by Wayne Wooten
If you like topwater fishing and don’t mind an early start, Clarks Hill is the place to be. Larry Barnes and I fish out of Bobby Brown Park at the Russell Dam area. We head out just before daybreak and start looking for blow ups at the crack of dawn.
The fishing has been awesome using topwater lures such as the Whopper Plopper, popping cork with a fly, Spooks and Magic Swimmers. We have caught as many as 15 each in an hour.
I have caught several fish on the Whopper Plopper as soon as it hit the water without turning the handle, and Larry had the same thing happen on a Spook. I have been cranking the Whopper Plopper just fast enough to make the tail spin, and they just pound it over and over till they get hooked. Larry has been walking the dog with the Spook with the same results.
The hybrids have been 2 to 5 pounds with an occasional 10 pound striper in the mix. I had one hybrid that was about 12 inches long hit a 6 inch lure four or five times until it got a mouth full of hooks. There hasn’t been many large (5 pounds and up) hybrids, but there is plenty of them in the 2 to 5 pound range and several stripers 10 pounds and up.
We have been fishing until 11:00 AM, and although it had slowed down some, we were catching fish up until we left.
If you are looking for an action packed morning, go to Bobby Brown Park and head toward the dam. Start looking for blow ups along the way, and when you see some, stop and ease over to that area and start casting at them.