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I've posted this before, but didn't get a complete reply. Got a tourny on a ***** of a lake, the 2cd & 3 of April. Water still cold at 49 degrees. Fish spawn on the tops of stumps. They will be in prespawn. Water is gin clear. Where do you guys think the fish will stage, if at all. Even with the water clarity you can't sight fish. Any suggestions on colors, presentations, lures? I was out the other day and thru white, and green, homemade spinner baits, plus lipless cranks. Nothing. Search lures didn't work. I'm thinking slug-o's, senkos, pig/jig. Help! Thanks, Carl. PS. A pro who fished it several times never made it into the top 30. So we will be competing with the best in this tri-state area. Last day of prefishing is Tuesday!

Gin clear, cold, stump spawners, early prespawn staging, prefishing results, zippo, goose egg, nada. No sight fishing?

Try to get your entry fee back?

Super light, very clear line such as 6 - 8 lb Flourocarbon, or a superline with the diameter of sewing thread. Small baits, careful presentations, distance casts. And fish sllllllloooooooooooooooowwwwwwwww, so slow you get a case of the fidgets.

I've found that a 1/8 to 1/4 OZ Road Runner or Beetle Spin works very well in those conditions.

Keep the colors muted or neutral, try clear, or light smoke bodies with black, silver or white heads. Small tubes could work.

I've also had some notable success on smallmouth with tiny jerkbaits, such as Yo-Zuri's 2 inch minnow. And some luck with Yo-Zuri's 'Snap Bean', which is really tiny, but managed to get a five pounder to the boat last year.

I suspendot them for neutral boyancy, or a very very slow sink. So slow that when the hooks barely touch bottom the bait stops sinking. Don't destroy the action.
It takes a while to get them just right, I fill a sink with water as close to the same temp as the lake I have to fish. Cooler water being denser, as the water warms you'll find any suspening bait that worked well when it was colder will sink.

I'd bet the fish will be very tightly schooled in similar sizes, most likely on main lake points just outside the prime spawning areas, as to depth, with a lake that clear and cold they could be very deep and relating to structure closely.

If you can locate a school, you might limit out without moving the boat more than a few feet.

Other than that, hope for a cloudy slightly breezy warm day. Preferably just before a front.

Oh, and Devine intervention helps too.

Or, I could be full of it too.

Good Luck, sounds like you need it.

Thanks RNE. I'll be prefishing thru till Tuesday. I'll try your suggestions. I hope it warms, five more degrees and they might start taking colored stick worms. We'll see. Thanks Carl.

The jerk baits should be a good choice, I might try a pig and jig on any banks that drop into deep water quickly 45 degrees banks with chunk rock and wood and the deep ends of main lake points the closer to bedding flats the better. A Silver Buddy works well in these conditions on Dale Hollow and it is a gin clear water deep lake. Hold as far away from the structure as possible to make a cast. If you have ever used a float and fly rig this also takes a lot of fish in water with temp. below 52.

once again, thanks guys.Carl

Be sure and tell us how it went carl.

Well guys, it didn't go very well for us. We finished in the mid-thirties. The first day was the worst day on a lake I've ever had. The wind was blowing 20-25 mph all day witha wind chill in the mid thirties. I had on seven layers of clothing, and frooze my butt off. That first day we only caught two fish or should I say my partner caught them on crappy rigs. Day 2 was perfect, weather wise.The front passed and I thought maybe the fish would turn on, but we had clear skys with high pressure which put them off. In the morning I was throwing spinners,beatle spins, jigs, slugos, nothing. We switched out of desperation to watermelon senkos, and fish started hitting. I had thought it was still too early in the year for plastics, but the senkos worked. We got a pattern going but it was too late for us unless we lucked into a couple seven pounders. We caught alot of fish, but they were all small ones. I couldn't figure out how to catch bigger fish. (I'd appreciate any comments.) It had rained before the tourny so the water muddied up in the south portion of the lake, and raised the water temp. into the mid-fifties. That's were all the big fish were taken. That was the up side, the down side was I couldn't see all the stumps. In two days we must of gotten hung up a hundred times. I spent half my time working the trolling motor to get off stumps, so I'm guessing my fishing time was cut in half. It got to be an ongoing joke as we passed other boats, talking and laughing about the stumps. It got very frustrating, but I light'n up when I realized every one was going thru the same thing. They don't call this lake Devil's Kitchen for nothing. In the later afternoon of day two I started teaching my partner about bass fishing , since he's a cappy angler. Even though we didn't do well, I think he's hooked, no pun intended. If our two days are typical of what the pros go thru, I don't know how they do it. Well, that's about it. I'm off to LA to do some inshore red fishing. Got a buddy who has a small inshore fishing boat. He's promised we'll fish, eat, and drink. I'm ready. Good luck to all of you, Carl