Fishing Report Archives

You know summer has arrived on Kentucky Lake when the mayfly hatches begin. Summer officially arrives on the calendar June 20th but for scores of bass, bluegill, crappie and catfish anglers it really started a few weeks ago.

Lake levels have been stable lately and staying around the normal summer pool elevation of 359 across the reservoir. TVA has been pushing around 40,000 cfs (cubic feet per second) through Kentucky Dam and that has been enough current at times to stimulate the main lake ledge bite for bass plus stir up the prowl alarm on catfish too.

Surface temps are responding to the warm weather and starting out the day in the upper 70’s and warming to the low 80’s by midday. Water color has a little stain in places but it’s a good color for fishing.

The unofficial kickoff to the summer fishing scene each year is the beginning of mayfly hatches up and down the reservoir. That’s already underway. Several sightings have been reported along river island rims lately.

Once the flies start hatching it seems to bring increased fishing opportunities for not only bluegill around the bushes and shallow weedbeds but bass too. There’s always a good shallow bite from bass once this natural buffet emerges around shallow shorelines or below the steep banks where willows hang over the water, forming a shady canopy.

Tossing some topwater, spinnerbaits and Texas rigged worms or craws will get the attention of shallow bass already on a feeding spree.

Buzz baits are great choices over the shallow grassbeds or buck bushes. Right now schools of shad fry (pin minnows) are showing up and that always lures bass to island rims, treelaps and shoreline stickups. Even in hot weather the combination of pin minnow schools and mayflies is a great combination for fast action.

Main lake ledges are producing well as recent tournaments such as Major League Fishing showed some nice smallmouth and largemouth congregating. Not all the ledges and humps are full of fish but scouting out balls of baitfish activity and marking the bass with FFS sure helped several of the top anglers eliminate dead water on their quest to fat paychecks and recognition.

From deep running shad colored variations of crankbaits to Carolina rigs, swim baits and a few more tricks the young guns showed some hefty numbers of bass are out there if you know where to look and what to throw.

The main lake ledge bite should last several more weeks but never totally turn your back on Kentucky Lake’s shallow pattern.

Decent stringers of crappie continue to come in from anglers targeting depths of 12 to 15 feet while using live minnow and a mixture of jigs. Some credit their catches to even deeper depths.

Nice stringers of catfish are showing up too as anglers stalk the edge of the main river channel. Depths of 30 feet and more are holding some good ones. Bumping bottom with double hook rigs armed with nightcrawlers and assorted commercial bait presentations has paid dividends lately.

Watch for that catfish bite to continue as more fish pull out to the river bank areas in pursuit of balls of baitfish. The bite is best when current is present.

Anglers can catch a lot of bluegill right now while casting light tackles. Tossing small twister tail grubs or small Mepps or Rooster Tails will work well as will the old reliable crickets fished beneath a slip-bobber style presentation. That’s always productive during the mayfly hatches.