Mason observed that sometimes smallmouths will be in a gravel hole in the rocks no bigger than a couple of dinner plates, so it’s important to feel that jighead bouncing along the gravel, staying in contact with the bottom. You’ll lose some rigs, but it’s a relatively inexpensive setup. “If you’re not losing some rigs, you’re probably not fishing the places you need to be fishing,” he asserted.

The green pumpkin tube that he uses has a red flake in it, and something about that red seems to help trigger bites from smallmouths. “I’ve developed a lot of confidence in it,” he said.

When working his baits, Mason looks for slack-water areas under the surface. He tries to envision how the current is flowing in the area to pick out those slack spots and put a bait in them.

With the best tube lures, the jighead is rigged inside the tube, enabling them come through the rocks with more ease.

Once the spawn has ended, Mason likes to fish a topwater bait --especially good early in the morning, he said, when he tosses a Yum Houdini Shad. “Pearl is really the only color you should need,” the angling pro asserted.

The topwater bite’s good for the first three or four hours of fishing in the morning. After that, Mason switches to a Carolina-rigged plastic worm.

The angler next pointed out that Wilson Lake fishes a lot like Pickwick, but it’s not as current-oriented. It can be a little trickier to fish, because the current tends to be circular in the reservoir.

“If you’re not losing some rigs, you’re probably not fishing the places you need to be fishing.”--Pro angler Jimmy Mason

Mason favors the lower end of Wheeler in the spring. “There’s also a sleeper area around Ditto Landing where they’re catching some 5- and 6-pound smallmouths,” he added. “They fish the current breaks around Hobbs Island for those fish. They get a lot of those fish by drop-shotting.”

CATCH & RELEASE
Jimmy Mason stressed that anglers need to practice catch-and-release, especially when working spawning grounds while the fish are on the bed. He and fellow Bassmaster pro Timmy Horton have approached the DWFF about getting certain sections of Pickwick designated as catch-and-release-only during key spawning months. “It’s really important,” he emphasized. “Someone who went in there and kept a bunch of fish could really do some damage. A 5- or 6-pound smallmouth is probably 6 or 7 years old. You can’t replace that overnight.”

The smallmouth fishing at Pickwick has improved in the last four or five years, and Mason thinks that practicing catch-and-release should keep it rolling.