Pointers for Center Hill Lake

[BARhunter]

My partner and I will be fishing a local fishing club tournament on Center Hill Lake on Saturday, May 5th. Neither of us have ever fished Center Hill and we pretty much don't know where to start. The club we belong to is out of Moore County and I understand there may be some other tournaments on Center Hill that day so we will obviously have to contend with more fishermen on the lake and increased boat traffic. We are both decent fishermen but we are asking for any help that someone could provide. We will be putting in at the Ragland Bottoms boat ramp. If anyone has any pointers or tips please pm me the information. We are not asking for anybody's complete secrets but any information would be greatly appreciated. We will be pre-fishing the lake on Friday, May 4th. Thanks.

 

[TITANSFAN2104]

The best thing you can do is spend the money on a good guide. Or find some good friends!! It is deep with a lot of bluffs. You can grab a navionics lake maps to show some contour and get familiar with the water!!

 

[Football Hunter]

wow,The Hill can be imtimadating,water is about 15 foot low,so there is no cover in the water,or very little.For a tourney your gonna have to catch largemouth to win,and I have no idea on Center Hill.I just randomly catch one here and there,but mainly smallmouth fish.But I "Rarely" if ever here of anyone wins with smallmouth.

 

[TN Larry]

PM sent. I have fished a day or three on Center Humble. FH is right. Most likely smallmouth will not be a player this time of year. It is hard to catch 5 keepers to start with and then getting 5 to compete with the largemouth is very hard this time of year. However, I have seen it done a time or two. One of the bigger tournaments last year was won with all smallies that weighed over 21 lbs.

 

[bowriter]

For largemouth, mostly look back in creeks. With it so low, that is hard to do. The huge shad schools make it extra hard. Normally, this time of year, you would be throwing buxxbaits and floating worms around the wood. Unfortunately, there ain much wood to throw at.

On the bright side, everybody will have the same trouble. if you are putting in anywhere near the dam, I try the right bank facing the dam with a jerkbait. If youo are around Hurricane or that area, try behind Big Island, some of the pockets back in there.

With the water where it is, it is tough to catch the trash fish.

 

[Scud]

I would start with a spook on the bluff banks and the first one on the right going down from Ragland is a good place to start. If that didn't work I would go in the pockets and throw a crankbait paralell down the rock banks. Then I would go to a carolina rig on the dirt banks in the pockets.

 

[TITANSFAN2104]

Tnlarry, I have some family that live up around Baxter, silver point that practically grew up fishing center hill. I wish I knew just a little bit of what a lot of guys know that are good fishermen on the hill!! I know I have heard a lot of people cuss it till they figure it out. Nothing like hanging a big one and realize its a 15 lb drum lol

 

[bowriter]

I lived there for a while in '84 and '85 and have fished a lot over the years. Seems like ti changes every year but I sure like it a lot better at summer pool.

 

[TN Larry]

Tnlarry, I have some family that live up around Baxter, silver point that practically grew up fishing center hill. I wish I knew just a little bit of what a lot of guys know that are good fishermen on the hill!! I know I have heard a lot of people cuss it till they figure it out. Nothing like hanging a big one and realize its a 15 lb drum lol

I have fished Center Hill my entire life and can nearly spit in it from my back porch. It is a good lake but can be very weird at times. The fish there have definitely read the "book" about what they are supposed to do because most of the time they do the direct opposite. You definitely have to be versatile to catch fish there 12 months out of the year and compete in tournaments. I have heard some people say that if you can catch them there then you can catch them anywhere.

 

[bowriter]

To me, the main key to fishuing the Hill, was to fish for smallmouth and forget all the crap you see on TV about largemouth. The smallmouth do what smallmouth do. There were years you could hardly keep from catching a box full everytime you went. Those years were followed by years you couldn't get a hit. It is one lake where high water is an ideal lake condition. You coule not beat two feet above summer pool and 60 degrees.

Some years it was a fly and rind, some years jerkbaits, some years Deep Wee R's and always at night, black spinner baits and worms.

Some years, you had to have chartreuse hand grenades.

 

[TN Larry]

To me, the main key to fishuing the Hill, was to fish for smallmouth and forget all the crap you see on TV about largemouth. The smallmouth do what smallmouth do. There were years you could hardly keep from catching a box full everytime you went. Those years were followed by years you couldn't get a hit. It is one lake where high water is an ideal lake condition. You coule not beat two feet above summer pool and 60 degrees.

Some years it was a fly and rind, some years jerkbaits, some years Deep Wee R's and always at night, black spinner baits and worms.

Some years, you had to have chartreuse hand grenades.

The key to your first statement is "was". I am only 31 but been fishing there since I was old enough to carry a fishing rod. The smallmouth numbers years ago were great. They then took a beating for a few years and the numbers of KYs exploded. Right now though is the best that it has been in a long while in terms of numbers of bigger fish and the number of smallmouth and largemouth all together. I am beginning to like the low water myself. It is taking bigger sacks to win tournaments now than ever before. Actually the weight is about the same but the fish limit has been reduced. When I started fishing tournaments about 15 years or so ago, the Ed Rogers tournament had an 8 fish limit. 20 lbs was a good sack of fish. Now, you better have 20 lbs or close in the bigger tournaments with a 5 fish limit. There are a ton of short largemouth and smallmouth in there now as well. This is all with the water being low for the past few years. I am not sure if I am ready to see it come back up or not, but I do miss fishing the bushes in the Spring as you describe.

 

[Football Hunter]

I have some friends I fish with that talk about catching 3 to 4 lb spots pretty regular in the past.I have maybe seen one in 5 years that size.Wonder where they went?They dont catch big ones any more either.Best Ive caught is probably a 2.5 r.

 

[TN Larry]

I have some friends I fish with that talk about catching 3 to 4 lb spots pretty regular in the past.I have maybe seen one in 5 years that size.Wonder where they went?They dont catch big ones any more either.Best Ive caught is probably a 2.5 r.

There are still plenty of big KYs there. There have never been an abundance of true 4 lbers but plenty of 2.5 to 3 pluses with the occasional 4. There was one weighed in a tournament earlier this year around 5. We had a 30 fish day last year that was mostly KYs with a few smallies mixed in. We had 6 that were right at to a little over 3 with probably 15 more being over 2.

From your standpoint of not catching many big ones, it doesn't seem like the giant KYs and smallies live in the same type of places. You are fishing the right area of the lake for the bigger KYs, but I think that since you are fishing for smallies then your type of banks are a little different. That is the only thing that I can think of.

 

[bowriter]

Most opf the big spots come on crawfish deep during the summer. A few are caught in the spring when the water is up. I use to catch them in early April throwing a white slider around the wood.

We caught a lot of the parger ones in one of the coves behind Big Island but I am sure that is dry,now.