s River so it will do the job. I built it with the comfort of a Winn grip and love having it in my hands come tournament day.
This should be an interesting event with the two lakes coming into play, so make sure and stay tuned this week to see how it all goes down. I will have a contest on my Facebook page on Wednesday so please stop in and say hello and enter your guess.