If there is anything such as a small large fish, the one Fruitland’s Irvin Cooper caught earlier this week at Gibson County Lake would qualify.

Irvin’s 7.4-pound bass (pictured) falls in line with a 13.1-pounder, a 12.12-pounder and a 10.2-pounder fishermen have snagged at Gibson County Lake since May, and those are the only ones we’ve heard about.

Fishing Report

Gibson County Lake
Water temperature: upper 80s. Water color: stained

Bass: “Bigger bass have been moving shallow … hitting lipless cranks,” Trenton’s Brent Smith said. “Irvin Cooper caught a 7.4-pounder on a top-water popper – white with a red head.”

Catfish: “Catfish have been on fire during the week on jugs – not legal on the weekend,” Brent said.

Pickwick Lake
Water temperature: 85 degrees. Elevation: 413.5 feet

Bass: “If you get out early enough, you can catch bass on top-water baits in the lake and below the dam in the river,” Clagett Talley said. “In the main lake, fish main lake points close to deep water. Later in the morning, the more important it is to fish a point with deeper water close by.”

Clagett, a tour guide from Savannah, said while fishing the river, fish on the main river banks.

“Try to fish a creek mouth or any area where the water runs over the top of shallow rocks,” Clagett said. “Top-water baits seem to only last from 5 a.m. until about 6:30 (a.m.). If I am fishing in the river, I will switch to a Strike King Series 3 crankbait and fish along the banks, tree tops, rocky bluffs and chunk rock, then stick with the most productive one of the three.”

Clagett said if he is catching fish on a main lake point on top-water baits, he will remain there and throw a Series 3 Crankbait along that point, and around it.

“If it is a productive spot, you can usually catch a limit of fish on that one point from around 5 a.m. to 7 a.m.,” Clagett said. “An alternative to fishing main lake points are fishing big grassy flats with top-water baits. Sometimes, the top-water bite last longer in that situation.”

Clagett said when he finishes fishing a top-water bait on a grassy flat, he will change to a Red Eye shad or shallow running crankbait.

“You will have an easier time throwing a 1/4-ounce Red Eye shad above the grass in these areas, but I have caught bigger fish throwing a 3/4-ounce Red Eye Shad,” Clagett said. “When throwing a 3/4-ounce (Red Eye Shad), make sure you start cranking it pretty fast as soon as it hits the water, or it will load up on grass before it starts moving.”

Clagett said larger bass are in deep water for the time being.

“I have been catching fish on 10-inch Iguana Lizard on a Carolina rig, and a Strike King one-ounce Spinner bait also works well,” Clagett said. “White, and white and chartreuse are the only two colors that I used this week in these deep water areas.”

Stripers: “Stripers are biting good again,” Clagett said. “The skip jack minnows are thick and real easy to catch below the dam. The last trip we caught all the skip jack we wanted on live bait rigs, the ones with five or six small hooks on them.”

Clagett said they caught the skip jack close to the dam.

“The only way we could count on catching stripers was drifting with the skip jack minnows,” Clagett said. “We caught them two different ways. We fished a Carolina style rig with a two-ounce sinker and made 20-foot casts close to the boils and drifted back down stream.”

Clagett said another way is to only tie on one hook and use a larger split shot sinker.

“Make a long cast by the boils and let approximately half-a-spool of line out while drifting back,” Clagett said. “Either method worked, and they both worked well. Just remember to cast short with the heaver sinker or you will be spending a lot more time hanging up and re-rigging than you will fishing.”

Catfish: “Catfishing slowed down around below the Pickwick Dam where I have had the best luck over the past month,” Clagett said. “I started moving downstream and started catching more fish drifting in the current.”

Clagett said he has been catching fish on worms and cut bait, but the live bait got a little harder to find.

“I tried Dyna-Bites in Catalpa Worm flavor and in shad flavor and it worked out well for me,” Clagett said. “We caught several catfish drifting the Dyna-Bites in 20-to-25-feet of water,” Clagett said. “I like to fish the Dyna-Bites on a size One Strike King Whisker Sticker hook with a medium action rod with a one-ounce sinker, if possible.”

Want more from the “Mayor of Pickwick Lake?” Visit Clagett on line at www.pickwickareaguide.com or give him a call, (731) 607-5266.

Kentucky Lake/Lake Barkley
Water temperature: 88 to 90 degrees. Kentucky Lake continues the normal drawdown schedule at 357.7 feet above sea level and will be dropping about four inches a day, if the schedule holds up.

Bass: “Largemouth bass have slowed down, probably due to lower current draw but a few are still being taken on main lake points during the day on large crankbaits, creature baits and large worms,” Darrell Van Vactor said. “Early and late fish are also hitting large tubes and spinner baits cast around boat docks and submerged wood cover in the mid section of the bays.

“The best fishing right now seems to be at night from dusk until around 10 p.m., on dark color spinner baits and Texas rigged 10-inch worms in black or purple.”

Darrell Van Vactor is the Operations Manager Crappie USA/Cabela’s King Kat Trail in Benton, Kentucky.

“Smallmouth bass are also slow, but improve when peak current draw is present on main lake points where water drops sharply into 20-feet or more depths,” Darrell said. “Fish seem to move up a feed quickly and return to the deeper areas. Creature baits and jigs in white and chartreuse have been the best.”

Crappie: “They are really slow with a few being caught on man-made beds in 18-to-24-feet of water on red/chartreuse tube jigs in two-inch size tipped with a shiner,” Clagett said. “Crankbaits should be picking up a few crappie right now, but this past week we caught sauger, white bass, catfish drum trolling the hard baits, but few crappie.”

Catfish: Darrell said catfish are feeding on the main river channel on cut bait, but “they too are slower when current draw is light.”

David Thomas, Twitter– @DavidThomasWNWS
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