Fishing Report Archives

Kentucky Lake’s fishing scene continues to change from week to week as lake levels and surface temperatures rise.

Last week was the longest stretch of nice weather the region has seen and the fishing scene heated up as crappie started spawning, bass moved up to shallow shorelines following rising lake stages and even bluegill and catfish activity kicked in.

Lake levels have been somewhat above normal and last week a slow but continual rise in elevation saw the reservoir climb to the 358.2 level for a few days. That inundated some shoreline cover in the form of weed beds and patches of water willow, commonly referred to as those endless yellow flowers.

Bass love the abundance of shallow yellow flowers as it attracts a lot of small sunfish and various minnows that flock to the fresh habitat as they discover a new comfort zone.

Bass fishermen the last week or so have begun targeting the shallow shorelines where tossing a floating fluke style worm, various topwater jerkbaits, spinnerbaits and some Texas rigged craws and worms have paid dividends.

Up until last weekend the shorelines were a bit too shallow but just a few inches of water changed the picture for spring bass fishermen. Tennessee Valley Authority was projecting lake levels around Kentucky Dam to be in the 358 range as the weekend approached but all that is dependent on an approaching cold front which all the weathermen say will bring heavy rains with it.

Heavy rains were projected for Friday so lake levels could swell by this weekend and into early next week. TVA’s normal curve doesn’t project summer pool readings of 359 until May 1. However, that can change.

Fishermen this spring have been somewhat surprised about the lake rising a bit ahead of schedule as last week there was a lot of floating debris all across the reservoir. That was challenging at times for boaters and fishermen too, especially when big chunks are floating off the shorelines.

Surface temperatures this week were dancing around the 64 to 67 degree range. Water color has been clear as the rising lake levels push stained water back into the bays. With the rising surface temperatures have come increased activity from bluegill and a few red ear sunfish, referred to locally as shellcracker. They haven’t begun an aggressive bedding phase just yet but have reacted to the rising lake levels and warmer days.

Crappie anglers were tying into quite a few bluegill and catfish this week that had moved into midrange depths of 6 to 12 feet. Some were even cruising shallow shorelines and out in 4 to 6 foot depths.

Both catfish and bluegill plus a few sunfish are stairstepping their way toward spawning territory. Aggressive bedding won’t start for another week or so for most of the bluegill. Shellcracker are known to start a little earlier than the bluegill so look for a few to enter those shallow grassbeds now that water has risen.

Catfish will soon be going to rocky banks and bluffs. Females are bloated with eggs right now so they’re on the doorstep of migrating to rocky shorelines and rip-rap levees and such shoreline habitat.

Cooler conditions now in the forecast may curtail the shallow shoreline bite for a few days. The cool snaps will pull the surface temps down slightly and that has a negative impact on the early phases of bluegill, redear and catfish.

Watch for a dramatic mood swing next week as soon as warm sunny days return. Crappie have played cat and mouse with the average everyday angler this spring. There were some dandy stringers taken last week but it varied from day to day once the rapidly rising lake levels scattered fish at times.

Still, it appears a lot of fish spawned last week and even during the first part of this week. I landed several big females the first part of the week and about half of them had already dropped their eggs.

It has been vintage Kentucky Lake with some anglers falling back and finding crappie pulling out to 11 to 14 foot depths while a few others up Big Sandy were still stalking 5 to 7 foot depths. Those long lining Road Runner style presentations were finding most of their success in 12 to 14 foot depths although some scattered fish were found up shallow at times.

Spider rigged style techniques were accounting for a lot of fish lately. Boaters were moving about and slowly moving over 8 to 12 foot zones and finding fish that way.

Single pole style fishermen working submerged stakebeds and brushpiles were still finding a few late spawners holding tight to structure but it took a lot of stops. Some beds yielded 3 or 4 fish at times while other were giving up only one or two. At times some beds were void of fish!

Small jigs in the 1/16 to 1/32-ounce size were the most appealing as the fish have held on to a finicky mood for quite some time. Hair jigs and small tubes or solid bodies were paying off better then live minnows most days.

Those casting twister trail grubs and tube skirts beneath bobbers had to stay on the move too. Scattered crappie were making most anglers fish pretty hard to achieve decent stringers.

However, some nice slabs were taken last week and this week. Several fish in the 1 ¾ to 2 pound plus range have been caught this spring.

It appears most of the crappie have passed the half-way point of spawning. However, there’s still some good activity ahead despite the post-spawn phase now upon us.