Fishing Report Archives

Kentucky Lake’s fishing scene officially changes to autumn angling on Saturday says the calendar. Anglers are hoping for some cool fall weather to get here and stay here.

Lake levels this week continued a slow fall and elevation is down a few inches from last week at this time with a reading of 355.6 across the reservoir. Water color remains clear.

TVA has been pulling a steady flow as forecasts indicate some 45,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) are moving through Kentucky Dam daily. That’s maintaining pretty good current for catfishermen and main lake area bass and crappie anglers.

Surface temperatures are starting the morning out around 78 degrees and warming to 82 by midday.

The long range weather forecast indicates stable weather lies ahead with highs in the low 80’s most days and a slight chance of rain by Sunday or Monday.

Fall has a reputation of stability and it’s starting out right on track. Anglers wouldn’t mind some cooler days and nights to lower the surface temperatures.

The crappie bite has been somewhat sluggish for most anglers yearning for lower surface temperatures. That might pull more numbers of larger fish to shallow to midrange depths.

A lot of small fish have been caught by fishermen stalking stakebeds and brushpiles in depths of 6 to 10 feet. Finding decent numbers of crappie that exceed the 10-inch minimum length limit in that depth zones has been tough.

Lots of smaller fish have moved up but bigger fish remain a challenge.

Even some deeper ledges and structure out on main lake flats has been reluctant to give up decent number of big fish at times.

Some boaters are fishing live minnow presentations or tipping jigs with minnows while others are vertical fishing jigs around deep cover.

Battling the aggressive schools of yellow bass has been all part of the fall fishing equation as the bait stealers are abundant at times. They are small in size but possess a huge appetite.

Meanwhile, a few boats targeting deeper structure out on main lake areas have managed to find a few good size in the 13 to 17 foot depth range. Most say they had to make a lot of stops to accumulate numbers as not many fish were schooling around the deep cover.

That scenario should improve in the days and weeks ahead. A little drop in surface temperatures can trigger increased activity by both schools of shad and the crappie who pursue them. Some cloudy or rainy mornings would help the shallow bite as well.

Catfish continue to move up and slowly leave those deep summer hideouts as fall advances. Tying into a few catfish has been the norm lately for crappie fishermen as they work the midrange depths of 12 to 15 feet.

Meanwhile, there’s still good current out on the main river channel these days and that has maintained a decent bite among the ranks of catfishermen working the banks of the main river channel.

Depths of 25 to 35 feet were still giving up good numbers of blue and channel catfish. Nightcrawlers, chicken livers and cutbait were producing.

The bass bite has been inconsistent for most as establishing patterns has been tough. There have been a few fish chasing shad in the backs of larger bays as they mix with white bass activity.

Tossing Rattle Trap style lures in chrome colors have produced at times. Rooster Tails have worked good on the white bass.

Activity along shallow gravel banks has not worked well as of late but that bite should improve soon as it’s time for bass to move up and occupy such areas, especially in early morning and late afternoons.

Anglers tossing swim baits, Carolina rigs and Texas rig presentations as well as those still offering big deep diving shad colored crankbaits are managing to catch a few fish.

Some nice smallmouth are showing up at times in the creel of anglers fishing finesse baits on deeper humps and main lake ledges along the river channel.

Some white bass schooling activity is taking place and the fish are busting the surface on calm days in their pursuit of shad schools.