bass fishing -southern il.

Question
i need advice on fishing

   Devil's kitchen lake


   in early may for largemouth bass........thanks...

Answer
Gary; Wow! I have fished Devil's Kitchen only once since I moved away from Illinois in 1968.  It may have changed since I was there.  However, there are a few things that I can tell you that may be helpful.

Devil's Kitchen is a relatively deep lake with many places 70feet or more with 90ft. near the dam.  So deep and cold in fact that rainbow trout were stocked there some years ago.

Most of my bass fishing in the lake was done in the years when the lake was first opened and over the next decade.  Also most of my fishing was done in the upper end of the lake.  If memory serves me right that is the north end of the lake with the dam at the south end.  We always put our boat in at one of the landings on the east side of the lake about half to 2/3 of the way up the east side.  Almost straight out from the landing was/is an island about 50-75 yards from the bank.  There is an old road that came down the hill into the valley and up the hill that is now the island.  On either side of that road bed were ditches about 3ft. deeper than the road bed which was abut 4-6ft. deep.  In the spring we have found big females in the pre spawn stage using those ditches as staging spots before spawning.
We caught some really nice fat 4-6lb bass between that island and the shore to the north.  We did not have depth sounders back then so we were fishing blind for the most part.  Back then there was a lot of standing timber in the lake.  I suspect that like here on Lake Seminole the trees have mostly broken off at around the waterline, some above some just below.  Actually when facing a stand of broken off timber  the best way to fish it is  to pretend the timber isn't there and look for bottom structure such as creek channels, old road beds as mentioned before.(Incidently that road went over the hill that made up the island and then down the other side into what is now/or was a forrest.  The roadbed may still be a producer on that side of the island too altough the water is much deeper.

If I were to try fishing the lake today I would begin the day with a topwater in the pockets along the shoreline.  Then I would try pitching a worm or jig into the weedline or holes in the weeds. A crankbait worked just outside the weeds might produce or moving out into the trees and finding a small creek channel work it with worms or a Carolina rig.  In May the thermocline should not have formed yet so fish can be either deep or shallow.  Later in the year when the thermocline forms the fish will not be below that depth but are often just at that depth were it touches bottom.

Just as in virtually any lake in the country it is structure or bottom that determines the fish location.  Cover, stuff on the bottom holds the fish along the structure.  So if you find a creek channel that for a distance is just a clean channel and then you come upon a sunken tree along the channel.  Chances are the fish will be in that cover on that structure.

I can't promise that you will catch fish at any particular time but I do know that this lake has some really good fish in it if you can find them.

The only other thing that I might add is that in May you may have had warm weather and the fish will already be on the spawning grounds or it may have been cold and they are still  out in deeper water.
That is the story in February here.
If they haven't spawned yet but the females are staging and the males are in shallow water making beds. Leave the males alone, move out to water 8-20feet deep and work those areas.  The big ol females are out there and they will feed heavily sometime during the day.  Around here it is usually just at sunset so don't give up a day's fishing too early.

I wish I could be a bit more specific but forty years is a long time and things do change over time including fishermen.  Today is my 73rd birthday so lots of things have changed since I last saw that beautiful little lake.  I would love to fish it again along with it's older sister Little Grassy

Let me know how things turn out in your fishing of Devil's Kitchen, and thanks for using me to answer your question on "All Experts".

I am Jack L. Gaither
Lake Seminole Georgia

[email protected]