SOUTHERN-FRIED BEDDING BRONZE
Once he catches a spawning smallie,
Ott DeFoe swaps to finesse gear to
milk more fish from the area.
THE FISHERIES
MILK THE SPOT
Once you get a bite, whether or
not you hook up, it’s time for phase
two: mop-up time.
“Once I get a bite, I immediately
pick up a drop-shot or a Ned rig and
fire right back to where I had the
bite,” says DeFoe. “Smallmouth are
so aggressive when they get on beds
that fish will come back and eat that
small offering almost every time.”
Here’s where many anglers make
another crucial mistake. After catch-
ing that fish, they’ll get back on the
trolling motor and continue working
down the bank.
Don’t do that.
“If there’s one smallmouth on a
bed, there’s probably more there,”
says Snavely. “So once I catch one,
I’ll sit in the same spot and cast
around. Often, I’ll catch three, four or
five more fish without moving the
boat. Sometimes you can catch as
many as 15 without moving the boat
very far.”
And even once you think you’ve
fished out a spot, you might not have.
Be patient.
“I can’t tell you how many times I
was burned by this when I first really
started targeting them,” says Snavely.
“I’d catch a few and then the bite
would go dead. So I’d leave, only for
some guy to come in a little while
56
later and tear them up in the same
exact spot.
“Smallmouth move up so quickly
that many times the same spot will
replenish, and quickly.”
That’s why DeFoe will often fish
his way into a pocket, and if he
locates an area with spawning small-
mouths, he’ll turn the boat around
and fish his way out, making sure to
go down the same stretch. The tactic
not only allows the spot to potentially
replenish, but it also presents his
lures at different angles, allowing him
to hit spots he might have missed on
the first pass.
From there, it’s rinse and repeat.
Maybe the smallmouths in a given
lake will be on those gravel flats, or
perhaps on 45-degree chunk rock
banks. Regardless, once you have an
idea of what they’re on, you should be
able to replicate it throughout the lake
when you find the right ingredients.
“Smallmouth are so aggressive
when they get on beds and can be so
predictable when you know what to
look for; it’s just a fun way to fish for
them,” says DeFoe. “The only prob-
lem is it’s usually only a two-week
window.”
But, as the 2019 Cherokee event
showed, inside those two weeks, the
bronze fishing can rival that of any-
thing up north.
Before searching for bedding small-
mouths on a Southern lake, it’s best to pick
the right lake. After all, while many Southern
reservoirs have smallmouths in them, some
are much more prolific smallmouth fisheries.
So, real quick, here are some of the better
Southern smallmouth fisheries.
• Dale Hollow (Ky. and Tenn.)
• Cherokee Lake (Tenn.)
• Fort Loudoun-Tellico (Tenn.)
• Watts Barr (Tenn.)
• Wilson Lake (Ala.)
• Beaver Lake (Ark.)
• Table Rock (Mo.)
We’d be remiss to not mention Pickwick
Lake, too, as it’s notorious for having some
truly giant smallmouths in it. In fact, you
might not have realized that four of the five
largest state-record smallmouths have come
from Southern fisheries.
Here are the top five:
1. Kentucky/Tennessee – 11-15
(Dale Hollow)
2. Alabama – 10-8
(Wheeler Dam tailwater)
3. North Carolina – 10-0
(Hiwassee Reservoir)
4. Ohio – 9-8 (Lake Erie)
5. South Carolina – 9-7 (Lake Jocassee)
FLWFISHING.COM | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING.COM | FEBRUARY-MARCH 2020