Steve McCadams

Summer officially arrived last week on the calendar and warm weather already seemed to have a head start on the transition of seasons. Hot and humid best describes a lot of days out on the lake lately.

Looks like the fishing scene will face several consecutive days of 90-degree plus temperatures so fishermen best rise and shine early, wetting a hook before the midday sun kicks in.

Anglers have been catching some nice stringers of catfish out on the edge of the main Tennessee River channel. Depths of 35 to 40 feet have been giving up some dandies, especially when TVA is pushing current through Kentucky Dam.

The flow always seems to stimulate movement of big schools of bait fish and whenever that happens the bite improves. Lately TVA has been keeping plenty of current moving as the abundant rainfall across the region has no doubt influenced plenty of runoff from Kentucky Lake’s huge watershed that drains into the reservoir.

Lake levels have stayed around the summer pool threshold of 359. Slight variation has occurred as this past week the lake was a few inches above the summer pool mark.

TVA’s normal curve will see lake levels begins to fall slowly starting next week. The projected curve is for a slow drawdown to begin each year on or around July 1. The descent is slowly headed toward the low ebb of winter pool elevation but that’s done over the course of several months.

Lake levels this past week were around the 359.3 range. Water color has been clear. Surface temperatures were in the 84 degree range and rising.

Catfishermen are stalking the edge of the main channel using night crawlers, leeches, shrimp and several commercial stink baits that have worked well. Some big minnows are working too along with cut bait from smaller bluegill and shad.

Decent stringers of crappie are coming in from anglers who are working structure in 8 to 14 foot depths. Some report fish holding in deeper structure around 14 to 18 foot depths at times. Rising surface temps will no doubt influence some crappie to move out deep in the days ahead.

Jigs are working but so are live minnows as warm weather often sees live bait producing best. Tipping a jig with a minnow or Berkley Power Bait nibbles has also paid dividends.

Mayfly hatches are underway all across the reservoir lately. Timing of the hatches is always a guess but lately some big hatches have occurred during the frequent thunderstorm activity. There’s something magical about the mayfly hatches that often coincide with that sudden low pressure associated with a thunderstorm.

Mother Nature is mystical in many different ways and seasons. Stimulating a summer mayfly hatch is certainly one of them.

Practically every species of fish that swim in Kentucky Lake benefits from the natural buffet when it emerges. At various stages in the life cycle of mayflies fish, birds and all sorts of critters partake of the feast.

Casting light tackle with small grubs and spinners will produce some good bluegill activity plus some bass too. The mayflies pull a lot of fish to the shallow shorelines despite the hot weather.

Although a lot of bass fishermen are targeting the main lake ledges looking for some schooling bass out there others are finding success in shallow zones if they locate schools of pin minnows. The shad fry are abundant in some weedbeds and around treelaps, especially on main river island points where current in moving.

Spinnerbaits, Texas rigged worms, buzzbaits and jerk baits are working well. It you get our early the topwater bite can be good for a couple of hours.

The deep ledge bite is holding up pretty good for anglers tossing shad colored crankbaits, Carolina rigs, Texas rigged worms and some big spoons just to name a few.

Most ledge fishermen are using their sophisticated sonar units in hope of locating the schools of bass on humps and ledges. At times both largemouth and smallmouth are busting some shad on the surface. White bass activity is often visible when a feeding frenzy takes place too.

Sometimes watching the gull activity as they splash down and feed on the baitfish will help anglers locate the bass too.