Bet on Pickwick's ledges during June

Pickwick Lake is a great ledge lake. Although you primarily will be fishing for and catching largemouths there in June, when you get a strike, you don’t know what you’ll reel in, because all types of fish and baitfish will be running those ledges. All of the Tennessee River lakes are extremely fertile and home to an abundance of baitfish. During June, the ledges are the structure you can bet on to find and catch bass.

We’ll fish these Pickwick secondary ledges — not the river ledges — many different ways. In June, bass will be holding on the first ledges you come to between the river-channel ledge toward the bank. The weather is warming, but it’s not quite enough to move bass out to the deep-water river ledges just yet. 

We’ll also fish secondary points and bars. This time of the year, I’ve found the best Pickwick bassing to be between Second Creek and the Natchez Trace. This area has many ledges and bars with underwater creeks cutting through them. Generally, you’ll see some grass starting to grow on some of these bars in June. My favorite two June places to fish at Pickwick are mussel-shell bars on these secondary ledges and the ends of those bars. 

Crank ‘em up

I’ll start off with Mann’s 15+ and 20+ crankbaits in gray ghost or brown back/chartreuse colors. Read Full Story

Drawdown, increase in cover has turned 500-acre lake around

Maynor Creek, a 500-acre lake near Waynesboro, is a Pat Harrison Waterway District lake. One of the older lakes in that group, Maynor Creek had issues with its dam almost 10 years ago. The state pulled the water level down to repair the dam. 

While the water was down, a tremendous amount of grass and brush grew up from the bottom of the lake. Once the lake level rose back to a normal level, that growth provided extra cover for spawning bass and young bass. Maynor Creek is in very good condition and is producing some 3- to 5-pound bass, as well as crappie and bluegills. You may catch a postspawn bass at Maynor Creek that weighs 7 pounds or more. 

Early morning

From just at daylight until about an hour after, I’ll be fishing the lake’s causeway. A small bridge there is at a place where the lake necks down, and the bass have to pass through that area to reach the northern end of the lake. The causeway and the bridge create a funnel for baitfish and bass to move back and forth from one end of the lake to the other. At daylight, you’ll usually see plenty of bass action in that area, and perhaps even schooling bass. 

I’ll be fishing this region with a white, ¼-ounce buzzbait and a shad-colored Zara Spook. To fish the buzzbait, I’ll use a 7-foot-2, medium-heavy Shimano Expride rod and a Curado 200 XG reel with 23-pound test White Peacock fluorocarbon. I’ll use a 6-foot-10 medium-heavy Expride rod with the same reel with 30-pound bass braid and a 20-pound fluorocarbon leader to fish the Spook. I’ll cast both lures from the points of the causeway bridge down the road embankment to about 50 yards on either side of the bridge and on both ends. Read Full Story