Where are the fish?

Where are the fish? It's a common question for anglers, and knowing the answer can mean the difference between a frustrating day and catching your limit. For the technologically impaired, a little trial-and-error may reveal whether the fish are shallow, suspended or deep, but local fishing expert Jim Dill says if you have an electronic fishfinder, just follow the shad.

Shad are a favorite meal for bass, and Dill says schools of the tiny fish should be visible on fishfinder electronics. Where the shad will be, there the bass will be.

There are typically three zones that anglers use when talking about fish location. They can either be on the bottom, on the top, or "suspended" – somewhere in between. Suspended bass are the most difficult to catch, he says, and for such scenarios, Dill recommends using a stick bait. Lucky Craft or Mega Bass stick baits are his preference.

When shad – and bass – are deep, Dill recommends using a "Green Pumpkin Candy" color swamp bug rig on a 1/4-oz Crock-O-Gator football shaker head jig. "That's been my most consistent lure," he says. He also suggests using Zapper jigs, in Ozark Craw color, with a Green Pumpkin Candy color ring craw.

Such will be the case for main lake fish. But when you begin fishing in old creek channels, the bass will typically stick to the channel swing banks – here, the old creek channel comes right up to the bank. The bank drops steeply beyond the waterline, and bass like those areas in the winter, since they can change elevation and still stay on a bank, without having to travel very far. "[For fish], it's all about expending less energy this time of year," Dill says.

The weather stations are forecasting clear, sunny skies for at least a week; expect bass to hold tighter to dark banks and dark rocks in that kind of weather. The crawfish are active there, he says, and the sun warms the water, which attracts the fish.

Keep a crappie lure on your second rod, Dill says, because they are biting quite a bit. They will typically be about eight feet deep, over 12-foot-deep brush piles. But, on bright, sunny days, they will move to the docks and congregate under the shady areas around dock foam to soak up the heat. There they can tend to be pretty shallow – sometimes only three feet deep. A 1/8-oz crappie jig head in Blue Ice color is the lure to use in those conditions.

Main lake water is clear and water temperature is between 40 and 42 degrees. Creeks are hovering at 39-41 degrees with clear or slightly stained water.

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