kayak

Kayak: Top Baits from Dale Hollow

Dale Hollow Lake offers an experience like no other when it comes to bass fishing. The third stop of the Bassmaster Kayak Series provided competitive anglers with an opportunity to catch both brown and green fish at the same time. Dale Hollow is located in south central Kentucky and on the northern border of Tennessee. Most known for its world record smallmouth bass and abundant population of them, this lake is a true destination for bass anglers with its clear water as well. With beautiful bluff walls and abounding natural structure these anglers would find Dale Hollow to be an incredible fishery with fish in just about every part of it. The timing was perfect for this tournament as the smallmouth were finishing up their spawn and the largemouth were moving in all week. The top anglers found numerous ways to catch them and the results were amazing! Let’s see what these top anglers presented these bass to achieve their success.

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Marty Hughes
Ewing Minor of Tennessee used a Little Miami Outfitters Utan 6’10” medium light rod with a ¼ oz. ball head jig and a Burtek Wrangler 5.7 in electric shad to catch his fish. He targeted both suspended fish and those related to the bottom with it since it imitates the larger alewife that the bigger smallmouth were keyed in on. 
Minor used a ¼ oz. ball head jig and a Burtek Wrangler 5.7 in electric shad to catch his fish.
Seth Taylor of Florida used a Magnum Baits 5” Reg Stick in the Dark Horse Tackle exclusive color to catch all of his fish over the course of the two days on Dale Hollow Lake. He Neko rigged the worm with a ⅛ ounce weight and eventually moved to any sized nail weight he could find as he ran out of the ⅛ ounce Neko weights. The weight of the head didn’t seem to make a difference. For the hook he used a Gamakatsu 2/0 Finesse Wide Gap. His choice of rod was a $60 Abu Garcia 7’ Jordan Lee Baitcast Combo with a Medium-Heavy, fast action. He targeted largemouth and smallmouth beds with the Magnum Baits Neko rig in about 1-12 foot of water both days. 
Seth Taylor finished in second place on Dale Hollow using the Dark Horse Tackle Magnum Baits 5” Reg Stick. 
Jason Isaacs from Ohio used a ZMan FattyZ on a ⅛ oz. shaky head. He also threw a ZMan Evo Tungsten Chatterbait to finish in third place at the Bassmaster Kayak Series Dale Hollow event. 
A closer look at Isaac’s baits, the ZMan FattyZ and the Evo Tungsten Chatterbait. 
Rus Snyders of Tennessee did a combination of flipping a couple of fish out of buck brush, and live scoping with a Rapala Mooch Minnow in the early mornings using an Irod Quercus 702 paired with a Lew’s Mach Crush. Around midday, he caught a few kickers on a Bucca Trick Shad glide bait with an Irod Quercus 783 paired with a Lew’s Super Duty 300. The largemouth were mostly farther back in the pockets and around the wood, with the smallmouth on the steeper rocky points and bluff walls. Snyders mentioned that it was nice having an area with both species, so that he could change techniques throughout the day. He caught 7-8 fish per day, which was definitely a bit of a challenge to get bit. 
Jake Angulas of New Hampshire used an Owner Range Roller 5.3 gram jig head with a Deps Sakamata shad color #AA01 on a Daiwa Certate LT2500-H reel and a Dobyns 752 Xtasy rod. His second presentation was a Berkley PowerBait Saltwater Mullet Jerk Shad on a Queen City 14 gram tackle head with a 3/0 hook. He used a 3000 Shimano Ci4+ reel and a Dobyns Champion HP 703SF rod. 
Adam Milstead of Pennsylvania picked a bank apart with a 412 Bait Co. ¼ oz. Dreamsicle spinnerbait early in the morning. He found good largemouth when he targeted laydowns. When the sun came out, he targeted bluff walls with the ZMan FattyZ, slowly dragging it in 10 to 15 feet of water. The cooler second day played more into the finesse game and most of his fish came on the FattyZ. “Low and slow” was the name of the game when it came to the big smallmouth. 
Derek Brundle of Massachusetts used a variety of baits to catch bass at Dale Hollow. He used the 3.5 gram Owner Range Roller jig head and a Berkley Fusion 19 hybrid  3/16 oz. jig head paired with a Rapala Crush City Mooch Minnow and a Freeloader. He also used a Strike King Baby Z Too and 6th Sense Friction Shad with much success. When he flipped his baits he used a Missile Baits Ike Mini Flip Jig in green pumpkin and a Strike King Rage Bug. 
His rods used included a Yakrods Tethered Series spinning rod to fish a jighead minnow. Yakrods Frog/Heavy cover rod and a Yakrods Foundation Pro jigs/moving bait rod. 
Brundle used Missile Baits Ike Mini Flip Jig in green pumpkin and a Strike King Rage Bug to entice some good bites. 
The 3.5 gram Owner Range Roller jig head and Rapala Crush City Mooch Minnow provided some good bites for Derek Brundle at Dale Hollow.
The Berkley Fusion 19 hybrid  3/16 oz.jig with a Crush City Freeloader was a staple for Brundle.
Brundle flipped a Strike King Rage Bug on the structure to catch bass. 
Ron Butler Jr. of Tennessee started out on Saturday fishing shallow areas for about three hours but wasn’t able to get anything going there. He only managed two small fish, which made him go to livescope for some deep water smallmouth. It didn’t take long and he hooked up with his first one suspended over about 40 feet of water.  His biggest from Day 1 was a 20.25” monster! It was difficult to get them to bite but he continued to run the pattern the rest of the day and managed a good 94 inch limit. He started back in the same area on Day 2, throwing the Krej jerkbait. He caught his biggest of the day very early on it with the rest of his fish coming off the Hogg Farmers Spunk Shad 3.5 in darker colors. 
Ross Pinkerton of Florida was targeting spawning fish in 8 to 12 feet of water with a drop shot for the majority of the tournament. He threw a 6” Roboworm in Morning Dawn, rigged with a size 1 Owner Covershot hook. The key for Pinkerton was using his Humminbird Mega Live 2 to find the deepest spawning fish possible. The deep fish would bite a lot easier than the shallow fish, and they tended to be bigger as well. 
Early in the morning on Day 1, he realized his drop shot rod had a chipped insert that was shredding his line. So he tied the drop shot onto his only other spinning rod, a Dobyns Sierra medium fast paired with a Shimano Ultegra 3000. He had it spooled with a 10 pound braid and a 10 pound fluorocarbon leader. It actually worked better than he expected and he only lost one fish throughout the event.
Pinkerton used a Roboworm for much of his success in the Bassmaster Kayak Series event on Dale Hollow Lake.

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