The information we received from Pickwick Lake, Gibson County Lake and Kentucky Lake/Lake Barkley offer a little different insight this week, but with the break in the weather, you have the opportunity to enjoy some mild weather – for a couple of days.

Fishing Report

Pickwick Lake

Water temperature: 49 degrees

Bass: If you like fishing around new flooded cover such as bushes and trees, now is a good time to fish Pickwick. We’re hearing big grubs and Strike King jigs fished slow in the shallow area work well, and live bait continues to work.

The smallmouth bite remains decent. If you fish high current areas below the dam with live bait, remember it can be extremely dangerous, so it’s not something a first time fisherman should attempt.

If you are looking for largemouth bass, fish a Series 3 crankbait along rocky banks. Natural colors seem to work the best, but chartreuse seems to help out if you are fishing plastic.

Catfish: Difficult to come up with a perfect depth, but try 20-feet of water first, then deeper in 50-feet. Of course it may not be the depth, it might be the area you’re fishing. Zig-zagging in different depths in the right area produced a good number of fish.

Sauger: Use plastic baits – a plastic minnow. You might want to fish as deep as 50-feet, because the water has warmed – perhaps slightly – but it has still warmed a few degrees.

Gibson County Lake

Water temperature: mid to lower 50s.

Bass: They are still hitting lipless cranks in the shallows, and deep cranks on a burning fast retrieve.

Catfish: They are doing well on jugs on the levee side of the lake.

Kentucky Lake/Lake Barkley

Water temperature: mid 40s. Water levels: 356.35 but will fall to 355.25 today (Wednesday)

• Bass: “Currents are strong and the water is muddy on Barkley Lake and stained on Kentucky Lake,” Darrell Van Vactor said. “Bass are still pretty slow with a few keeper size and smaller fish being taken off deeper points on the east side of the lake and old road beds at the mouth of some of the larger embayments also on the east side.”

Darrell Van Vactor is president/CEO of Outdoor Promotions in Benton, Ky.

• Crappie: “Crappie are the big hit right now with fish being taken by a wide variety of methods,” Darrell said. “Casting the rocky shorelines close to wood is producing some great catches of black crappie while vertical jigging red/chartreuse tubes and spider rigging minnows are taking limits all over the lake.”

Darrell said while it appears crappie are taking a break during the mid-day, a few anglers are long line trolling with hair jigs of various colors and finding success in the Kenlake area of the lake.

Catfish: “They continue to feed well in the canal area on the Barkley Lake end, holding in the bottom of the river channel in 52-to-55-feet of water,” Darrell said. “Large minnows are working the best.”

David Thomas, Twitter – @DavidThomasWNWS