By Ronnie Parris
Remember when you were a kid and you would try to get to sleep on Christmas Eve and it seemed you could never get settled down and stop thinking of all those presents under the tree you were hoping ol’ Santa was going to bring? Then, in the morning, you would wake up and race through the house to the tree and try to play with everything at once. I see it now with my grandson; he will have a toy in both hands and be trying to play with both at the same time. Well, December on Fontana is about like that-you can hardly sleep the night before, trying to guess where the fish will be stacked up and you hope you have the best baits in your box tied on so when you get on them, there’s no wasted time with changing lures. You get up and drag the boat as fast as our curvy roads will allow, and start looking for your reward for being a good boy all year long. December is usually the payoff month, no matter if you are a walleye fishermen or a bass angler. Most times they are under the Christmas tree together.
Fontana has massive schools of threadfin shad, which will tend to congregate together this month and every species of fish will be working them. Bait pods with thousands of minnows will be some days on the surface, which is great because you can visually see where you need to be positioned and you can work ahead of the fish to better get ready to cast into these breakers. Usually, these will be a mixture of smallmouth and spotted bass on the surface, but it’s almost like a layer cake with the next layer holding good numbers of white bass, and your bottom layer holding walleye and yellow perch. I like to troll, so I will be working every layer with a different rod hooked to a downrigger. Pay close attention to your fish finder and keep walleye baits a few feet higher than you are seeing them on your graph, as they feed up when they are stalking baitfish. This is a great time of year because almost any style of fishing will produce some kind of fish. I see a lot of guys vertical jigging, some cast artificial lures, and some throw live minnows. Almost every style works. Walleye and perch are usually so deep when you bring them up that their swim bladder will blow, so please keep track of your catch and when you limit, don’t keep fishing and think you can release these fish, as the survival rate is really low when this occurs.
This is my favorite time of year for fishing and spending quality time with the family, so take that little boy or girl out and watch their eyes light up when they’re bringing in a hard fighting white bass or spotted bass. It’s usually not real cold mid-day but be sure to dress warm and in layers. I usually have a heater in the boat but, if you do this, be sure to maintain it so that you don’t have the risk of a fire on the boat. One thing I would warn you about, which I have learned the hard way, is to watch the weather fronts that can move in fast this month, especially the snow fronts. Although it causes fish to bite like crazy, you don’t want to risk wrecking your boat on the pull back home. Please be safe and have fun, and as always, take a kid fishing.
Ronnie Parris is the Owner and Head Guide of Smoky Mountain Outdoors Unlimited-Fontana Lake Fishing Guides, headquartered in Bryson City, North Carolina, heart of the Great Smoky Mountains. (www.smokymountainoutdoorsunlimited.com)