Where and How to Catch Fish in August and Early September
with Roger Stegall at Pickwick Lake
Largemouth Aren’t Just Deep Now
 Editor’s
Note: Roger Stegall, the owner and operator of Roger
Stegall’s Professional Guide Service on Pickwick
Lake, which makes up the boundary of Tennessee, Mississippi
and Alabama, has fished Pickwick Lake for 32 years and
guided on the lake for 22 years. Unlike many guides,
Stegall will help you find and catch any species of
fish. He’s just as comfortable running a trotline
and catching catfish as he is guiding his clients to
smallmouth that weigh over 5-pounds each. He can put
you on a limit of white bass or show you where and how
to catch the biggest largemouth you’ve ever hooked.
You pick the species, and Stegall will locate the fish
and show you how to catch it.
Question: Roger, August and September are the most-productive
months for fishing deep. So, why do you fish shallow
during these 2 months?
Stegall: August is a great month to fish for largemouth
in shallow water in lakes with grass. I define shallow
water as 10-foot deep or less. Those bass won’t
only be holding in grass, they’ll be concentrating
around stumps and logs. When they’re holding around
targets, like stumps and logs, I’ll be fishing
the Strike King spinner bait. Since we’ve recently
had an invasion of grass here  at
Pickwick, the lake has really exploded with largemouth
bass. The grass brings the largemouth to the shallow-water
structure as well as to the grass itself. The grass
provides shade, oxygen and a perfect place for baitfish
to hide, move and feed. Even in hot weather, there’s
cool water, plenty of oxygen, shade and bait up under
the grass. My favorite baits for fishing the grass are
the Strike King Rage Toad, the Rage Shad and the Frog.
These are all top-water baits you can swim over the
top of the grass. Too, the new Rage Anaconda worm can
be extremely deadly when you swim it over the top of
the grass.
Question: What size hook and lead do you use when fishing
the Anaconda over grass?
Stegall: I use a No. 5/0 hook with a 3/16-ounce weight
on the Anaconda. Another bait that will be a dynamite
grass bait is Strike King’s new Rage Space Monkey
with all its legs and appendages. Strike King has a
number of new baits that came out last year and this
year that will work in a wide variety of situations,
but especially in grass. More lakes in the South and
the East are getting grass in them, so naturally you
expect a company like Strike King to produce lures that
will deliver bass in the grass, but also have other
fishing applications.
Question: What colors do you like when fishing for
bass in the grass?
Stegall: I like green pumpkin, red, watermelon-red,
plum, redbug or any other soft-plastic lure with red
in it. The bass are searching for bream, which have
some type of red or green in their color pattern. Too,
I fish a swimming jig, like a 1/4- or a 3/8-ounce Premier
Elite jig with a Rage Tail Craw on it. I like to swim
the jig through the grass and then drop it into the
holes.
Question: What pound-test line do you fish when you’re
fishing a jig or Strike King’s new creature baits,
worms or other soft-plastic lures through the grass?
Stegall: I use either 17- or 20-pound-test line, so
I have the strength in the line to pull those bass out
of the grass once they attack my lures.
Question: How big are the bass you catch in the grass?
Stegall: We’re catching bass from 3/4- to 8-pounds
each when we’re fishing the grass.
Question: Roger, if I book a trip with you and tell
you I want to catch bass, how many will we catch in
a day of fishing, and will you expect to catch either
smallmouths, largemouths or a combination of the tw o?
Stegall: I recommend fishing for both smallmouths and
largemouths to try and catch the most bass we can in
one day of fishing.
Question: How do you combination fish for largemouths
and smallmouths?
Stegall: We’ll spend part of the day, probably
the early morning, fishing gravel bottoms and shell
bottoms for smallmouths. We’re likely to catch
largemouths on these same spots where we’re fishing
for smallmouths. Then we’ll leave the pea-gravel
and the shell bottoms to fish in grass, logs or stumps
and try to catch big smallmouths.
Question: How many bass do you plan to catch in one
day?
Stegall: Bass fishing is bass fishing. We may catch
and release as few as 10 or as many as 50, and we should
catch or at least hook-up one bass over 5 pounds.
Question: If we put out a trotline the night before
we go bass fishing, how many pounds of catfish do you
think we’ll catch off two, 75-hook trotlines?
Stegall: We should catch anywhere from 100 to 150 pounds
of cats in August and early September.
Question: Roger, if I just wanted to white bass fish,
how many white bass will we catch in one day?
Stegall: I fished for 5 hours with two youngsters the
first week in August, and we caught 30 white bass. There’s
no telling how many white bass you can catch and release
if you start at daylight and fish till dark. But I don’t
know anyone who wants to know or try it.
To fish with Roger Stegall at Roger Stegall’s
Guide Service or learn more about the fish at Pickwick
Lake, call him at 662-433-3869, or visit www.fishpickwick.com,
or email rogstegall@fishpickwick.com.
For more information on staying at Pickwick Landing
State Park on Pickwick Lake, contact the Hardin County
Convention and Visitor’s Bureau at info@tourhardincounty.org,
call (731) 925-8181 or (800) 552-3866, or visit www.tourhardincounty.org.
Pickwick Landing State Park offers fishing, boating,
hiking, camping, swimming and golf. Lodging includes
the lakeside inn with over 100 rooms, cabins that sleep
eight and a campground that contains 48 sites with grill
and electric/water hookup at each site. A restaurant
at the park offers delicious southern cuisine. Call
(731) 689-3135 or (800) 250-8615 to learn more.
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