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SEPTEMBER ANGLERS OFF TO SLUGGISH START
Kentucky Lake anglers are off to a sluggish start as the second week of
September rolls around.
After a nice reprieve last week from the long hot summer temps wasted no
time rebounding back to the low 90’s earlier this week.
A brisk northeast wind escorted the start of the long Labor Day holiday,
delivering excellent weather as the curtain fell on the last big fling
of the recreational season. The honeymoon with cool weather ended
quickly.
Surface temperatures this week have been in the 82 to 84 degree range.
Anglers are hoping another cool spell will slip in the door and help
bring surface temps back down into the upper 70’s soon.
Lake levels were in the 355.5 range this week at New Johnsonville and
projected to be in the 355.6 range at Kentucky Dam. Water color is
relatively clear across the reservoir as not much rain has fallen
recently.
As lower lake levels return recreational boaters and anglers need to
respect those shallow sandbars shortcuts and pay close attention to
channel markers.
Shad have already begun moving up into shallow flats and schools are
edging their way across the top of main lake sandbars. That should
influence more bass and crappie to follow their trail in the weeks
ahead.
This past week the high barometric pressure dominated and hardly any
cloud cover entered the fishing picture. Fish seemed sluggish and
downright finicky at times.
Crappie especially showed a diminished interest in striking when the
winds were in the northeast last weekend and showed slight improvement
as the direction switched back to the south on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The overall bite was still a bit off at midweek as several small fish
were hitting but larger fish were hard to locate. A cloudy morning or
two and a little cooler conditions could see that improve.
I found a few fish holding tight to stakebeds and they made no effort to
meet the jig half way. The presentation had to be smack dab down in the
cover and slow. Tipping jigs with live minnows or Berkley power bait
didn’t seem to change their stubborn attitude either.
Depths of 9 to 11 feet were giving up a few scattered crappie as were
some deeper ledges. Brushpiles on the deep sides of make lake ledges in
depths of 17 to 19 feet were holding schools of smaller crappie but very
few keeper size fish were mixed in.
Things could improve by early next week if both cooler surface temps and
cloudy days team up to produce more favorable conditions, especially for
the shallow bite.
Bass fishermen were still stalking main lake ledges and finding a big
fish now and then. However, most anglers report numbers are down. The
ledge bite has been hit and miss too.
Shallow style bass fishermen have been stalking schools of shad that
move up in the later afternoon lowlight conditions or very early
morning. Some are tossing topwater but the most activity has come from
tossing such baits as Strike King’s Red-eye shad style presentations.
Not many schooling bass have been seen blowing up on the shallow schools
of shad, although that usually begins this time of year.
Despite a sluggish week watch for things to turn around quickly. High
skies can play tricks on the fish and fishermen for a few days but no
doubt a rebound is on the way.
Also check out our past:
Kentucky Lake Fishing Reports
Steve McCadams is one of the nation's best known Crappie Fishermen
and a full time resident of Paris, Tennessee. Steve is also a
professional hunting and fishing guide here in the Paris Landing area.
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