Fish Enid Lake for August bass

Riprap near dam, pockets up the lake are keys to having a good fishing day

Enid, a 6,100-acre lake about 50 miles south of Memphis in Yalobusha County, has plenty of cover and some nice, 3- to 5-pound bass.

Due to the amount of rain received, Enid has been flooded much of this year, which means new cover for bass to use as ambush points. Once the water leaves during the summer drawdown, bass will probably hold on shallow cover. To catch these bass, which will weigh 1½ to 3 pounds, I’ll fish mostly hard cover like riprap, logs, stumps, blowdowns and bushes.

Early morning

Just before first light, I’ll be fishing about 500 yards of riprap on the south end of the dam, moving away from it. Next, I’ll run across the lake and fish about 500 yards of the riprap in the same fashion.

The key to having success fishing this riprap is to arrive early. I like a 3/8-ounce white buzzbait on a 7-foot-1, medium-heavy FX Custom rod with a 7.3:1 Bruin ELS reel that’s spooled with 20-pound White Peacock fluorocarbon. I’ll parallel the riprap with the buzzbait, fishing it fairly fast and keeping it as close to the rocks as possible.

On my casting deck, I’ll also have a shad-colored Zara Spook on 20-pound braid with a 12- to 14-inch fluorocarbon leader on a 6-foot-9, medium-action rod with an 8:1 reel. The fluorocarbon leader keeps the Spook’s treble hooks from getting tangled up in the braid. I’ll use the buzzbait to fish plenty of water fast and the Zara Spook to fish quickly when I spot bass blowing up on the surface, chasing baitfish.

Mann’s SpringR II

Another key bait will be a new Mann’s SpringR II worm in green pumpkin with a curled tail that straightens out as it falls. Movement of the worm makes the tail curl. If a bass blows up on a buzzbait or the Spook, and I don’t hook it, I’ll shake my rod tip and use that SpringR II worm without a weight as a follow-up bait, since it falls slowly. I like this new worm because the bass haven’t seen it before, and it looks alive due to the way the tail of the worm curls and uncurls.

I’ll fish it on spinning tackle with a 7-foot-4, medium-action rod with yellow, 10-pound braid and a 10-pound fluorocarbon leader. Since the strike often occurs as the bait falls, I can spot the bite more easily on yellow line.

I’ll fish this worm on a slack line. Once I twitch my rod tip, the tail of the worm will uncurl, and the bass often will take it when the worm’s tail starts to curl back toward the head. I’ll fish it with an Eagle Claw No. 1/0 drop-shot hook, a small hook that comes with a pack of these worms, with instructions on how to rig it.

After sun-up

Later in the morning, once the sun comes up, I’ll go up the lake and search for shallow pockets, since Enid has good numbers of these. I’ll fish as many small pockets as possible. If the lake’s high, I’ll be fishing flooded bushes. If the lake’s at normal pool, I’ll concentrate on fishing stumps and laydowns. I’ll use a ½-ounce Stone Jig on a 7-foot-3, heavy action rod and a 7.3:1 reel with 30-pound braid. I’ll pitch the jig to shallow structure and try to pull it over stumps and logs and into flooded bushes. If I don’t get a strike, I’ll move on to the next piece of cover.

I’ll also fish these shallow pockets with a C4 crankbait and a Baby 1-Minus in a shad color. I’ll fish the Baby 1-Minus on 19-pound fluorocarbon with a 7-foot, medium heavy cranking rod with a 6.2:1 reel. I want to run that Baby 1-Minus right over the tops of the stumps that are in less than 2 feet of water. Sometimes the Baby 1-Minus bounces off the stumps. The bass often will be around the roots of the stumps. I’ll use the same rod, reel and line set-up when I’m fishing the C4 in the stumps that are 3 to 5 feet deep.

If you fish only early in the morning and late in the afternoon in August, you’ll probably catch seven or eight bass. Fishing all day, you should catch 12 to 15 bass or more. However, I won’t be surprised if someone catches 18 to 20 bass — maybe even a 5-pounder.