Some Tips From an Easter Fishing Trip

The water was clear, the sun was high, water temperature was rising and the mudline was in the middle of the river. Little did I know this would be one of the most epic reasons to get out of Easter Dinner in my life! We started out by running into a creek and caught a few on the Jackall Squad Minnow in Ghost Minnow and Super Shad. We also caught a few on Strike King KVD Jerkbait in Green Gizzard Shad. As we fished our way out of the creek we ran to some islands in the middle of the dirty water part of the river.

In the dirty water, we relied on covering a lot of water for the bites that we got. When we got a bite however, it was a GIANT smallmouth. We used several baits like the Z-Man Jackhammer chatterbait in Black/Blue with a Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper Penetration swim bait trailer. We also used a War Eagle Golden Shiner Spinnerbait (1/2 oz non screaming eagle version due to bigger blades) and a Chartreuse and White double colorado bladed Hawg Caller Spinnerbait. We then decided to go back to the clean water and found a mega school of smallmouth loaded up on a steep drop rock bank.

We started off by fishing that steep drop bank with the jerk baits, and proceeded to catch them on swim baits, spinnerbaits, and dirty dark green pumpkin Cabin Creek tubes. The fish were just crushing the tube. One particular technique that I used to catch some bigger fish was slow rolling a Keiteich swing impact fat 4.3 and 4.8 size swim bait in pro blue and bluegill on a Strike King squadron 1/8 oz jighead. In order to do this technique you had to fish the drop-off at a 45 degree angle to maximize your bait in the strike zone. Remember to not be afraid to try bigger baits, because big fish will eat bigger baits. At the end of today, both boats caught well over 200 fish and it was an epic Easter fishing day that will never be forgotten.