Fishing Dale Hollow Sunday. Whatcha recommend?

[Pointer 78]

It'll be my first time on this lake. Besides a float-n-fly, what's enticing the smallies this time of year? I'm thinking shakey head, spoon, a Deep Wee-R (old model that kills em on Chickamauga) in crawfish, and a dropshot, all on fluorocarbon line since it's a clear lake.

 

[fishinvol]

Silver buddies jigged down the slopes of the bank. Hair jigs, grubs. Good luck!! Most beautiful lake in Tennessee in my opinion.

 

[churly]

I was gonna add hair jigs and grubs, but got beat. Good Luck and please take a camera. I know the bluffs can be real productive in the cold weather!

 

[Guest]

Use the biggest live shiners that you can find, put the hook on the end of your line with a split shot or two about a foot up from the hook, throw it up on the banks and slowly pull it off staying on or close to the bottom. You can use circle hooks and let the smallies catch themselves. Using a weedless hook might help keeping the shiner on the hook. Hook the shiners thru the lips.

 

[rsimms]

Stick with the Float & Fly. It's tried and true for Dale Hollow. Don't have unrealistic expectations.... if you catch ten fish per day, you've had an excellent day. But they will be quality fish. Hope for ugly weather... high pressure, bluebird skies are bad. A friend of mine just returned, fishing those conditions. They caught seven (7) fish in 1.5 days... but they were quality fish.

 

[jbh3]

Might also throw in some brown P-nut jigs and the 7/16 Eakins type jig. Don't forget your cold weather rain gear. Good Luck!!

 

[Pointer 78]

Richard....the long range forcast for Sunday is 60% chance of rain.

 

[fish4thepeck]

if it was me I would tie on a 3/16 oz to a quarter yellow craft hair jig and fish in the creeks. They will be deep 20 to 35 feet. I would put in at Cedar Hill and wouldn't shut it down to I got to Gaulton Hollow. I would also fish the big Hump ( mud Island) straight out from Gaulton. They carry the aspirin head jigs there at one stop in Celina. For more imformation here is a great link
http://smalljaw.com/ you have to register to read

 

[Fat Albert]

<font color="#ff0066">P-78.......I hope you don't freeze your tail off....6# test line,,,black foxtail jig (small) 1/8oz fished slooooooooooowly....hope you catch something...FA</font>

 

[john faulkner]

Keep em DEEP down at the DAM on the points.

 

[rsimms]

Here's a good article with great Float & Fly info:
http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_120519.asp

 

[Pointer 78]

Good read Richard. My partner, who's fished the float-n-fly method swears by yellow jigs. Your thoughts?

 

[rsimms]

Pointer 78 - 1/23/2008 3:51 PM
Good read Richard. My partner, who's fished the float-n-fly method swears by yellow jigs. Your thoughts?

I've heard a lot of talk about "yellow," but have never used it. The times I've been I've used something with red in it. Best day I ever had was with flies a friend made... red/white hair with a couple of strips of mylar mixed in. I always felt those little strips of "flashy" mylar helped. I've experienced same on sauger jigs.

 

[Fuzzy]

I just finished with the fishing show in Knoxville and ran a booth for our club. We were selling a bunch of Netbait McDaddy's on Sunday. A man came up and bought 10 packs of McDaddy's, mostly in watermelon, crawdad or green pumpkin. If you never seen these, they are a different color on the bottom than what is on top. The man mainly fishes on Dale Hollow and told us that he has found these baits work the best and when he uses a single color lure to imitate the McDaddy, his bites go down. All I can tell you is what he told us and he was willing to spend some buck to back it up...

Fuzz

 

[ashtrey]

hey buddy i have fished there this time of year and a black jig with a blue trailer off of a ledge with schooling fish on deep points.

good luck!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[PaperGod]

I've been to Dale several times and last year my brother-in-law and myself stayed at Horse Creek Resort (more of a "lodge" or fishing camp type of place than a resort - don't take the wife if you go) and hired a guide named Bob Coan who showed us the nuances of the Float N Fly. We both caught smallies bigger than 6 pounds in our two days on the water. When we woke up on Saturday, I walked out on the deck and it was windy and snowing at 5:30AM - I said "Danny, we're in trouble buddy." We walked down to the dock at 7:00AM to meet Bob and I thought he was kidding around when he said "You guys have a got a perfect day here.".

To make a long story short, we didn't catch 20 fish each, but the 20 we caught between us were all very good fish with many over 3lbs, 5 between 4 & 6 and two over 6lbs. It is an odd method of fishing - at least for me - and just learning to sling all 11' of that rig up against the bank on a windy day takes some getting used to. Watching that little float dance around with the wind and then disappear is worth the effort though. We used Punisher hair jigs in 1/16th and 1/8th with the hot color being green with a splash of orange (fire craw?).

Enjoy your trip. A truly great piece of water. If I can find the pics of that trip, I'll post them soon.

PG

 

[Guest]

pointer dd fished parellel to the bluff edges

 

[Pointer 78]

Unfortunately David and Richard, it looks like there's gonna be high bluebird skies for Sunday after all.. I've always heard that the nastiest days on Dale Hollow in the Winter produce the best fish.