Entry 384-1
Pickwick Smallmouths Tearing It Up in November and December with Roger Stegall
Editor’s Note: Roger Stegall of Iuka, Mississippi, guides on the world-famous Pickwick Lake in Alabama, one of the top smallmouth bass fisheries in the nation and averages 150 to 200 days a year on the water. Legend has it that Stegall tells the smallmouths where and when to show-up. This week, Stegall will tell us where and how he’s catching smallmouths that often weigh 6 pounds or more.
Part 1: Catch Smallmouths on Top in November and December with Roger Stegall
Question: Roger, what baits do you use to catch the smallmouths on Pickwick at this time of year?
Stegall: Right now, the water temperature’s 58 degrees, so I’ll be catching smallmouths on top-water lures, like the Strike King ZTOO and the Spit-N-King.
Question: Why are the smallmouths on top at this time of year?
Stegall: The smallmouths are feeding on shad that are schooling-up and swimming on top of the water. On a recent guide trip, when I saw the bass blowing-up on shad in Pickwick, I initially thought they were largemouth bass, because Pickwick homes a good population of both largemouths and smallmouths. The largemouth bass were feeding on shad, but a number of smallmouth bass were mixed-in with the largemouth bass.
The smallmouth bass seemed to be chasing shad minnows, so my guide group and I started casting the Spit-N-King when the bass were busting on the surface and the ZTOO when they stopped hitting the shad on top. We caught about 15 to 20 smallmouth and largemouth bass in that one school. A couple of days previously, I saw bass busting through the schools of shad on top. That school of smallmouth bass was full of 4 to 5 pounders and one or two bass that would weigh 6 pounds.
Question: Do smallmouths generally school together by size at this time of year?
Stegall: Yes, they do, especially the bigger bass. But usually when we find those schools of big smallmouth bass, there won’t be as many in the school as there are in a school of smaller-sized smallmouth bass. 
Too, a big school of smallmouth bass seemed to prefer the ZTOO, rather than the Spit-N-King.
Question: How did you rig the ZTOO?
Stegall: I used a blue glimmer ZTOO with 10- and 12-pound-test Vicious fluorocarbon line for the main line. I tied a barrel swivel to the main line and then tied about a 1-foot-long leader line coming off the bottom end of the barrel swivel. I used an extra-wide-gap weighted Gamakatzu Superline No. 4/0 hook, which helps the ZTOO sink faster. The barrel swivel was effective, because wherever it went, the ZTOO would be right behind it. Then the bass would think it was a big shad chasing a little shad. That swivel also gave the bait more weight to get it down more quickly.
By using the swivel and the big, wide-gap hook, I better could control my cast. The water’s really clear right now, and when the smallmouths see that ZTOO, they attack and inhale it. We may have to make 20 casts to the same school and not get a bite until the 21st cast. On the big school we found, we only caught about six to eight smallmouth bass, but they were all 4- to 6-pounds each. My party said that the big school we got into was some of the biggest smallmouths they’d ever caught before.
To contact Roger Stegall, email rogstegall@fishpickwick.com, call 662-423-3869, or visit www.fishpickwick.com.
Contents:
- Part 1: Catch Smallmouths on Top in November and December with Roger Stegall
- Part 2: Use Strike Kings 3X Grub for Smallmouths with Roger Stegall
- Part 3: More Ways to Catch Smallmouths with Strike King Lures and Roger Stegall
- Part 4: Roger Stegall Explains Vertical Drops and Strike King’s Football Jigs for Smallmouths
- Part 5: How Roger Stegall Set the Record on Smallmouths with a Strike King Spinner Bait
