Entry 176-5

Catching Smallmouth with Roger Stegall in the Fall

Part 5: You’re Not Going to Believe This

Editor’s Note: Roger Stegall of Iuka, Mississippi, a tournament bass fisherman who owns and operates Roger Stegall’s Professional Guide Service at Pickwick Lake on the Alabama/Tennessee/Mississippi line, has scouted and fished for big smallmouth for more than 30 years. At this time of year, smallmouth fishing really heats up on the Tennessee River and especially on Pickwick Lake. This week, we’ll learn how Stegall is catching big smallmouth that weigh 8 pounds or more.

Question: How are you catching smallmouth when all else fails?

Stegall: I’ve found that when I know there are smallmouth in the area, and I can’t catch them on any of my smallmouth baits, I fish the Carolina rig with a watermelon 3X Centipede or a watermelon 3X 6-inch Lizard in 2- to 3-foot water. Most people who fish the Carolina rig, fish it as a deep-water rig in 10-, 12- or 20-foot depths. You often fish the Carolina rig in water that’s too deep to fish anything else. But I’ve learned that if you fish the Carolina rig in extremely-shallow water, you’re using a tactic and a lure in a water depth where the bass have never seen that tactic or lure. I fish a chartreuse tail 3X Lizard or 3X Centipede. When you put that chartreuse tail on these two soft-plastic lures, I’ve found that the bass will bite this lure when they won’t bite anything else.

Question: How long a leader are you using on your Carolina rig?

Stegall: I use from a 3- to a 5-1/2-foot leader, and I use a 3/4-ounce egg sinker up the line. Most people never use a leader this long in shallow water, which gives me an advantage. I’m using 12-pound line with a 10-pound leader. I’m fishing this rig on gravel shelves and bars, ridges and flats. I’m fishing those pea-gravel and sand flats that have no structure on them and no reason for a bass to be there. I’m fishing the kind of flats that you drive by every day and say to yourself, “There’s no way a bass could be there. I’m not going to even stop and fish that spot.”

Those places are where I find plenty of good fish because no one else has been looking for bass there no one else has thrown a lure there. The bass haven’t had any fishing pressure on that spot. I think I’m fishing for un-pressured bass, and I know when I do catch fish in an area like this, they’re usually the larger-sized bass, especially the smallmouth. I was fishing a tournament in mid-September with a Carolina rig in really-shallow-water regions, and I was finding and taking bass when no one else was.

Question: Most people think that a Carolina rig with a 3- to 5-foot leader is a long rig to fish in shallow water, and they also believe that the leader is way too long to fish in a 2-foot-water depth. Why are you fishing that kind of rig in those types of spots?

Stegall: For the exact reason you said – no one in his right mind is fishing these places like this but me. I was fishing a tournament at Ross-Barnett in September, and I really did well in practice using this rig. Remember, in shallow-water situations, many bass that will be holding there have already seen a lipless crankbait, a spinner bait, and possibly a Texas-rigged worm. What they haven’t seen is a 3X Centipede or a 3X Lizard lazily swimming behind a long Carolina rig. Now, you will get hung up sometimes in that shallow water with the Carolina rig, but I’d rather be hung up and catching bass, than never get hung and not catch bass.

I’ve learned over the years that if you fish like everyone else is fishing, you’re going to catch about the same size and number of bass that everyone else is catching. But when you change your tactics and lures, and you fish with inappropriate fishing strategies, you often can find and take the bigger bass. I believe that the bass think the Lizard and the Centipede may be a dying shad that are kicking along the bottom about to die as they fall. But when you slide the bait across the bottom, it picks up a little bit of life, and then begins to die off again.

Another thing to remember is that at this time of the year, largemouth and smallmouth are also swimming with stripers and hybrids on Pickwick Lake. Stripers and hybrids have to stay in constant motion. They can’t sit still and study a bait like a bass can, and the smallmouth know that stripers and hybrids are slash feeders. So, when the stripers start feeding on a school of shad, they’re going to cripple and maim about as many as they’ll eat. By swimming under the school of stripers and allowing the linesides to do the killing and maiming, the smallmouth bass just lazily swim along beneath the school picking up and eating the injured shad. When that 3X Centipede or 3X Lizard on the Carolina rig moves forward and then slowly starts to sink, that bait’s acting like an injured shad. Then those bass will really gobble them up. When all else fails, try that long Carolina Rig in extremely-shallow water, and you’ll see that it will produce both smallmouth and largemouth on Pickwick Lake during this month.

Check out Roger Stegall’s Guide Service for more information.

Catching Smallmouth with Roger Stegall in the Fall

Part 5: You’re Not Going to Believe This

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