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KY Lake smallmouth

TRIGGER

TRIGGER

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Cunningham TN
It seems like every time I fish the lake I catch more and more smallmouth. I have noticed this for a couple of years now but this weekend was eye opening. I fished Friday and Saturday and caught around 20 fish and only 1 was a largemouth. I wasn't targeting them actually caught most of them trying to catch largemouth. Placed 2nd in a tournament (behind our 1 and only Numberone) on Friday with 4 smallmouth and 1 largemouth then won a tournament on Saturday with 5 smallmouth. (17.4 lbs) Smallmouth haven't been a huge player in tournaments historically on Ky Lake that I'm aware of but that's turning it seems.
 
So the lake was predominantly smallmouth then? Interesting I did not know that. Smallmouth are so fun to catch.......until you loose your personal best 6+ at the boat like I did Saturday. I had two over 5 and the one that came off was a tank compared to those. Another thing I found interesting is none of the smallmouth even tried to break the surface. Water temps were around 58 on the main lake. I'm going to have to sharpen up on my smallmouth skills it looks like.
 
sometimes, more smallmouth were caught in late winter it seems, especially in january and february right before their spawn. in the 80's it was all about crappie. there used to be people shoulder to shoulder lined up on the banks catching crappie. then the droughts hit, the lake was becoming clearer, milfoil was starting to grow and the bass took off when there were good spawns. some years it was LMB then it would turn around to favor smallmouth especially on the east side where there was a little colder clearer water and more rock and black crappie would be more predominate than whites, then it would switch it seems. it all depends on the water stages and spawns on which will be better from one year to the next. pay attention and keep good mental notes and yall will do great.
 
TRIGGER said:
It seems like every time I fish the lake I catch more and more smallmouth. I have noticed this for a couple of years now but this weekend was eye opening. I fished Friday and Saturday and caught around 20 fish and only 1 was a largemouth. I wasn't targeting them actually caught most of them trying to catch largemouth. Placed 2nd in a tournament (behind our 1 and only Numberone) on Friday with 4 smallmouth and 1 largemouth then won a tournament on Saturday with 5 smallmouth. (17.4 lbs) Smallmouth haven't been a huge player in tournaments historically on Ky Lake that I'm aware of but that's turning it seems.
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Nice
 
I catch more smallmouth during the month of November than just about all other months combined on Kentucky Lake. I fish the south end though which traditionally doesn't have as many smallmouth as around Paris and North (From what I gather).
 
Yep. There are too many spotted bass. You are just as likely to catch a spot as you are a largemouth in certain areas especially right now. They may only be 12-13 inches but they are always fat. I think they eat constantly and stay the same length haha The farther north you go the population thins out. Around Jville they are thick though.
 
and if you notice when you run into a wad of them, you wont catch anything but spots. theyll run any other fish out of the area and theyll take over a deep brush pile. they act like little zombie fish on meth.

the next ones i catch im gonna keep a limit and see how they taste. people say they taste better than crappie but we will see.
 
WTM said:
and if you notice when you run into a wad of them, you wont catch anything but spots. theyll run any other fish out of the area and theyll take over a deep brush pile. they act like little zombie fish on meth.

the next ones i catch im gonna keep a limit and see how they taste. people say they taste better than crappie but we will see.
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Cold water spots have been very good in my experience!
 
Went to jville today and caught a limit of spots in about 20 minutes. Brought them home and filleted them. Would have to catch about 10 spots before you would catch a largemouth. Had one big smallmouth that pulled off. Never got to turn the reel handle on the big girl one time.
 

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