IN QUEST OF CENTER HILL SMALLMOUTH
Jim Duckworth
knows a thing or two about smallmouth. He guides on several top
smallmouth waters in Middle Tennessee. A few years back he caught
an 8-1/2 pound smallie from the Cumberland River that made the
cover of BASSMASTER Magazine.
 I met Jim at Dale
Hollow two years ago during a writer’s outing. He tried to teach
me the float-and-fly wintertime smallmouth technique. But having
me wave that 9-foot steelhead rod around like a fly rod was
inviting disaster. I had line wrapped around my torso more than
once.
In March 2003, I
visited Jim and his lovely wife Romona. We had planned to fish
Center Hill, but Jim said the water was too high and too muddy.
We went elsewhere. About a week later, the 9-pound smallmouth was
taken from Center Hill. When that news broke, I immediately
reminded Jim he owed me a trip to that lake. So a couple weeks
ago Dave Lehman and I headed back to Middle Tennessee and an
appointment with Jim Duckworth at Center Hill for smallies.
Center Hill is a
deep, steep-sided reservoir about 1 hour east of Nashville. Under
normal conditions it’s fairly clear and, at the level we fished
it, has a reasonable amount of submerged shoreline cover. Both
Dave and I salivated upon seeing this lake. It looked like
smallmouth water back home.
Jim had enjoyed a
brief period of outstanding jerkbait fishing over a week before we
arrived. Then the lake level went up, and the fish turned off.
The level had just come down to where he felt comfortable
returning to ‘the Hill’. Water temp was around 50 degrees. The
weather was overcast, spitting a bit of rain, breezy and cold.
Actually cold enough to affect our fishing performance since none
of us were really dressed for the temperatures. Thank goodness
for Gore-Tex rain suits!
All three of us
started jerkbaiting right off the bat. Jim was using his favorite
Matzuo suspending jerkbait in a clown pattern; Dave had on a
Strike King Wild Shiner in his lucky silver/blue back pattern; and
I tied on a Lucky Craft Pointer in a perch finish.
Jim connected
with a decent smallmouth on the second spot we fished – hooked on
the red treble. He missed two more, Dave missed one and I caught
a spotted bass – all in about a 50-yard stretch. We thought big
things were about to happen. Instead, it went downhill. The air
temperature dropped, the wind picked up and the sky cleared. The
Blue Sky Kiss of Death, as Dave referred to it.
Out-of-shape for
hour after hour of jerkbaiting, my arms and back gave out. I tied
on a tube –the same tube that had caught several good smallmouth
at Pickwick days before – and proceeded to miss three small
spotted bass that came off at the boat.
Jim talked about
running further up lake, but upon encountering one of Jim’s
friends in another boat, we were informed it was very muddy up
lake. As any good guide does, Jim went to Plan C. “To the dam,”
he said. “There’s bank down there that has some largemouth that
should be willing to bite under these blue skies.”
Well, as soon as
we pulled in and began casting, Jim received several hard hits but
could not connect with a fish. Jim and Dave switched to
crankbaits, but I simply continued to play it easy with my tube
jig. A little further down the bank, a big brown bass got hooked
when it tried to steal my tube just as I was lifting it from the
water. “A largemouth bank?” I jested.
Changing my
presentation from bottom bouncing to swimming the tube, I quickly
put another good bronzeback in the boat. Dave switched to a tube
and put a respectable smallie in the livewell, too. Several
smallies under 2 pounds were taken on tubes while Jim kept
cranking as our time on the water was winding down. Finally, Jim
scored the final big bass on his favorite red finish Bandit #200
crankbait.
The motto of this
story? Pick one or more. First, “Never give up”. Second, dress
warmer than you think will be needed – you can always take off a
layer. Third, if you are out of shape from sitting around all
winter, you’ll never keep up with the guide who fishes all year.
Fourth, give this Yankee a tube jig and he can catch smallmouth
anywhere. Finally, Center Hill is home to beautiful smallmouth –
as the accompanying photo shows.
For more
information, contact Jim Duckworth at
ducktrail@softek.net.
Past
Articles
EAST MEETS
WEST ON LAKE ERIE
TACKLING
RIVER SMALLMOUTH IN THE FALL
INDIGENOUS
BAIT
SUPER SHALLOW
SUMMER
CREATURES OF THE NIGHT
CRANKY SMALLMOUTH
TINY TORPEDO
LAKE ERIE “BEST” FOR
SMALLMOUTH BASS
HOW TO CATCH THE BIGGEST SMALLMOUTH
OF YOUR LIFE
IN QUEST OF CENTER HILL SMALLMOUTH
LOVE
THOSE HELLGRAMMITES!
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