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The wife and I joined 1000 Trails this year and are planning a trip to Hidden Cove Resort in Arley next week. Any help on fishing this area would be wonderful. The resort is on Rock Creek near Crooked Creek and White Creek. We mainly crappie fish but if there is anything happening on shellcracker, striper, or catfish we would try for them too.
We love Alabama and even though we now live in TN we bleed crimson. ROLL TIDE!!!!
Thank You for any help you can give us.
I don't think anyone on this board fishes that far up rock creek, but I do know the area your talking about. My grandmother and dad stay up their almost the entire summer it is a nice little campground, boat docks, boat launch, swimming pool, game room, showers, laundry ect. Somewhere up that way, I believe its Rock Creek marina you can go and pay about 5 dollars and they will you give you a bottle and you get to feed like 30 pound carp out of the bottle its pretty cool. Maddog fishes on the Cullman side of the lake and he seems to wear the crappie out so he can probably give you some pointers of how to fish and where their biting. Also the two restaurants in town I recommend is is the Arley coffee shop and Talk of the Town, both are your hole in the wall restaurants, but are pretty decent.
Thank You for the reply Aug. We are excited about fishing Smith and checking out the area. At one time we were going to retire down there. Even if I knew the prefered jig body color that would be a good start. There is a big difference between Smith and our home lake. (Old Hickory, Nashville)
No problem, sorry I can't help anymore lol. I got my first boat this year and have been desperately trying to learn how to catch crappie out of smith with no luck. The best I have found is fishing around boat docks with underwater lights at night with live minnows. Maddog and one other guy on here seem to tear them up on Smith so def try to get a hold of them.
This time of the year fishing lights at night time is the way to go... Find docks sitting in 15-20 ft water with lights on and fish all around it. I have been doing this a lot this year with good luck. Sometimes they will fool you though... I usually see nice size crappie right under the lights but I dont have much luck on them... Its the ones you dont see (about 8 ft. under water) where I have the best luck. Also, I dont get right up next to the light. I usually fish around 20 ft. away from it with most bights coming out in the darker edges of the light. I fish jigs with 1/16 oz. head. Aug is dead on though... for this time of the year lights is the way to go at smith... If you have a good sonar unti look for the docks with brush also... if you find brush, see a lot of rod holders on the dock, and a fishing boat on the the dock you may have just found a good spot for the night... I hope this helps some...
Maddog if you don't mind me asking are you still using the baby shad or a different type of jig. I don't have any luck with jigs and have went back to good ole minnows.
Yes, I am still using baby shad. I have tried other things with not as much luck... I went last night though and didn't do so well. The bite was slow. Lake lot owners have started turning their lights off on some of my favorite places and one last night turned it off as soon as I trolled up to it. I have gotta find me some new places so I tried a lot of new docks last night. It has become so crowded on the cullman side with people doing the same thing by the time I get to some docks they have already been fished that night by someone that beat me to it..lol... I've gotta find me some new honey holes!Quote:
Originally Posted by Aug
Thank You for the replies Aug and maddog. We are on the way!!!! If we have any luck I will let you know.
Hey Aug and Maddog. We enjoyed our trip to Smith Lake. Since it was so hot we were on the lake at first light and fished till about 9am. Our best day was 12 keepers and the worst was 3. Also caught several short fish, some nice crackers, a few bass and a gar. We long lined 1/8 roadrunners and baby shad crank baits. The bodies on the roadrunners that worked best was 1-1/2" junebug and chart sliders. All fish were caught in 10-15 feet of water. My wife caught the biggest crappie 15-1/4". The wife doesn't like night fishing so we didn't try. We will probably be back in early Oct. Thanks for the info.
Glad to hear you enjoyed the trip...I bet your numbers would have doubled if you went on those nights...I understand though..The older I get I don't like staying up real late either... I like the early mornings too!