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Kentucky Lake Crappie Fishing
"1 pole jig fishing"
Crappie Action
Guide Service
Kentucky Lake’s fishing scene heated up this week as cooler
temperatures arrived. Long overdue has been the arrival of typical fall
weather where cool nights fade into chilly mornings and mild afternoons
take over.
In the aftermath of last week’s unruly arrival of Hurricane Helene’s
backwash, the area began to dry out from dumping rains. This week’s nice
stable weather has suited fishermen just fine.
Surface temperatures are cooling, dropping back to early October norms
with temps in the low to mid-70s. Watch for that to fall to the upper
60s soon.
Water levels fluctuated some because of the tropical depression dumping
lots of rain across the Tennessee Valley last week. That’s beginning to
settle down as the TVA was pushing a lot of water through Kentucky Dam
since the storm passed.
Fall has a reputation of stable weather and lake levels but whenever
hurricanes enter the picture the whole regional weather scene is knocked
off balance.
Watch for a good fall fishing pattern to already be underway as you
reach this week’s fishing update.
Crappie should respond favorably to falling surface temperatures and
move up this week toward shallow bays and flats in pursuit of baitfish.
Schools of shad should be making a blitz toward shallow flats and back
into bays following their forage.
Depths of 4 to 10 feet should be appealing to crappie in the days and
weeks ahead. While some fish will remain in deeper areas, odds are
places that were somewhat void of crappie last week will now be holding
fish.
Midrange depths of 9 to 14 feet will be holding fish, too, as the
crappie stairstep their way toward shallow zones after leaving their hot
weather hideouts.
Both minnows and jigs should continue to pay dividends for crappie
anglers. While some are casting jigs on light spinning tackle, others
choose to offer vertical presentations of jigs or minnows over submerged
stakebeds and brushpiles.
Bass anglers should see some improvement, too, this week as more fish
move up to shallow rocky or gravel shorelines. In the early morning and
later afternoon hours, shad will flick all along the shorelines as they
feed on tiny insects known as midges.
Fishermen can take advantage of the shallow feeding frenzy by tossing
topwater jerk baits or perhaps shallow running shad-colored crankbaits.
Rattle Trap style lures in the chrome/blue and such color combos are
usually quite productive.
The catfish bite should be on, assuming the current isn’t too bad out on
the main Tennessee River channel. Anglers thrive on current out there
but there are limitations. With all the rains from late last week it
could be more than anglers bargained for, at least for a few days.
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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