OUTDOORS NOTEBOOK: Big bass snagged at Gibson County Lake

Grant McEwen of Trenton had a very productive day in a recent outing at Gibson County Lake.

Before heading for home, the number of fish Grant reeled in totaled 36 – including one very large bass.

Grant didn’t have a set of scales with him to weigh the catch, but estimates range from nine-to-11-pounds – which may be conservative numbers considering the size.

He used a lipless crankbait in two-to-three-feet of water.

Fishing Report

Gibson County Lake
Water temperature: mid 60s

Bass: “A lot of good bass are being caught on deep (diving) crankbaits off the main points,” Trenton’s Brent Smith said. “At the same time, there are schools that have gone shallow.”

Pickwick Lake
Water temperature: lower 60s

Bass: Some spots are more likely to produce larger fish, and the most productive areas on the lake are the big grassy flats that are surfacing.

It’s recommended you fish these flats with top-water plastic frogs. Spinner baits and hard top-water baits fished around the edges of the grass will also produce a lot of fish.

Fish the Strike King Series 3 crankbaits around rocky bluff.

Stripers: They are biting on the surface, and they are also biting deep. You can usually find a way to catch big rock fish below the Dam if you keep trying different methods.

There’s still few good weeks of striper fishing left, and then they will become a little harder to find as the weather gets cooler.

Kentucky Lake/Lake Barkley
Water temperature: upper 60s.

Bass: Shad schools are moving back out to deeper water, so that’s making bass fishing a little tougher for the time being.

Some are being caught on on crankbaits along ledges in the mouths of the larger bays and on rocky points close to deep water.

Crappie: Keeper size crappie are also being caught around wood cover in the 15-to-20-foot range on two-hook crappie rigs with live shiners or tube jigs tipped with minnows.

Catfish: Catfish have slowed, but the tailwaters are heating up with good numbers of blue cats in the two-to-five-pound range being caught below Kentucky and Barkley Dams on small skipjack and cut shad.

(PHOTO: Grant McEwen of Trenton)
David Thomas, Twitter – @DavidThomasWNWS
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