By Aaron Kephart
While there is still some winter weather to be endured, there have definitely been some hints of spring lately, and with that comes the excitement of a change in seasons and fish behavior. Please don’t get me wrong: this has been a wonderful winter for myself and my clients, and we have caught some awesome fish. Trophy stripers, smallmouth, spotted bass, largemouth, and giant brown trout have all made an appearance in the red boat, and I have been blessed to see a lot of happy, but bundled up, faces. Personally, I am ready for the kind of weather that requires fewer layers, and with that in mind, I would like to look at what to expect over the next couple of months.
My primary species of interest in the spring months are stripers and spotted bass, followed by largemouth and walleye. The stripers will be feeding, often aggressively, and this is THE single best time of year to catch a monster. Primary methods for big stripers this time of year are planer boards, big bait (gizzards, trout, and jumbo herring), and heavy line. There is also often a schooling bite this time of year, which translates to an awesome topwater bite. However, these fish, while not necessarily in shallow water, will be feeding shallow (by that, I mean feeding in the top part of the water column), and therefore, they are more accessible to light line tactics than at any other time of the year. My absolute favorite way to catch these fish is on spinning rigs, rigged weightless, and simply pitching to fish holding areas. Nothing in freshwater compares to the pull of a striper on a light spinning outfit.
Largemouth and spotted bass, meanwhile, are both thinking about gorging themselves for the upcoming spawn. They have been lethargic and difficult all winter, but a couple of good warming trends completely changes their mindset. They will follow creek channels and ditches to likely pieces of cover and secondary points adjacent to spawning flats. This is the time of year to catch the biggest spot or largemouth of your life, and depending upon conditions, a number of methods can work.
Walleye are the single most difficult fish to pattern in any of our area lakes, and because of that deserve their own article. I will say that March and May are traditionally the two best months to catch them, and if you are interested in giving them a try, please just give me a call and we can have a more in-depth conversation than I have space for here.
While the recent warming trends may have me jumping the gun and declaring winter prematurely over, I do know that there is more warm weather in the immediate future than cold, and I am excited. I love it when the warm afternoons start bringing up the water temperature and fish go on the prowl, looking for another big meal before they undergo their annual spawning ritual. If you would like to get out on the water and experience everything that one of our Murphy area lakes has to offer please give me a call at 865-466-1345. I look forward to hearing from you, and thank you for reading The Angler Magazine!
Aaron Kephart is the Owner of Mountain Lakes Guide Service. To book a guided trip on one of the Murphy area mountain lakes, contact him by phone or by email at mtnlakesguide@outlook.com Check out his website at http://www.mtnlakesguideservice.com and catch him on facebook@mountainlakesguideservice.