Dale Hollow Lake 12-15-08 | Dale Hollow Lake-Fishing Lures, Spinnerbaits, Hair Jigs, Bass Lures

The hot topic around the lake this week is all of this rain we've been getting, and will continue to get all week. If you want know how to pick a fishermen out of a crowd around Dale Hollow, pay extra close attention to people's faces. The ones with smiles ear to ear are the fishermen, and there's two reasons. One - it's brought the water level up some. It's been a hard few weeks for launching, but with the amount of rain we're in store for, that situation should straighten itself out just fine. Two - the fishing will be out of this world. I'll tell you why further down.

Lake Stats

Waterlevel: 635.40 MSL - 15.60' below full pool of 651'.
Water Temp: 50 degrees at surface, 50 degrees 10' deep
Clarity: water is clear on the lower end, slightly stained on the upper end, due to the rain the creeks are/will be stained.

Smallmouth

It's hard to stress enough the importance of forage, or the main food source, of Smallmouth or any other fish for that matter. If you know how the forage is affected by the current conditions, you'll know where to find them. If you know where to find them, you'll find fish that eat them too...

With that said, think about this weeks introduction about the rain. The rain will cause the bait fish to become more active for two reasons - first, the rain is warmer than the lake. Minnows have a hard time in colder water and actually start to die when the water temperature reaches 40 degrees. The rain will have a warming affect, especially in the shallower creeks, and cause the minnows to go into a feeding frenzy. Second, if you've ever been to Dale Hollow Lake then you know it's all "hollers", or ridges/coves/mountains for you Northerners :). We mentioned in our first report that when we get a big rain the run-off from these hollers washes a lot of plant material into the creeks. Well guess what, among other things, minnows feed on plant material (plankton).

So, you can guess where we recommend fishing...

To read the rest of this report, including what's working and hot spot maps, visit www.DaleHollowFishing.com.