Striped bass guide on Smith Lake Fishing the lights
Mike Walker
March 13, 2012
Smith Lake - Freshwater Fishing Report
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Smith Lake
March 12th, 2012
I was on the water most of last week and this weekend was up and down. The night bite was pretty good over the weekend. Not a lot of numbers, but plenty of quality fish. We caught fish in depths ranging from 10-30 feet. One of the hottest baits under the light was a 1/2oz. bucktail jig with a 4 1/2" swimbait as the trailer. One of the best bites of the weekend came on Sunday morning around 3 a.m. We could see plenty of big fish, but they were not that interested in the baits we were throwing. It took about 60 cast to catch the first one off that light. After several more cast I know we need something different. Swimming under the light was mostly smaller bait, prefect for crappie. That's when I remembered Lucky Craft sent me some mini baits about a month ago. So I want to my tackle box to find them, I picked up one that was probably 1 1/2 inches. The hooks on the bait looked like they were for bream or crappie, not stripers. I tied it on a spinning reel with 8 pound test and set the drag very light. I had him cast it right to the light, because most of the bigger fish were hanging very close to the light and would not chase. I felt the jerkbait was perfect for this situation because it could stay in the strike zone longer. On his third cast at the light, he made a prefect cast and let the bait sit and rest for a minute. As he started to work the bait, three big stripers came out of the dark in a race for the bait. He crushed it, I still get excited when I see big fish hitting the bait under the lights. After a long fight, he boated the fish. After netting the fish, he realized how lucky he was to land the fish. It had one treble hook in the outside of his mouth and was hanging on by a thread. The biggest fish weighted 25 pounds this week and there were plenty of 12 - 18 pounders. Other than having battery issues on Sunday, it was a pretty good week. With Saturday morning being the toughest bite, thanks to the full moon.
Checkout my website as i'll have new pictures and a video up after lunch on Monday.
If your interested in fishing Smith Lake, give me a call or email.
Target Species:
Striped bass
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