Fishing Report Archives

Hello from the Excel Storm Cat 230.

I’m finally organized (as well as I can be) and loaded up for my trip to Grenada, Miss. Thursday well before dawn.

My schedule has been packed lately but I’m finally seeing light down that long tunnel. I will be fishing Grenada Lake with a pair of my best buddies, one from Mississippi and one from Arkansas.

Two things that won’t be in short supply will be BS and laughs. We will fish from my boat Thursday and Friday in preparation for the PTG Outdoors Crappie Crankin’ Classic on Saturday.

This is a tourney that only allows crankbaits and does not allow live sonar. I had to disconnect my live sonars and remove my bow electronics to comply with tournament rules. Hopefully my luck will change this year.

Fishing has been good but could be better. The lack of current is hurting fishing badly. Our lakes are packed with bait and many of the crappie we have caught this week look like late fall fish.

They are packed full of minnows. This is a sign of a great future for our fisheries. The crappie are moving with the bait and many are being caught in open water, away from cover. Some have been surprisingly shallow over deep water during rainy or heavy cloud cover days. Once the sun pops out, the shallow fish are deep again. Watching your down image unit will tell you exactly how deep the crappie are at that moment. Find the bait, find the crappie.

We will probably see some dingy water from the heavy rains earlier in the week. The lake rose a few inches and once TVA starts pulling that level back down, the muddy water will move toward the main lake.

Keep in mind we are just over a week away from the Fourth of July and the start of the slow slide to winter pool levels. The change won’t be seen immediately other than an increase in the discharge rate at the dams. That should help fishing by creating some current.

I am one guide trip away from my preparation for my spinal fusion surgeries. The phone calls have been coming daily wanting trips and my bank balance says I need to be fishing but I must wrap up some loose ends in my taxidermy studio before the surgeries.

September will be here before I know it. If you are planning a trip to our lakes in September through November, drop me an e-mail by filling out the Book A Trip section on my Trips and Tours page. Fall fishing can be some of the best fishing of the year.

I’ll report on my Grenada trip next week. Be careful out there.

Welcome to our slice of Heaven.