My best lures have been in descending order tube jigs in natural crawfish colors, 4" Berkley Power Worm in camo color, Rattlin' Rogue in clown color and the drop shot rig is now coming on strong for me with almost any color of small plastic (<4"). I generally fish the points at the mouth of coves down to about 20ft and into the coves. The cove mouths that have the deepest channels near the mainlake points (not with the deepest point centered in the mouth) seem to be the best for me. If you get a hit make sure you note the depth and bottom type if you can figure it out. If there is very little or no cover around, try several different lures at the same depth before leaving the spot because you have probably hit a school that will bite something. I have personally had little success with crankbaits and only performed slightly better with spinnerbaits (these lures get used to death)when compared to other lures. This has only been true for me on the Butte.

This time of year, you should concentrate on the coves. I do better in the ones on the east side of the lower lake and west side of the narrows. Your best fish locater will probably be your eyes. Look for the fish to spawn on almost anything and especially up against the brush in up to 6 or 7' feet of water. They do spawn deeper than that but it's easier to see them in the shallower water. In the larger, longer coves start about 2/3 of the way back. In the smaller coves, start looking immediately at the mouth. Watch very carefully with polarized glasses even on the large boulders. You can also catch those fish waiting to spawn or have already spawned in or near the same areas with a wide variety of lures and even with sloppy presentations. Any other time of the year, stealth is the key. When you want to fish a particular spot, shut off the big engine and creep up using the trolling motor on as low a setting as conditions or your nerves will allow. Cast past your target if you can or use a soft entry lure if fishing shallow. You want to keep your intrusion to the very minimum.

Latest example of some of this was this past weekend. I fished a mainlake point with the tube jig and caught a smallmouth right up against the shore. Fished several more minutes the same way with no more strikes. Went with the drop shot rig (lure 2ft from the weight). Cast the weight on the bank with the lure hanging in the water and jiggled it almost violently and caught four more from the same spot. The next day after trying the spot with several different lures I went back to the same dropshot rig fished the same way and caught a 17.75" largemouth, but only one. Finally found them in the back of a cove with very nice spawning potential and caught a couple more with the tube and missed several more hard strikes.

A lot of info, but if you need more, there are guys much more adept at fishing that lake than I am. Also, try the 4" slug-go in Arkansas Shiner and the Rico if you don't mind parting with $25 for a topwater popper. Most explosive topwater strikes I've ever had from largemouths came with this lure in the Albino color. For some reason, the smallmouth don't hit it as viciously.