The lake level is 601.31 or about a foot and a half over normal summer pool. Water temps are running 78 or so. The north end has some stain but the south end is gin clear.
The Corp is pulling the lake down about two-inches a day so this is having an effect on everything. Places that held fish a couple days ago just have small fish left. As for me I know it will get better in a week or so once the water quits dropping. Until then move a lot you will get crappie over ten-inches.

Crappie….. Right now it is all about wood for me both standing timber and stumps. They are glued to the side of standing timber but this seams to have some of the better fish. Difficult to put clients on a standing tree that is broken off a few feet under the surface so we are not throwing buoys as it spooks them. We are using my 14ft. BnM Diamonds turning the boat to the side and my Livescanner is also pointed to the side. I push my clients up against the tree at about 8ft. down sometimes deeper. On these type trees you just get a couple then move on unless it is a cluster of them. For the stumps same thing but I need wind to push the bait to them. If it is calm I go to timber. Everything I am doing is a drop-shot rigged with a minnow. Not really using jigs since the fish are jammed pack full of young shad right now. They want meat….

White Bass….. As the lake falls I let the bait and the wind tell me where I am going. I am using spots I typically use in the fall simply because with all the current in the lake there is no thermocline. This means I am fishing much shallower but it also means this is a very early bite 8:30 on a sunny day it is over so we go crappie fishing. But by fishing shallow on a wind blown flat I am getting a walleye here and there and nice ones too ranging from 20-27in. plus big channel catfish biggest was nearly 20lbs. For these shallow fish I am using my spoon and hair jig combo just like I do on the deeper fish. I just work it differently. I almost drag it on bottom popping it every three or four cranks. The hair jig is just off bottom getting most of the strikes. Pretty cool catching a 6lb. walleye or a 20lb. channel on a tiny hair jig.

In a couple weeks or hopefully less they will get on the deeper ledges I always use in August and September. I need heat and the lake to be stable. I am able to get some whites deep mixed in with the buffalo by making very short casts on top of a deep drop-off. They are not far from the sheer drop. Soon very soon I will be on those hundred white bass days just like I have been the last couple of years. Better get something lined up for August, September…..

Don’t forget about my Kentucky Lake trips both this fall and next spring. I currently have November 1,2,3,5,6,7 open then next spring March 25-31, April 1-4,7-15. These are all on The Big Sandy in Tennessee. Better reach out soon for my Shelbyville trips or my Kentucky trips. My website has all my open dates on the Book a Trip section.

Steve Welch
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