The approaching FLW Tour event on Alabama's Lewis Smith Lake finds reigning FLW Angler of the Year (AOY) Jay Yelas to be a shallow thinker. Normally the rocky, clear-water reservoir on the Sipsey River inspires deep thoughts, because in the winter and summer, bass are often caught to depths of 50 feet and more.
But the Tour's coming to Smith in early April – this week, in fact – which is a time when the bass are sun-worshippers and in the mood for a good few weeks of springtime spawning. So as BassFan caught up with Yelas – who's currently ranked 9th in the world – the day before official practice started, he's thinking crazy-shallow for Smith.
How shallow? "The largemouths could be right up on the bank," he said. "The last time I was here in April was for a BASS Elite 50 tournament in 2005. Kevin VanDam weighed in over 20 pounds
(of largemouths) the first day. But after that it got tough."
That event was in late April, almost a month past this one.
"On this type of lake, the fishing's usually good through the pre-spawn period," Yelas added. "Fishing cold, clear water is much better than cold, muddy water. But the temperatures are starting to warm up – we might see 80 degrees by the end of the tournament. So I expect some bass are starting to spawn already.
"I plan to go out the first day of practice and look a lot and see what stage the fish are in. I plan to target both spotted bass and largemouths, but primarily spots. That's because if any largemouths are up spawning, they're easy to see and everybody will find them.
"In a 4-day tournament here, you have to figure out how to catch big spots," he noted. "The largemouths won't last. There might be enough to get you to the (Top 10) cut, but not enough to last all 4 days."
Where to Start
Yelas said he plans to start looking for bedding bigmouths in spawning coves where he'd seen them during the Elite 50. He'll also check for spawning spots, which tend to start bedding a bit earlier and deeper than largemouths.
"Some spots spawn pretty deep," he noted. "Some are shallow enough that you can see them, but many are down in 6 or 7 feet. You can go around on a calm, sunny day and just barely see them. So I'll use my practice time to look, if we get those conditions. Then I'll know where to fish even if I can't see them."
He mentioned that while largemouths spawn in pockets, the spots tend to be out on secondary points closer to the main lake.
"Even if you can't see them, you can fish a Berkley Power Finesse Hand Pour worm or tube (in likely areas) and shake them off," he added. "They bite real quick."
Why shake them off? Doesn't he need to see what size he's catching?
"I don't want to hook a lot on a lake like this," he said. "In a place like the California Delta, where 18- to 20-pound limits won't win, you need to catch some to know you're on 25- to 30-pound limits. Here it can be tough, so I don't want to stick many."
Pre-Spawn Options
What if they're not on beds yet? "If they're not spawning, I'll look to swimbaits or topwater," he said. "I'm excited to try the Berkley Hollow Belly swimbait. The fish here should be up shallow and receptive to them.
"And jigs are notoriously good on clear lakes like this, but the warmer it gets the worse the jig bite is.
"The finesse bite will be great here," he added. "A dropshot and shaky-head will work for numbers, but not necessarily for fish big enough to win. The big-fish baits will be (for) fish on beds, swimbait fish, or jig fish."
Smith Lake used to have a 13- to 16-inch slot limit, meaning all fish between those marks had to be released. The tournaments used a 16-inch minimum for all fish, which made it heartbreaking to finally stick a solid 2-pounder only to find it measured 15 1/2-inches and have to dump it back.
The slot was recently reduced to 13- to 15-inches, so the Tour event will have a 15-inch minimum. That change doesn't matter to Yelas.
"A limit of 15-inch spots is only maybe 8 pounds," he noted. "I need bigger than 15-inchers to have a shot at winning, so I'm not really thinking about them. I'm thinking of 4-pounders. I'll go after the 15-inchers only if I need to fill out a limit."
Notable
> The FLW Tour Smith Lake tournament is April 3-6. The full field fishes days 1 and 2, and the field is cut to the Top 10 for days 3 and 4. The off-limits period is March 17-28 and April 2. Practice starts Saturday March 29-April 1.
> Yelas finished 7th in the April 2005 Elite 50, 29th in the February 2004 Bassmaster Tour event, and 68th in the November 2006 final event of the inaugural year of the FLW Series.
> His Western roots of fishing deep, clear, rocky lakes should help him make more rapid adjustments than some of his competitors who've mostly fished shallow, stained water.
