Entry 241-3

Fishing Reelfoot Lake with Billy Blakely for Bass and Catfish in March

Part 3: Open Water for Big Spring Bass

Question: Billy, as the water begins to warm up at Reelfoot in March, how will you find and catch bass?

Blakely: I’ll fish the Red Eye Shad in open water.

Question: Why fish in open water?

Blakely: Reelfoot Lake was formed because of an earthquake. During the earthquake, a hole was created, which is now Reelfoot Lake, and all the timber fell over, broke off, died and rotted in this hole. So, there are some extremely-productive stump fields only 3- to 4-feet underwater. But you can’t see these stump fields with your naked eye. You have to see the stump fields with your depth finder or know they’re there.

When the bass move away from the trees and the deep holes, they’ll start migrating toward the shallow flats. But bass don’t pack their bags, pick up and move. They stop at some fast food joints on the way, like the stump fields. Because there’s so much bait in Reelfoot, you don’t want to let the bass have time to put in their order for fast food. You just want to run the food by them, so they’ll have to jump out there and grab it. That’s the reason I like to fish the Red Eye Shad. I can cover a lot of water with it and fish it really fast over the tops of those stump fields.

With the Red Eye Shad, most tourists think I’ve lost my mind. If you see someone out in the middle of a lake where you normally fish, chunking and winding in open water, even though there’s plenty of standing timber and lily pads to fish, you’ll have to think that fellow has lost his mind, too. Those tourists can’t see the underwater stumps. They may not know that the bass haven’t reached the lily pads in the shallow water, yet they’ve left those live cypress trees standing out in the water. Therefore, the tourists are fishing visible cover, and I’m fishing invisible cover only 3- or 4-feet deep.

The bass in that open water have very-little fishing pressure. So, I’m much-more likely to catch a big bass at this time of year than all the people fishing where they think bass should be holding. Because the bass are scattered, I can cover a lot of water with that Red Eye Shad and find and catch more fish than the people targeting visible structure. This type of fishing really gets good from about mid-March until the first or the second week of April.

Question: Billy, how do you find the best stumps to fish for bass, if you’ve never fished Reelfoot?

Blakely: You look for the tree lines that extend out into the water. Where those tree lines stop in open water is where the stumps start. Generally, those stumps will extend until the next ridge you can see on the bank. You also can see those stumps on your depth finder.

Question: What kind of retrieve do you use, Billy?

Blakely: I make long casts with light line and reel that Red Eye Shad as fast as I can. I’m burning that bait through the water, so the bass don’t have very long to look at the bait.

Question: Billy, when the bass leave the stumps in 3 to 4 feet of water, how shallow will they move?

Blakely: They’ll often move up into 12 to 18 inches of water under the lily pads.

Question: What color Red Eye Shad seems to work best for you at this time of year?

Blakely: I prefer the Sexy Shad color because I like the little chartreuse-yellow stripe down the side. It’s a color you don’t see on any other lure, so it offers the bass a color of shad they’ve never seen.

Question: How many bass will you usually catch when you’re fishing this pattern in March?

Blakely: We’ll generally catch from 10 to 25 bass a day.

Question: What will your biggest bass weigh?

Blakely: It’ll weigh 6 or 7 pounds, with our average bass weighing about 3-1/2-pounds.

Question: Why hasn’t everyone else learned this pattern, Billy?

Blakely: Reelfoot is a very-inviting lake. There are plenty of trees, lily pads and bank cover out in the water. When you look at Reelfoot, you automatically think the bass are everywhere. You still can catch bass around visible cover, but I catch the most bass out in open water in March. Most people are target fishermen. They want to cast, pitch or flip to a target they can see rather than throw a lipless crankbait out in open water and run it past targets they can’t see.

Question: Billy, when you’re guiding at Reelfoot, do some of your clients think you’ve lost your mind when you pull up and start fishing in that open water?

Blakely: At first, I’m sure they do. But then when we start catching bass, they know I’ve taken them to a honey hole. Then before long, we’ll start catching bass in these stump fields.

Next: Raging for Spring Bass

Contents:

• Part 1: Go Shallow for Bass the End of February Through Mid-March
• Part 2: Timber Hunting the Lunkers
• Part 3: Open Water for Big Spring Bass
• Part 4: Raging for Spring Bass
• Part 5: Catch Kitties Now