Fishing Report Archives

Waiting for nice weather before heading out on the lake? Wait no longer. Autumn is in full swing and invites you to partake of this wonderful season of transition.

Mild temperatures are the norm. Light winds too. Jacket mornings and shirt sleeve afternoons are here.

Last weekend’s cool snap sort of helped jump start a sluggish fall that had gotten hung in the summer mode position. A long stretch of hot and dry weather had folks wondering if fall had passed us by. Not to worry. It’s alive and well on Kentucky Lake.

Since last week surface temperatures have cooled slightly and another weekend cold front is in the forecast. An extended spell of chilly weather is expected to hang around next week too. It appears adding another log to the fire is about to enter the picture.

Surface temps this week have been in the 77 to 78 degree range. That will likely fall a few degrees in the days ahead.

Water color remains clear. Very little rain has fallen in the region lately. Lake levels are sleeping around the low elevation of 354.9, which is on the threshold of the low ebb of winter pool.

The reservoir has been stable these last few weeks. Discharge rates out of Kentucky Dam have been in the 25,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) range.

The fall crappie bite has improved somewhat as a few more fish are moving up and showing more interest. Some decent stringers have been taken recently by anglers vertical fishing live minnows and jigs around the 8 to 13 foot depth range.

Some anglers reported some good size crappie taken from the deeper depth range of 16 to 18 feet at times. Up Big Sandy there were fish taken in the midrange depths of 5 to 8 feet.

It’s not uncommon for the shallow bite to turn on somewhat quicker in the upper end of Big Sandy and throughout West Sandy.

Fall crappie fishing is often overlooked and underrated. You can fight fish without having to fight the crowd.

These next few weeks will see cooler surface temperatures entering the fishing scene. Transition time is indeed underway out on the lake and up on the hillsides. Fall colors are fading fast but peak is a couple of weeks away.

Watch for that shallow bite to improve all across the reservoir, especially on cloudy or rainy days that help filter out the bright sunlight.

Catfish have still been hitting for those who know how to find them out on the main river areas as they follow the balls of baitfish. Shad schooling in huge balls will usually have the catfish in hot pursuit.

Depths can vary from 25 to 45 feet at times but the blue cats have been hitting pretty good at times. Meanwhile, several nice channel catfish are showing up in midrange depths of 10 to 15 feet as crappie anglers working stakebeds and brushpiles are tying into some on a regular basis.

It’s quite a thrill to battle a 3 to 4 pound catfish on light tackle. That’s happening daily for crappie anglers too.

Bass fishermen are still finding the fall bite challenging. Clear water conditions have had shallow bass finicky as most of the better tournament stringers are coming from deeper water humps and sandbars.

The best stringers taken by tournament winners are being credited to fishing swim baits out on ledges or humps inside the mouth of big bays. Several nice smallmouth are showing up too!

More shad have moved up on gravel banks this week and flicking about, feeding on midge hatches. The tiny insects hatch in lowlight conditions throughout the fall, offering some nice topwater opportunities along open gravel flats and shady banks.

That shallow gravel bank topwater bite occurs in the early morning and late afternoon hours. However, sometimes it kicks in on a cloudy day even at midday.

Other patterns producing a few fish are boat docks where anglers have been tossing shallow running shad colored crankbaits and pitching jig/pig combos and various Texas rigged worm variations or slow falling baits.

Autumn angling has definitely arrived. These next few weeks offer some great fishing and beautiful scenery so don’t that this wonderful season get away from you.

Taking a pontoon cruise in the late afternoon is quite nice but all boaters best use caution and pay close attention to channel markers. That low lake level will humble you!