Fishing Report

Pickwick Lake

Water temperature: upper 70s, lower 80s

Bass: “Bass fishing is exciting right now and will get better and better throughout the fall,” Clagett Talley said. “Although many fishermen complain about the size of bass, most agree that catching a large number of fish is easy.”

Clagett, a tour guide from Savannah, said some spots are more likely to produce larger fish, adding the most productive areas on the lake are the big grassy flats that are surfacing.

“Fish these flats with top-water plastic frogs and you are sure to catch a lot of fish,” Clagett said. “Spinner baits and hard top-water baits fished around the edges of the grass will also produce a lot of fish.

“Over the past few weeks I have been able to pick up several bass on Strike King Series 3 crank baits. Fishing these crankbaits around rocky bluffs will pick up other fish as well, and this will make your day a little more fun.”

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

Clagett said one sure way to catch them right now is on live bait caught below the Dam.

“You can use skip jack minnows that you catch on a live bait rig or yellow tail minnows you catch in a throw net (but) either way you will do better with bait you catch than you will do with bait you would find in a store.”

Clagett recommends you drift your live bait on a live bait hook and a one-or-two-ounce sinker by making a short cast into the boils and then drift downstream.

“Another way to drift live bait is on a live bait hook and a split shot,” Clagett said. “With this set up, you will make a long cast and then let out additional line as you drift downstream and wait for the line to tighten and hope it’s a fish and not the bottom of the river.

“We have a few good weeks of striper fishing left, and then they will be a little harder to find as the weather gets cooler.”

Kentucky Lake/Lake Barkley

Water temperature: 75 to 78 degrees.

Bass: “Bass fishing has been challenging the past few days with shad schools moving back out to deeper water last week, and now scattered again while moving back slowly,” Darrell Van Vactor said. “Some are being caught on on crankbaits along ledges in the mouths of the larger bays and on rocky points close to deep water.”

Darrell, who is the Operations Manager, Crappie USA/Cabela’s King Kat Trail in Benton, Kentucky, said the key is watching for bait balls, considering the fish seem to be following them back into the bays, again.

Crappie: “They are the success story, right now, with feeding in several different patterns,” Darrell said. “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 down on the lakes, 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,” Darrell said.

Gibson County Lake

Water temperature: low to mid 80s.

Bass: “Bass are really scattered, so cover a lot of water,” Trenton’s Brent Smith said. “In deeper water, bass are suspended just a couple of feet down … hitting swim baits and suspended jerk baits.”

Crappie: “They have been very slow,” Brent said. “Shellcrackers are still hitting worms on the bottom in about eight feet.”

(PHOTO: Lake Graham)

David Thomas, Twitter– @DavidThomasWNWS
https://www.facebook.com/NewsTalk1015/