The world of bass fishing stood on its ear in the late 1960s and 1970s when little-known Lewis Smith Lake in north Alabama produced three world-record spotted bass. Having one world-record bass come out of a lake was an almost unbelievable happening, but three records in less than 10 years started rumors about the super strain of Smith Lake spotted bass.

Smith Lake, between Jasper and Cullman, became the mecca of the spotted bass fishing world.

Since that time, the lake has remained a top spotted bass fishery, but has stopped producing large numbers of huge spots.

"Smith Lake was impounded in 1963," explained Keith Floyd, the Fisheries Supervisor for District I of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. "Within the first 10 to 15 years of a reservoir being impounded, it will usually produce large numbers of big bass and other species. We call this the new lake effect. But as years go by, the lake's productivity will decline. The last world record to come from Smith Lake was an 8.9-pound spot caught by Phillip C. Terry on March 18, 1978. There are still nice-sized spots caught at Smith Lake, but I don't think we'll ever again see three new world records come out of these waters."

Deep, clear Smith Lake homed so much cold water in its depths that the DCNR decided to stock rainbow trout in the lake. Rumor had it that the spotted bass had eaten many of the rainbow trout, causing the spots to grow to huge sizes.

"Most of the rainbow trout stocked in Smith Lake were 8 to 10 inches long, making them too big to be preyed upon by spotted bass," Floyd countered. "There's no verification that the stocking of rainbow trout played any role in producing the world-record spotted bass that came from Smith Lake."

Smith Lake Today
In those glory years of Smith Lake, my dad, W.A. Phillips Sr., and I often trolled with a pink-eyed Heddon Hellbender, trailed by a silver spoon tied with 1 1/2-foot monofilament leader on the last treble hook of the Hellbender. Using this tactic, we caught spotted bass, largemouth bass and some nice-sized crappie, and this same technique will produce fish today.

"Right now, Smith Lake has a good crop of bass in it," Floyd said. "Many of the bass will be slot fish or below. The slot limit on Smith Lake is 13 to 15 inches, and any bass less than 13 inches or more than 15 inches have to be returned to the water unharmed."

Floyd continued to explain that there's still a good number of bass over 15 inches at Smith Lake. Ryan Creek is one of the best areas of the lake for bass fishing. This creek that's more fertile than other sections of the lake also seems to have more bank structure to hold bass than many of the rockier areas of the lake.

"In our creel survey at Smith, we've learned that the spotted bass population is about two or three spotted bass caught per one largemouth," Floyd reported.

Smith Lake provides better spotted bass habitat, than it does habitat for largemouth bass. The spots like sheer rock bluffs and rocky points, whereas good largemouth habitat usually includes litter on the bank, grass and wood cover.

"We don't have much of a litter zone at Smith Lake against the bank because of the summer drawdown," Floyd noted. "You see very few flats that support grass, very few trees that have fallen into the lake and little or no brush growing in the lake."