We caught up with Jackson Kayak Pro Staffer Eric Atkins as he was working with Alabama Kayak Anglers to ask him about his trip to catch smallies in a small town. Atkins was happy to oblige, providing us with directorโs commentary on his โSmall Town Smallmouthโ bass fishing video.
Prime-time bass fishing in small townย Tennessee
โThis trip was taken in 2016 with my fellow Jackson Kayak Pro Staffer Evan Howard and our buddy, Dobyns Rods Pro Corey Galloway. The May weather turned out to be colder and windier than expected.โ
โWe hit the road to middle Tennessee to try and time the spawn for smallmouth bass. We wanted to get there at a prime time when big smallmouth were eating big lures. Evan and Corey are founders of the Kayak Swimbait Fishing group on Facebook.โ
โ15 minutes into our fishing trip I lost a five-pound smallmouth. I know it was five pounds because a bank fisherman saw the fish miss my lure and casted in and caught it on a small jig. He showed it off in front of us. We tried to shame him into releasing it, but we were pretty sure he fed his whole family with that fish later that night.โ
Testing out a prototype bait
โEvan brought along a prototype swimbait, the Bull Gill, from the renowned swimbait maker Mike Bucca. In the video, you will see Evan holding a large smallmouth that was caught by throwing the test lure below a rapid. The smallmouth absolutely hammered it and it was likely the first smallmouth ever caught on the Bull Gill lure.โ
โEach of us also took our fly rods along in hopes of catching a large smallmouth on the fly. We had varying success. I caught a one-pounder on an articulated jig tied by my friend Brandon Bailes. Evan somehow ended up catching two walleye on the fly. Youโll see him holding one of the walleyes in the video. It was a rare catch for those waters.โ
โWe all caught about a dozen fish each day, and also caught at least one of the large smallmouth that we had been searching for. My large fish at the end of the video was caught on a six-inch Bull Shad.โ
The smallmouth hits keep coming
โAs luck would have it, Corey caught another five-pound smallmouth in the final 15 minutes of the trip. He threw a spinnerbait into some wood structure on the bank and hauled out a trophy fish.โ
โIโll be headed back this spring to see if I can hook up with the five-pound smallmouth that escaped me last year.โ
For more smallmouth bass fishing videos and more, see Eric Atkinsโ YouTube channel.