Smith Lake FLW Tour

Jay Yelas
Day 2 was an encouraging day. It was the best day I’ve had on Smith Lake and this was my fifth or sixth event here. It’s just a testimony to how well it’s fishing now.

“Probably caught 30 keepers Friday – the lake is full of ‘em. It was a lot of fun. This lake fishes big. I never saw another boat all day. I was catching largemouth flipping bushes and throwing a buzzbait. I caught 10 on a buzzbait Friday. There’s nothing more fun than that. I was also pitching a Yamamato Flappin’ Hog in buck brush. The ones I was catching were super shallow.

I went to a different area from day 1 and went into a creek that I’d fished the first day of practice. I remember I fished in there for 5 hours and caught two keepers, but I went back and looked around more and found where I caught them Friday. I just had a fun time. It was a good comeback for me. I would’ve loved to have fished (Saturday).

Luke Clausen
I’m happy with my finish, but of course, you always look back and figured I could’ve tried this and that. I think on day 1 I should’ve just gone fishing because it seemed easier to catch them that way on days 2 and 3. I got tied up in trying to go through areas where I’d practiced on day 1.

Overall, I’m happy with it. It could’ve been worse, but I won some good money and earned good points and I’m ready to move on to the next one.

I had about 23 rods on my deck on day 1 and I caught fish on a lot of different things, but they all topped out at like 2 1/2 pounds. I had a limit by 8 a.m. so it wasn’t hard to catch fish, but I still don’t know how to catch big ones. I caught them mostly on a jerkbait and a shaky-head.

I stuck with the shaky-head on day 2 and I tried to fish areas where I think they were spawning, but couldn’t see them. I could catch fish in a lot of places, but catching bigger ones was pretty random. I also weighed in some fish on wakebait.

On day 3, I just tried to run a lot of new water and I’m pretty sure I hit about every bank in Ryan Creek for 5 miles.

Photo: FLW

> Recap: You have to fish differently each day and I don’t knw of it’s gotten tougher since Sunday, but it has not gotten a lot better. I think I set a record for the number of baits I caught a fish on yesterday. I think it was 14 so I might have an edge on guys in that department.

Every day, I’ve caught a decent one in different areas and I don’t have anything concrete figured out to catch any good ones and that has me a bit concerned. I can catch fish doing a lot of different things, but I can also catch a lot of 1 1/2-pounders doing that, too. Trying to figure a way to catch five over 3 pounds will be the challenge.

I’m planning on doing a lot of moving around. I’ll fish a lot of new bites. So many of the bites I’m getting are conditional and that’s why I was trying so many different baits. I will probably fish totally different stuff from what I did in practice. The wind is supposed to blow 10 to 15 tomorrow and that will probably determine what you can throw and when you can throw it, too.

There’s very little dead water here. I’ve caught them deep, shallow, on the main lake and in the backs of creeks. It’s all over the board and there’s a real good chance I’ll weigh in fish from the backs of pockets, from secondary points and from the main lake.

> Day 1: It’s the same old Smith Lake to me. I don’t know if it’s any better or worse. It’s one of those places where you’ll catch one on one spot, but don’t plan on going back. There are quite a few fish in here. It’s just about trying to catch quality and figuring out where the quality fish are and what they are doing.

I may have a lead on some things, but I won’t know if there’s anything to it for a couple days, though. Clarity is about the same as it’s always been and the temperature was about 60 degrees. I’m surprised there aren’t more fish up shallow.

It’s a spotted bass lake and they are typically hard to mark when it’s cloudy and rainy. They just get flat on the bottom and it seems like some fish are missing. Maybe that’s due to the weather. If we get some sunshine, you’ll probably see things change.

Photo: Jay Yelas

> Recap: I have two different patterns going, one for spots on the main lake and a largemouth pattern flipping bushes. I’m going to try to bounce back and forth between the two and decide which is best for each day. There are some fish on beds. They started to move up Tuesday, but I’m not going to invest much time on them. The weather is supposed to get cold and I know that won’t hold up. I guess a guy could have a good first day doing that, but then he’ll have to do something else.

Getting a bite in the bushes isn’t easy. There are a lot more bushes in the water than fish around them and lot of it is just about area. I’m just going to try to fish what’s best for that day. It’s the ultimate junk-fishing fishery and there are a lot of ways to catch a decent fish right now. There are a lot of things going on. Then again, you could do all of those things and still come away with five 1 1/2-pounders.

> Day 1: It rained all day from 7 a.m. to quitting time. It never stopped and it wasn’t your typical Alabama thunderstorm either. It was just a slow drizzle, but it did rain pretty hard at times. I expect the lake to rise because I’m sure we had close to an inch of rain and it’s still raining hard out there now.

I remember (the Bassmaster Tour) came here (in 2004) and the lake came up like 8 feet in 2 days. It was crazy. The fishing was super tough then because with these rocky lakes everything just runs off, but they generally clear up quick.

The water’s a lot warmer than I expected it to be. It’s warmer than Guntersville right now, which is surprising because it’s more of a deeper, clear-water lake. It was mostly 60 degrees, give or take a few degrees, in the areas I fished today. The fishing was slow for me. I caught just four keepers and it was a lot slower than expected. A lot of times with rain during the pre-spawn, you can get some good fishing. I was in good areas, but they just weren’t biting.

The lake seems like it’s a couple feet higher than it was 2 years ago and the water’s up in the bushes now and I’m sure with the water temperature where it’s at, the fish will be spawning soon if they’re not already. To me, the fish weren’t too enthusiastic about biting lures today. It could be a typical Smith Lake tournament where anything in the teens is stellar and 25 pounds makes the Top-20 cut.