If you are looking to put in at an area lake or river this weekend, temperatures are expected to hit 73 degrees Saturday and 80 on Sunday.
Bass are hitting and the weather is warming up – a lethal combination.
Fishing Report
Gibson County Lake
Water temperature: lower 60s
Bass: “The rains have brought the water level up at Gibson County Lake,” Trenton’s Brent Smith said. “Bass are moving in shallow and the males are starting to bed and are aggressive. (Try) top-water poppers and white plastics.”
Brent said the larger bass continue hanging off deeper points and feeding on shad. Try swim baits and deep-diving crankbaits.
Crappie: Brent said crappie have been very shallow, but they are hitting black and green jigs.
Kentucky Lake/Lake Barkley
Water temperature: 60 degrees
Bass: “Fishing is really heating up now,” Darrell Van Vactor said. “(Both) lakes are on a gentle rise at 355.5 and should be around summer pool of 359.0 by the end of April.”
Darrell Van Vactor is the Operations Manager for Crappie USA/Cabela’s King Kat Trail in Benton, Kentucky.
“Largemouth Bass are being caught on multiple patterns,” Darrell said. “Good fish are being caught on suspending jerk baits on main lake points and creek channel drops.”
Darrell said keepers are also showing up in the backs of the bays in a pre-spawn pattern and being caught on jigs, spinner baits and finesse worms.
“As the water gets into the bushes, the fish will move in and begin their spawn,” Darrell said. “Keep in mind – they will not all spawn at the same time – so there will be scattered fish in deeper conditions that can be caught during the spawning cycle.”
Darrell said smallmouth bass are scarce for the time being, but a few are being caught on main lake points with chunk rock and old roadbeds in the mouth of the bays. Medium running crankbaits are proving the best for the smallies right now.
Crappie: “They are beginning their spawn with black crappie on the banks in two-to-five-feet of water on the beds, and white crappie in four-to-seven-feet of water starting to nest as well,” Darrell said. “Minnows and jigs are both working well with about any technique you choose to use.
“Remember if it is the really big slabs that you want to target, they may continue to hang out in the deeper 12-to-20-foot water right through the spawn.”
Darrell said they have learned that laying their eggs in deeper water keeps them from having to compete with the younger and more aggressive fish that bed in the shallow areas.
Bluegill: “Bluegill are showing up on secondary channel drops and adjacent flats and are hitting well,” Darrell said. “You can get some really good early bluegill action by looking for them in the deeper areas right now.”
Pickwick Lake
Water temperature: 63 degrees. Elevation: 410 feet
Bass: “The best way I have found bass has been covering a lot of water fast with a Red eye shad on flats or cranking slow with a crankbait inside coves and along bluffs,” Clagett Talley said. “Strike King, Strike Shad in a Citrus colored crank bait are in my opinion the best crankbait for this time of year.”
Clagett, a tour guide from Savannah, said it’s best to keep things slow, but keep your boat moving.
“Do not worry about fishing in deep water as long as you can hit the bank,” Clagett said. “I have caught a lot of fish along bluffs where the boat is 30-plus-feet but the fish were caught close to the rocky bank.”
White bass: “White bass are running strong,” Clagett said. “I have had several fishing trips lately where the people with me wanted to either catch white bass or they would just say they wanted to catch fish in general.
“With that request I had no problem catching several white bass.”
Clagett said the approach to catching them changes slightly.
“One day, you might catch them all on live crawfish (sometimes dead crawfish work as well), and the next day you might out perform the live bait with a Strike King Series 3 crank bait,” Clagett said. “The crankbaits are far easier to use – and saves a lot of time.”
Stripers: Clagett said stripers are throughout the river and lake.
“But, it is just hard to fish for them right now,” Clagett said. “You can occasionally catch some on deep-diving Strike Kind Series 6-8XD’s. The good news is that stripers will bite better and better from this point on (and) over the next few weeks, I expect to catch a lot more stripers.”
Sauger: “Sauger fishing has improved in the Savannah area over the last week,” Clagett said. “The standard way of fishing with a sauger jig in water as shallow as 15-feet and water as deep as 60-feet will continue to work throughout April. Look forward to catching them on crankbaits in the next few weeks.”
Want more from the “Mayor of Pickwick Lake?” Give Clagett Talley a call (731) 607-5266, or visit him online – www.pickwickareaguide.com
Bass tournament
The Henderson County Bass Anglers Thursday Night Bass Tournament at Beech Lake – 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. – returns TODAY. Visitors are welcome to participate. For more information, call ‘Easy‘ Edd Burke (731) 695-1654.
(PHOTO: Lake Graham, Jackson)
David Thomas, Twitter – @DavidThomas@WNWS
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