Where and How to Catch Fish in August and Early September
with Roger Stegall at Pickwick Lake
Hot-Weather, Deep-Water Largemouth
Editor’s
Note: Roger Stegall, the owner and operator of Roger
Stegall’s Professional Guide Service on Pickwick
Lake, which makes up the boundary of Tennessee, Mississippi
and Alabama, has fished Pickwick Lake for 32 years and
guided on the lake for 22 years. Unlike many guides,
Stegall will help you find and catch any species of
fish. He’s just as comfortable running a trotline
and catching catfish as he is guiding his clients to
smallmouth that weigh over 5-pounds each. He can put
you on a limit of white bass or show you where and how
to catch the biggest largemouth you’ve ever hooked.
You pick the species, and Stegall will locate the fish
and show you how to catch it.
Question: Roger, I know you have two tactics for catching
largemouths during August and September. You fish for
them in both deep and shallow water. Let’s talk
about your deep-water tactic. How do you find and catch
largemouths in deep water this month?
Stegall: I prefer to use a big worm and a big crankbait
when I’m fishing deep water at this time of year.
I also like the Strike King Football Head jig, which
is one of my go-to baits in August. I also like to fish
Strike King’s new 10-inch Rage Anaconda. If you
want to catch big bass, you need to cast a big worm.
I use a 7-foot rod to throw the Anaconda on 12-pound-test
line with either a 5/16- or a 3/4-ounce slip sinker
up the line. I’m using a No. 5/0 hook inside the
worm. When you fish a big worm like this, you won’t
get as many bites as you will if you fish a 4- or a
6-inch worm. But when you do get a bite, it’ll
be big. I like to fish this big worm
on humps and ledges 10- to 25-feet deep out in the main
river. At this time of year, the bass start to move
up from deep water to shallow water, but there still
are numbers of big bass holding in deep water.
Too, I fish the Series 5 or the Series 6 crankbaits
in deep water. I’ve experimented with both baits,
and to get them to run really deep, I normally fish
them on 10-pound-test line. To get them down deeper,
I’ll fish them on 8-pound-test line. I’ve
fished 8-pound-test Sufix Elite line to get the Series
6 crankbait down to 14- to 16-feet deep. I really prefer
the Sexy Shad color on my crankbait, but I also throw
a watermelon-shad color. On cloudy days, I’ll
fish with a chartreuse-blue back or a chartreuse-black-back-colored
crankbait. I always fish my crankbaits on a slow retrieve,
once I get them down. I’ll change the type of
retrieve I’m using based on the type of retrieve
the bass are biting best.
Question: Roger, when you’re fishing deep water
with crankbaits and the Rage Anaconda, do you ever catch
smallmouths as well as largemouths?
Stegall: When I’m fishing the crankbait, I’ll
generally catch largemouths and smallmouths. But
when I’m fishing the big worm, rarely will I ever
catch a smallmouth.
Question: Roger, one of the problems with catching
big bass at this time of year is because the water’s
so hot, the fish get extremely stressed. When you’re
pulling them out of the deeper, cooler water into the
warmer water, the fish have a hard time recovering.
What system do you use for releasing your bass back
alive and healthy into their deeper haunts?
Stegall: Here’s a trick everyone needs to learn
and use at this time of year to return bass back to
deep water quickly. Every bass fisherman has a buoy
marker with a flexible lead at the bottom of the string
tied onto the lead and the buoy. You can take that lead
and wrap it around the buoy, and the lead will stay
in place. I take the weight on the end of my buoy marker
and bend it in a U-shape like a clamp and then clamp
that lead weight around the bass’ bottom lip.
Then I gently put the bass over the side of the boat
with the lead weight on its lip and feed the buoy line
out as I drop the lead and the bass back to the bottom.
When I feel the lead and the bass at the bottom, I jerk
on the buoy line two or three times. The lead weight
releases the bass’ jaw, and the bass returns to
deep water quickly, cool and comfortable and unharmed.
Then you can
pull your lead back up and be ready to use it to release
another bass when you catch it. Mark Davis, a Strike
King Pro from Arkansas and past Bassmaster Classic winner,
showed me this trick, and I’ve found it to be
one of the most-effective methods to ensure you release
your bass back down to where it’s been holding
quickly and efficiently with the least amount of stress
on the bass.
Question: Roger, you mentioned earlier that you fished
the Strike King Football Head jig. How, why and where
do you fish it in deep water?
Stegall: When Strike King first introduced this jig
with the Rage Tail trailer on it, I started catching
bass in deep water at an unbelievable rate. I like the
3/4-ounce jig in green-pumpkin, Texas-craw or black-and-blue
colors. I use a black-and-blue trailer on the black-and-blue
jig, an amber or a green-pumpkin-colored trailer on
the green-pumpkin colored jig and either an amber or
a green-pumpkin trailer on the Texas craw-colored jig.
When I’m fishing the Football Head jig, I drag
the jig across the bottom, just like I will a Carolina-rigged
worm, stop it, take up slack and then drag it again.
The Football Head jig kicks up a lot of dirt and sediment
on the bottom. The bass really like that jig because
it closely resembles a crawfish.
Question: What pound-test line do you use?
Stegall: l prefer 10-pound-test line. I know most people
use heavier line, but I’ve learned that I can
cast further and keep the jig in the bass’s strike
zone longer with lighter line than with heavier line.
To fish with Roger Stegall at Roger Stegall’s
Guide Service or learn more about the fish at Pickwick
Lake, call him at 662-433-3869, or visit www.fishpickwick.com,
or email rogstegall@fishpickwick.com.
For more information on staying at Pickwick Landing
State Park on Pickwick Lake, contact the Hardin County
Convention and Visitor’s Bureau at info@tourhardincounty.org,
call (731) 925-8181 or (800) 552-3866, or visit www.tourhardincounty.org.
Pickwick Landing State Park offers fishing, boating,
hiking, camping, swimming and golf. Lodging includes
the lakeside inn with over 100 rooms, cabins that sleep
eight and a campground that contains 48 sites with grill
and electric/water hookup at each site. A restaurant
at the park offers delicious southern cuisine. Call
(731) 689-3135 or (800) 250-8615 to learn more.
Tomorrow: Largemouth Aren’t Just Deep Now
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