Fishing Report Archives

Hot weather has heated up the Kentucky Lake fishing scene, especially for bedding bluegill, shellcracker and catfish. Conditions the last few days felt more like summer as daytime highs climbed to the mid 80’s.

Surface temperatures have responded to the warm nights and hot days too, rising from the upper 60’s to low 70’s in just a few days. Also rising has been the elevation; the reservoir was projected to 359.5 by this weekend which is some 6 inches above regular summer pool.

Water color remains clear across the reservoir. And, the clear water requires bass and bluegill fishermen to implement an allusive approach when stalking shallow shoreline habitat.

Bedding bluegill can be finicky at times, especially if stagnant winds deliver placid waters. With wind there’s a little ripple on the surface and that works best for anglers trying to maneuver quietly toward shallow weeds and bushes where shy shellcracker and bluegill may be residing.

Same goes for finicky bass hiding in shallow grass or around bushes or willows. Wise are anglers which attempt to lay back away from the favorable looking fishing spots while making long casts so as not to spook the fish.

Often time the visibility of the boat can scare fish when clear water is present. Noisy trolling motors, which sometimes stir up sediments, muddy up the water and can announce your arrival plus play havoc with the pristine location.

That’s why most fishermen prefer not only a light wind but a little dingy water color to help mask their approach. Dingy water color helps filter sunlight too so that’s another entry in the plus column. And, a little chop on the water brings life to a stagnant situation.

Bluegill are actively bedding and some dandy stringers have been caught again this week by anglers tossing crickets, redworms and waxworms around shoreline areas of two to five feet deep. Some bluegill that were opting to stage in deeper zones last week have migrated toward shallow spawning spots since last week.

Although a few good size redear (shellcracker) have been taken, numbers have been somewhat sparse across the reservoir. Not many twenty fish limits have been recorded as the fish have been illusive and some have backed off the bank into the 5 to 7 foot depth range to spawn.

A big fish contest underway each month at Paris Landing Outdoorsman shows the largest shellcracker weighed in for May has been a hefty one weighing 1.70 pounds! That’s a dandy and it was caught by Steve Odom. Local angler Tom Lawrence caught one Monday that weighed 1.56 pounds and is in second place. So, several trophy size shellcracker are coming in this spring!

It will be interesting to see the weights coming in Saturday during the annual Bluegill Blowout Tournament by Covenant Ranch in Buchanan. Each year some dandy stringer weights open the eyes of a lot of fishermen in this event.

Meanwhile, scores of bank fishermen continue to reel in nice stringers of catfish. Those rocky shorelines are really attracting the spawning fish. Rip-rap rocky areas such as roadway levees or most any shoreline with such habitat is producing catfish right now.

The levee at Springville pumphouse up West Sandy; the roadbed along U.S. Highway 79 on the Stewart County side; the infamous catfish island up Big Sandy adjacent to Sulphur Well Island; and the old Danville Railroad levee east of Big Sandy on the Tennessee River are but a few of the popular spawning areas.

Nightcrawlers are the best bait going but there’s a few anglers using shrimp, chicken livers and other concoctions that appeal.

Crappie are in their typical post-spawn phase and somewhat lethargic for most anglers stalking them the last week or two. There have been a few scattered fish taken by long-line style techniques lately as boaters pulling Roadrunners and twister tail grubs, not to mention some crankbaits, are trolling the 7 to 9 foot depth range and scoring.

A few reports from anglers vertical fishing jigs in their midrange brushpiles and stakebeds are still holding a few fish too. Depths of 12 to 15 feet are also holding some scattered crappie.

Most of the decent stringers have come from the upper Big Sandy near the Country Junction sector the past week to ten days.

It’s not unusual for crappie to scatter and suspend out over deeper depths in the post spawn phase. After a couple of weeks pass watch for crappie to have a little mood swing and begin to relate better to structure.

The bass bite has been pretty good for a few tournaments as of late. Some 5-fish limits weighing around the 18 to 19-pound plus range were weighed in at several events up and down the lake last weekend.

While some boats are still laying out away from shore and fishing some deeper sandbars and secondary points in midrange depths of 8 to15 feet there have been success stories coming in from those targeting shallow weeds and shoreline blowdowns.

With Kentucky Lake’s elevation creeping up a few inches this week it further inundates a lot of shoreline habitat. With just a little more water comes a lot more willow trees, buck bushes and weedbeds now appealing to bass.

Tossing Texas rigged worms, craws and lizards has been working with such colors as green pumpkin pepper, black/blue, and cotton candy being some popular choices. Spinnerbaits are working great as are a few buzzbaits fished over shallow grassbeds.

Floating worms and lizards are producing as are assorted jerkbaits as the topwater bite has improved as of late.

At the same time those falling back and fishing offshore sandbars are tossing Carolina rigged craws and lizards along with big crankbaits as part of their arsenal. Seems there’s always a few boats opting to fish off the banks looking for some bigger bites now that bass are in the post-spawn phase and beginning to pull out away from the shorelines.

It appears the Kentucky Lake fishing scene will have a long stretch of stable weather for the days ahead. Things are warming up fast and any cool snap that might slip in the door will be short lived. North winds should now be in the minority, losing ground to light southwest breezes.

There’s some great fishing now underway, especially for the bluegill and catfish fraternity. Bobbers are disappearing on a regular basis and the only way to find out what’s on the other end is to jerk and hold on!