Smithville Last Couple of Weeks
Me and my brother have been out the past two weekends at Smithville. It's been real nice at the lake. Temp is going down, less people at the lake, and the bite is getting better. And surprisingly, the main lake's bite has been pretty good for us. Been slacking off on my reports, so here we go.
Area 1: There are a series of 4 brush piles in this area. My best bite are on the two piles in 10-15' of water. There aren't any monsters here, but I've caught my limit within an hour and most of them are 9, 10, 11 inchers. There's a pile in about 20' of water or so. That one has not been as productive as the more shallow ones.
Area 2: This is the new "party cove" of Smithville. Boats are starting to tie up at this location. But, during the spring I like fishing these small coves during the spawn. Right in front of the coves, the water comes up real quick from 25' to 5'. And right on the top ledge where it goes shallow, the crappie really hang out. After the spawn is over, this spot really slows down. But on occasion, I'll snag a few around the trees that fell in the water. Well, this week the old SI found something in the water. Looks like someone dropped some brush right on the lip of the drop off around 10' of water. There weren't too many fish here, but there were a couple of 11 inchers.
Area 3: Shady Hollow Cove. I really can't figure this place out. Are the fish in the tree's, are they on the top of the flooded dam, are they shallow and in the back of the cove - dont' know; it seem to change each time I fish there. The Si found some trees in 20' of water with the tops around 5' down. Actually the down imaging found a lot of fish hanging in the branches. Caught a lot of fish 20' in front of the tree row above the water line, right in front of the picnic shelter. They didn't want a fast retrieve, they wanted the jigs sitting almost still.
Area 4: Many, many brush piles and fish attractors here. The deep piles didn't produce any good fish. The shallow piles were the best. Be sure to tape up your thumb because it's going to get raw unhooking all the fish your going to catch. This is another place that will put a limit of 10" fish in the live well. Also, I notice that there is a long ledge were the water goes from 15' to 5'. Casting a jig along that edge will land you some fish too. The ledge is the long red bar on my map.
Area 5: Last, but not least. I adopted a new motto a couple of weeks ago to fish areas that I would normally pass up. Well, this was my new spot this week. These are the trees across from the W Bridge boat launch. I fished the trees that were 10-15' deep and caught some keeper sized fish. Anything deeper or further north didn't produce any bites for me.
Best bite was on black/chart and blue/chart. Fish in brush piles didn't mind a faster retrieve. Fish in the trees wanted a slow retrieve. Last week the fish were hanging half way down in the trees. This week they were hanging almost at the bottom.
If anyone's been out, post a report. I'd like to hear how you guys are doing.
Alex (KC Area, Smithville Lake)