By Capt. James McManus
Fish that have been off-and-on all winter should be full on by now. I am not a tournament bass angler, but I fished the recent tourney out of Fontana Village and was reminded of that all too well. A buddy and I fished the weekend before and we found a few and I thought that, as scattered as fish have been this winter, we could maybe do pretty well. As the old saying goes, “Don’t bring a knife to a gun fight.” and I feel like that’s what I did.
My favorite thing to do and has been my favorite thing on Fontana, is to throw a 1/8th ounce jig with a Zoom mini fluke or small Kitech. Well my buddy couldn’t fish so I was solo. I caught what I normally do, pretty good numbers but no monsters. As a guide, I like to keep the action up and what that means for most folks is a greater number of bites vs. a greater size of fish caught, especially based on various skill levels. To not make too much out of it, the local bass guys wore me out. I hardly ever see, much less catch, the size of fish a lot of them were weighing in. I left as early as I could load my boat, tail between my legs, not wanting to see how far down I finished. So this is to admit I will never be invited to fish the BassMaster Classic, or really almost any other bass tourney unless they need more prize money for the real bass guys. But it did make me think.
All of us fish for a different reason. You may just want some fresh fish filets and if that’s the case, then a few spotted bass fit that bill and my little baits are the ticket. Several trips each season, I have folks that want to catch their first smallmouth. On Fontana, what you use and where you go will give you the best chance to get that bucket list smallie [by the way, that’s what I caught at the bass tourney]. Anywhere downstream of point 6 or 7 will greatly increase your odds. Walleye are fish that fit both of these wish lists and, although harder than it used to be, there are still some to be had using live bait, jigging or trolling, preferably up towards the river mouths.
The harder a species, or size, is to obtain the more specialized and hard core the angler and methods. To catch what is almost non existent now, a big largemouth, means throwing really big baits right in any debris pile backed up in the back of flooding coves. Crappie gurus won’t even look at anything as large as an eighth ounce jig.
Many years ago, a young guy turned me on to some crappie at the mouth of Alarka against the rock cliff. It being spring, I was looking for crappie and had what I thought was a small jig with a green twister. After watching him catch 6 or 8 right in front of me, he showed me his jig and even gave me one, it couldn’t have weighed 1/64th and had one little sprig of marabou about half an inch long. I became a crappie guru on my next cast and loaded the boat several times that spring just by downsizing.
I have said all this to make excuses for my tournament failings based on stubbornness. I know this stuff, but did I use larger baits to catch larger fish? No. Did I throw Alabama rigs all day long for only five or six bites? No. What I did do was what I enjoy and so, until the weigh-in, my tournament was a success…just don’t expect to see me in the next BassMasters, but I will be having fun and ain’t that what it’s all about? Give me a call if you want to probably catch a bunch, but may need to call someone else if you just want a few bigguns. Stay safe, thank God for our beautiful mountains and fish on…
Later Capt. James
Capt. James McManus is the Owner of 153 Charters. Give him a call for a great day of boat fishing!