kent lake late may

[nitroderrek]

i will be fishing kent lake on may 20th 2007, and i haven't had any success with the lake that time of year.  in late march and early april i don't have much problem catching smallies out there, but toward the end of april and through May i have a tough time catching anything out there...  what would you suggest fishing that time of year to catch some fish?  lures, locations, etc...  should i target smallies or largies?  any help would be appreciated, thanks, derrek

[McCarter]

That is a tricky time of year becuase, depending on the weather patterns, you might be looking at a strong post spawn pattern.  A lot of people dont realize just how early the bass spawn on kent.  I have seen the largemouth in full spawn when the water temps are in the low to mid 50s.  i think some people are kinda waiting for that text book temperature to start targeting bedding fish.  They just get to it earlier out there.  You can always catch them on beds all through may, and into june ( sometimes into july, or was it august cheetam?).  they just arent going to be everywhere like they are in april and early may, again, depending on the weather. 

If you are out there and you are not seeing any on beds, start targeting the first drop off from the spawning flats.  I like a couple of different baits for this out there, but my favorite is a 5" senko type.  Wacky rig it and cast parallel to the breaks.  Keep an eye on your line.  I just got turned on to this last season and it made all the difference in my post spawn fishing out there.  Some other baits i have had hit or miss days on this time of the season are medium diving crankbaits, soft jerkbaits, and topwater.

the fish really get down into the cover after they spawn and you have to put the baits in front of there face.  Find weeds along the breaks and work your bait slow and be thorough. 

This time of year, it would be hard to target one species inparticularly.  They will be kinda scattered together.  A lot of the largies will spawn at the same time as the smallmouth so they will be in the same pattern at the same time.  However, i have been able to find schools of very active post spawn smallies that are willing to bite all day long.  problem is, they arent going to win you any tournaments.  you can catch a limit of 17" - 18" smallmouth that might not even tip 10 lbs.  the smallmouth get extremly thin after they spawn.  Once they have rested up they go on a feeding frenzy to fatten back up.  But we usually dont start seeing good weights from the smallmouth again til mid june.  They look like mini halibuts for a while.

Get out there and pre fish your butt off.  Figure out where they are spawning and concentrate on deeper water near thos areas.   make sure you have good cover, either weeds or wood.  i would prefer fishing weeds this time of year tho.  Use that senko or whatever brand you prefer.  I really like the hand pours that Josh and I pour.  They are a bit softer and they have a wicked action.  they fall a touch slower so they stay in the zone a little longer.  Sometimes the fish are not directly on the bottom, so you want to keep your bait off the bottom.  But if your not getting bit, switch up to a tube or a jig and try that.

Hope this helps.

McCarter himself

P.S.  Dont forget to check for bedding fish.  you may have to look hard, but it would be worth it if you could find them.

[nitroderrek]

thanks for the info, i need to learn how to fish that lake, it is hard for me to catch fish out there for some reason.  generally it seems you need a good spot out there to catch fish,, i fished it last march 28, and caught 6 keeper smallies, but all 6 came out of two very small areas, maybe 10 square yards each... other than those two spots, not even a bite...  and then those fish are gone in april, and i don't know where they go... derrek

[fiker]

Kent lake is the one I just have very little luck on.
I've never figured it out. 
I've fished it several times, and have landed only 1 smallie combined.
I've looking forward to the Eastside club outing there where I can learn from somebody else that does know it.

[McCarter]

Fiker,

I struggled on that lake for the first 2 years i fished it.  I was to the point where i was gonna just stop going out there.  Then i decided to give it another shot, but take a completly different approach.

I had been fishing it for 2 years the way i would fish any other inland lake ( at the time ).  Beating the shorelines with soft plasics, spinnerbaits, jerkbaits...

Finally, i decided to get off the shoreline and start searching for off shore structure.  I had never even used a carolina rig at this point, but that was my first choice when taking a '2nd' look at kent.  What happened was i started finding all sorts of stuff along the bottom.  And in turn, i started catching fish.  Once i started understanding how and when the fish were relating to the structure, i started catching them regularly.  And once i had built enough confidence out there, i started experimenting with other baits.  And again, started piecing things together. 

After a while, i realized that i was building a pretty good track record out there.  A lake i was ready to forget about had now become my favorite lake.  While i still cant put it together for a tournament, i can usually go out there on any given day and anytime of the year and pattern some healthy, hefty bass. 

Kent is also a great place to cut your teeth on new techniques and get to know new lures.  I have built up my confidence level with a bunch of lures and techniques that i was completly clueless about a couple years ago.  Crankbaits, carolina rig, jigs, jerkbaits.  This is all stuff i wouldnt even throw a few years back cuz i tried it all in the past and never caught fish on it.  I have learned when, where, how, and why by experimenting on kent. 

What makes it such a great body of water to learn on is the fact that it literally has almost every kind of structure and cover you can imagine.  Bridges, rip rap, humps, stumps, weed mats, lily pads, channels, drops, rocks, points, cuts, river, dam, gravel, sand, flats, a couple docks, etc.  You can hone your skills out there better than any lake i have ever fished.

Plus, it is technically a resevoir, and really fishes like one.  Current plays a huge role in fish placement and activity on a lot of areas of the lake.  There is not a ton of current, unless they lower the dam or we get heavy rain, but even the current from wind will turn the fish on.  It doesnt fish like a lake and i think that is why a lot of people struggle out there.  I know that is why i struggled out there for so long.

The lake can turn on and shut off like someone flipping a switch.  One minute you could be catching smallies on every cast on a rattle trap buzzed a long side a rock hump, the next minute, they are gone.  Usually, its something simple like the wind dies or the sun comes out.  But sometimes there is no rhyme or reason, they just stop biting.  I cant explain it.  But if something like this happens, i try to downsize and finesse fish.  Its always fun to try to stay on them and figure out what they are doing.

Keep up with it.  try new things out there, and new spots.  i fish that lake hard and always fish new areas out there.  Sometimes i will fish an area and not get bit, but a boat will pull up there after me and load the boat.  they are seeing something that i am missing or trying something that i never thought of.  Its a challenging lake but it can be very, very rewarding.  A good friend of mine won a tournament out there last year with 5 fish for 24 lbs if i remember correctly.  I cant say i have ever had a day like this, but i have had several days where my best 5 would have went 20-21 lbs.  Skip, aka castnblast, and I spent a day out there last fall, and in the first 15 minutes, i put about 19 lbs in the boat on our first stop.  Im not bragging, well maybe a little, but im telling you that they are in there and they are catchable.  Stick with it and you shall reep the rewards of the all mighty kent lake bass factory station extravaganza.  thats what im calling it now.

McCarter himself

[dhuff]

That's some good advice for out there.  I have only fished the lake myself a handfull of times but have done vary well.  I know it has some true bruts in the lake.  Just takes a little time to figure it out.  I usually don't fish it much because there are no tournaments out there really that I fish.  I find myself going to lakes that I have the next tournament on.

[bosshawg]

 i like the lake - fish at least a couple of tournaments a year. 3 this year w/club 'golden rule', OBM opening weekend and just started the 'chiller thriller'.  one pre-season outing 4 fish we caught was close to 20lbs i'm betting. they're there for sure.