Back Again
Mike Walker
June 9, 2011
Smith Lake - Freshwater Fishing Report
Mike Walker on Smith lake
June 6th, 2011
Ding, ding, ding, round 2 under the lights. Thanks to a great night
before one of my clients, Art Husband, called me the following morning
and ask if I could take his father in-law out that evening. Guess the
tales of the night before pulled him in. I told him that would be no
problem because I had no trip planned. I got a call from Fred
Thompson around lunch. Fred told me he lived on Smith Lake also and
couldn't have his son in-law showing him up every weekend. Fred let me
know he was familiar with the lake and was interested in learning some
different technics. We launched from Ryan Creek Marina at 6:00pm. We
headed to an area where some big schools of stripe have been for weeks.
It took a little bit of driving to locate them, but once we did it was
game on. Fred was using a custom made swimbait by yours truely. On our
first pass, Fred hook up with a 4 pound stripe. Not a bad fish, just
not what we were looking for. Almost every pass we hooked up, but our
biggest fish was 8 pounds. I made a decison to leave and use the
last part of daylight to hunt for bigger fish. We stopped at two more
spots and none yielded any fish bigger than 6 pounds. By that time
dark had set in. We headed for one of the hottest lights on Smith
Lake. Stripes have been active for several days on this light and feed
pretty good for a couple hours. While a lot of lights recieve high
pressure, this light recieves very little to none. The light is
off the water and is not that bright. It gives off good light, but far
less then most fished on the lake. When we got there we could see
stripes swimming through the light. We threw all different baits, but
could not get them to bite. We also saw tons of crappie rolling on
their side through the light. There were also some small bait fish. We
had some small tuffy minnows, so I handed him one of my crappie set
ups. It's a 7'6" ml spinning rod with 6 lb. flurocarbin line. I use
the heavier rod and line when fishing the lights because with all the
stripe you need it. Fred said he got a bite and before he could say
anything else his rod almost doubled over. When the fish knew he was
hooked he went on a deep long run. I told Fred to be
patient, that he hooked a good one with 6 lb. test and a small bream
hook. After twenty minutes of the fish making deep runs, we finally got
him up to@ the top. It was a 23 lb. stripe, not bad for 6 pound test
if you ask me. That was the biggest stripe of the night. He ended up
catching 3 more off that light weighing 4, 9, and 12 lbs. We hit a
few more lights after that to put some crappie in the cooler. He was
happy with the evening and he was getting tired. So we headed back
a little early. Another good night on Smith Lake, and thanks again Art.
Mike Walker
(205)503-2020
www.fishing24-7guideservice.com
Target Species:
Stripe and Crappie
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