Fishing With Jason on Smith Lake Landing Spotted Bass

Monday, Jason and I left the house at 5 AM for a daylight fishing trip on Smith Lake. I seldom get to fish with Jason, because he is in school and that has taken up pretty much all his time for the past two years. We were going to fish for some of the Kentucky Spots using the fly rod and also to see if there were still any crappie left in the area I fish Saturday. Starting at 5:30 AM has not produced the fish I consider good this season, and Tuesday was in the same lane. The first fish came at 7:30, with one of the crappies in the same area where I had success Saturday. Jason and I spent about an hour in the honey hole and landed 6 more slabs using the smoke and glitter curly tail grub with the redhead jig. The fish this time was bigger and slower to hit. I suspect the reason for the low numbers was the fact that we had caught all of them or the on-off hit factor crappie process. Leaving the crappie area we decided to start looking for shade because the sun had taken over most of the banks where we had fished earlier. If you are going to fish Smith topwater, you need to look for shade after the sun comes up because the lake is so clear the fish can see you at a considerable distance. It also helps to wear dark clothing instead of white or bright clothing. The Kentucky Spots on this lake have seen it all and are very wary of anything that threatens them. So you need every advantage you can muster. With that said, we pulled up on a steep rock wall bank near the dam where Jason did a long shoot cast that propelled his size 8 little white popper right next to the rock wall. He let the popper sit motionless for a few seconds before he gently moved it, which produced a violet hit yielding a 16” Spot. He had quite a fight on his 8 ½ ft. 4 wt fly rod. He played the fish to perfection and eventually landed it. This is what makes fly fishing so exciting and challenging is the play and landing a fish that is most of the time superior to the tackle you are using. It is the fish and you and sometimes the fish wins and sometimes you win. I noticed something on this trip that may make the next trip even more productive, which is popper size. The larger poppers haven’t produced as well this season so today was a test using smaller poppers, which really worked well getting the larger spots to hit. Before we left Jason and I landed 6 more spots and one largemouth, all on the white popper with the white legs. It was a great trip with my son whom I very seldom get to fish with. I hope we can make many more trips after he graduates.