The weekend was miserable, and making matter worse – the fish were just not cooperating.

Fishing Report

Gibson County Lake
Water temperature: upper 40s

Bass: “They are still very scattered,” Trenton’s Brent Smith said. “If (you’re) fishing shallow, cover a lot of water with a red or copper and black lipless crank – out deep look for schools and fish a deep suspending jerk bait.”

Crappie: Brent said if you are looking for crappie, try the mud – black and green jigs for bait.
Catfish: Brent said fishermen are hitting catfish on cut bait between the main lake and the flats in seven-to-10 feet of water.

Kentucky Lake/Lake Barkley
Water temperature: upper 40s, lower 50s. Water color: Slightly stained to clear throughout the system.

“Kentucky and Barkley Lakes continue to be hit with rainfall almost on a daily basis,” Darrell Van Vactor said. “We do have some warmer weather coming this week for a few days at least, so the surface temperatures should increase during mid week.”

Darrell, Operations Manager, Crappie USA/Cabela’s King Kat Trail in Benton, Kentucky, said water levels could change if the area receive more rain, as predicted, on Tuesday.

Bass: “They are super slow, with few happy anglers during the two most recent tournaments last week where out of a total of over 300 boats, only a handful of limits were caught,” Darrell said. “Bass anglers are suddenly joining the crappie anglers in their thought that the Asian Carp are having an adverse affect on their sport.”

Darrell said the loss of the thread fin shad populations, bass are suffering from malnutrition in many areas of the lakes.

“What few fish that were taken this past weekend were on crank baits on roadbeds and fan casting spinner baits on flats in the mouths of the bays,” Darrell said.

Crappie: “Crappie are a little better as they move to shallower areas in preparation of the upcoming spawn,” Darrell said. “Numbers of black crappie have been pretty good casting the banks with 1 1/2 inch green or chartreuse curl tails, banks with chunk rock or wood cover are doing better.”

White crappie: Darrell said white crappie are improving in six-to-10 feet of water over wood cover using black/chartreuse or red/chartreuse tubes fished vertically right down in the cover,” Darrell said. “Watch for long line trolling with jigs and crank baits to be the ticket by the first of (this) week if (the) weather holds stable.”

Redear: “They are still being taken in small numbers by crappie anglers casting the banks,” Darrell said. “They should heat up in the next two weeks as they move to shallow water beds.”

David Thomas, Twitter – @DavidThomasWNWS
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