It’s late February on a 73-year-old, 46,500-acre highland reservoir in Oklahoma that offers 1,300 miles of shoreline. The water temperature is in the high 40s or low 50s, and visibility ranges from a foot to 4 feet, depending on whether you’re on the lower end or the upper end. Because the lake is old, there’s not a lot of wood cover left, but there are plenty of rocks, boat docks and man-made brushpiles, as well as creek and river channels, humps and bridges. The primary forage is threadfin and gizzard shad, but there’s also plenty of crawfish and panfish on the menu. If the scenario sounds pretty specific, it should. We’ve just described Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees, site of the 2013 Bassmaster Classic. Our experts all have excelled on Grand Lake, and their insights should give us greater perspective on how to tackle the lake.
