The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

Gabby’s Fishing Fever

Fish around fallen trees for success


Early fall fishing has started, and the milder weather has made the sport much better.

Back in the summer when the temperatures were hot fishing was good at times. It is now much more enjoyable to be outside, and the fishing will get better as the fall season moves on.

With the surface temperatures milder, bass and crappie are moving to more shallow areas and along shorelines looking for food and following schools of shad and small baitfish. When they move shallow, they will be looking for cover to hold on, and one of their favorite forms of cover is wood.

Wood cover can come in many forms, and each has a best pattern and best way to fish. One type of cover is just a big fallen tree in the water. These can be large or small, but the best way to fish these are to stay back off the tree about a cast’s length. Most often, the active fish will hold around the outside edges of the tree, so you do not want to spook them with your cast.

Make your cast around the outside edges of the tree with baits like a spinner bait or crankbait. A topwater or buzz bait worked along these edges can also draw good strikes. Then, work these same baits parallel to the larger limbs and body of the tree. If there is not much action there, go in deeper on the tree’s main body, this time using worms and jig-type baits worked slowly.

In addition to fallen trees, look for stumps, flooded standing timber and brush piles, and fish these the same way.

If you are going out on the lake soon, be sure to give fishing the wood in the water a try.

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