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Brought to you by: Fishtale Lodge
August 27, 2009
From this week’s fishing scene comes reports of
successful bass and crappie anglers who thought recent conditions were
more reflective of mid-September that mid-August. Last weekend’s low
humidity courtesy of a light north wind made it feel like fall was
arriving early.
Summer temps have returned but it was a nice deviation from the dog days
as there aren’t many mornings in August when you need to wear a long
sleeve shirt but that was the case on some early outings.
Surface temps fell earlier this week in response to the cool snap.
Presently, the water temperature is in the 82 to 85 degree range.
Lake levels have been falling slowly this week as TVA is discharging
daily which keeps some current moving in the main river. Water elevation
at Kentucky Dam and New Johnsonville is in the 356.8 range, which is
down a few inches from last week at this time.
Water color is clear across most of the reservoir.
Bass were running shad around aquatic vegetation and tossing top water
jerk baits and willow leaf spinnerbaits with blue/chartreuse and white
skirts were working well. Floating fluke style and Texas rigged worms
were also paying dividends.
A few anglers have done a run and gun routine lately and chose to fish a
wood pattern where shallow bass have been relating to stickups such as
logs, exposed crappie beds, and any boat dock or piers where minnows
were present.
The main lake ledges are still holding a lot of bass and anglers there
are working Carolina rigged worms, lizards and crawfish, along with some
nine and ten inch worms worked Texas style. Popular colors have been red
shad, Tequila sunrise, blue/black, and pumpkin-pepper.
Big deep diving crankbaits in the Tennessee shad, chartreuse/blue,
chrome/black and other shad variations continue to produce too.
Shad are beginning to school near the surface on calm days and will move
toward shallow gravel banks in the early morning and late afternoon
hours where surface action will improve.
Crappie seemed to perk up thanks to the cooler conditions that seemed to
stimulate the bite in midrange stakebeds and brushpiles. Structure in
the 12 to 15 foot range was giving up fish with some action coming from
11 to 13 foot zones.
Watch for crappie to continue to move up toward shallow zones,
especially on days when cloud cover is present. Some of those shallow
areas will produce in the early morning and late afternoon hours due to
lowlight conditions as the fish are sensitive to bright sunlight in
clear water conditions.
Not much to report from the catfish or white bass department this week.
Very few anglers are reporting surface action from the schooling white
bass. Although current has been present not many boats are stalking the
main river channel for catfish.
For The Lake Barkley Report
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Also check out our past:
Kentucky Lake Fishing Reports
Steve McCadams
Steve McCadams is one of the nation's best known Crappie Fishermen
and a full time resident of Paris, Tennessee. Steve is also a
professional hunting and fishing guide here in the Paris Landing area.
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