Fishing Report Archives

Kentucky Lake’s late fall fishing scene has been generous and kind to anglers. Above average temperatures had been teaming up with light winds and stable weather overall to provide ideal fishing conditions for the last couple of weeks.

Hillsides have been holding on to picturesque autumn colors too, providing a nice backdrop for fishermen.

Cooler days are coming, says the weatherman, as more seasonable weather patterns will kick in by this weekend. Anglers knew this wonderful weather couldn’t last forever.

Daytime highs climbed to near record highs at midweek---reaching the low to mid 80’s in some areas---but the forecast says some much needed rain will enter the picture ahead of a cold front.

Highs this weekend and next week will be in the low to mid 50’s for a few days and slowly climb to the low 60’s for daytime highs with cool night temps dipping into the low to mid 30’s!

The honeymoon with summer weather here in late fall may be coming to an end.

Lake levels this week have lingered around the 355 elevation at Kentucky Dam and all across the reservoir. Water color remains clear. Pretty much everyone was hoping for rain across the region.

Surface temperatures have reflected the warm days and have risen to the 60 to 64 degree range in most areas. Watch for that to change the next few days and fall several degrees.

Crappie fishing has been good the last week to ten days across the reservoir. Mild days and light winds teamed up to produce excellent fishing conditions and the crappie bite responded favorably.

Dandy stringers were taken by anglers fishing both jigs and minnows. Deeper areas in some areas of the lake produced good numbers. Depths of 16 to 20 feet were holding nice size fish.

Also producing have been some midrange manmade fish attractors in the 8 to 12 foot depth range. Several anglers reported landing 20-fish limits this week as the bite has actually been better the first ten days of November than it was in most of September or October.

It should continue to hold up but with the approaching cold front will come nasty north winds so that will alter the approach for most fishermen who have been enjoying the freedom to fish open water areas without battling whitecaps.

A few bass fishermen saw some increased activity as well during the mild weather phase of November. The bite seemed to improve a bit on gravel banks and rocky areas such as rip-rap levees and roadbeds.

Tossing shad colored crankbaits paid dividends such as Rapala’s Shad Rap, Bandit and Bill Lewis chrome and black or Tennessee shad color variations.

Rattle Trap style lures are always a good choice throughout the fall and that has proven to be the case as of late.

Some smallmouth are still testing the tackle of bass fishermen. Most credit their success to casting swim baits over sandbars in main lake areas but steep bluffs back in larger bays have also been productive.

A few white bass have still been busting the surface at times in their pursuit of schooling shad. With them have been a few smallmouth and largemouth at times too.

Catfishing has been sluggish. Current has been sluggish too as not much rain has entered the Tennessee River system this fall and that’s diminished the flow. There has been a slight amount of current---26,000 to 30,000 cfs---at times which is somewhat surprising given the lack of runoff.

Kentucky Lake’s fishing scene has had an unusually nice fall so anglers can’t complain if we get a few cold and windy days mixed with a day or two of rain.