Take a look below to see our featured smallmouth bass fishing destinations in Kentucky.
Dale Hollow Lake
Dale Hollow Lake is known for its tremendous smallmouth bass fishery. Home of the world record smallmouth bass, Dale Hollow Lake still holds its own for putting out trophy bass year after year. It’s a unique fishery because some of the best fishing is when the lakes up north are too cold to fish, so for many anglers, Dale Hollow Lake becomes their go to late fall and early winter destination for catching smallmouth bass. You can catch them year round, but the best bite is in the spring, later fall and early winter. It’s a good numbers lake if you know how to fish clear water and some big fish are here too. Anglers also target largemouth bass, crappie, muskellunge, walleye, catfish, gar, and trout.
Kentucky Lake
Smallmouth bass are more common in Kentucky Lake than they used to be, although, they are still a secondary species of fish compared to crappie and largemouth bass. The east side of the lake’s rocky shorelines will usually hold plenty of smallmouth bass if you want to target them. Some anglers will specifically target them here during the spring and summer. For many local anglers, targeting smallmouth bass during the late fall and even early winter is popular because smallmouths are willing to bite much better than largemouth bass in the colder weather. Other species that are available are crappie, white bass, sunfish, sauger and catfish.
Lake Cumberland
The smallmouth bass fishing is good on Lake Cumberland. You will find good numbers of bass in the 2 to 3 pound range and some bigger fish are available too. This lake has so many good place to target smallmouth bass. The wood and rocks near the deeper shorelines are good places to start. The main lake points and deeper drop-offs along the shorelines are also good places to fish. There are a variety of other fish here, however, most people come here for the tremendous striped bass fishery.
