# dale hollow



## DAVELEE (Apr 19, 2004)

just got back from dale hollow for a quick Friday thru Sunday trip, went to do a little crappie and smallmouth fishing. the crappie fishing was a bust only got 4 12" crappie, but the smallmouth fishing was amazing in 2 and a half days of fishing we got 28 smallies with 6 20" fish and another 18 that fell in the slot limit (16 -21) inches. which if I do the math correctly means we had 24 smallies between 16 and 20 inches. with the other 4 all being 15".
we had not been to dale hollow in about 12 years but the same old patterns seemed to work.
we stayed at wisdom resort near Albany which has great facilities just have to work around the hours, they are only open from 9 am to 1130 am during the off season.


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## DAVELEE (Apr 19, 2004)

here is a picture of one of the 20 inch fish struggling uploading the other pictures


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## DAVELEE (Apr 19, 2004)

couple more pics


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## Fishing Flyer (May 31, 2006)

Sounds like a fantastic Smallmouth trip! What were patterns that you used? I haven’t been down there since 2016, and the Smallmouth population had taken a hit in the 2012 timeframe and took a few years to recover.


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## DAVELEE (Apr 19, 2004)

hey Fishing Flyer I had heard the same thing about dale hollow that the fishing and gotten tough the last couple of years and they even had a fish kill a couple of years ago but we had plenty of action and great size on our trip... as for pattern we got most of the fish on shiners but we also picked a couple on small spinner baits and shad collared swim baits... to me the key to fishing dale hollow is the slope of the banks. most people come down and see the rock cliffs and fall in love with those steep banks but I have more luck when I find a bank that holds about 25 ft of water when you are about 50 feet off of the bank, and it really doesn't matter if it is a rock bank, a flat with weeds or a point if you find the right slope it will hold smallmouth at some point. we mainly fish the ill will creek and wolf river area.


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