The lake level is 598.62 or roughly 16in. low. Water color is gin clear all over the lake but the extreme north end. The carp and baitfish have it all stirred up. Water temps are back to 83-85. Weather has been hot and that fires up the white bass. A strong south wind comes with it and that helps fishermen and bunching up the white bass. Extended forecast has it cooling off mid-week. I am still doing combo trips for at least another month. The white bass fishing has been very good and catching enough crappie on minnows as well.

“CRAPPIE”
The biggest crappie in the lake are chasing shad balls and not on cover much. This makes it hard to get fish over ten-inches. Everyone has been complaining their all gone but they will show back up once fall gets here. We have been catching our boats limit of crappie in the 9 3/4 range. Takes about an hour to get a three or four man limit and in that time we might get a few over ten-inches. Using a slip bobber and minnow rig. We then decide if you want to keep going after crappie or switch back to white bass. You can keep all the white bass but only crappie over ten-inches. I’ll go either way.
Cubes and down trees have the majority of crappie and with this heat. I have noticed that the crappie on cubes seam to be beside them on the shade side. This requires precise casting of the slip bobbers to the school. Not a problem with Livescope. On trees I can see where the bigger fish are as well. Not on the end in the small branches those are tons of small fish, but rather tucked under the trunk up in the shallows where they have the best shade.

“WHITE BASS”
The white bass have been pretty consistent for a few weeks now. I am fishing shallow flats with wind blowing into them. If not up on the flat I am fishing the nearest ledge and bringing our spoons up at angles. Always look for shad popping the surface up near shore. This bite seams to quit around mid-morning so then I am looking for them on the sides of points, deep twenty-feet or so. Once again wind blowing straight into them. This pushes shad balls right by you.
There are several ways to fish the shallow flats. A pair of jigs tied a foot above each other and twistertails. A blade bait we call Big Dude ripped and paused. Or what we do is my spoon with a hair jig tied a foot above it. All work but this way I don’t have to rig four poles when we switch back to deep water.
I tell clients to cast the spoon/hair jig up into the shallows, allow it to hit bottom takes a couple of seconds then pop it off bottom, catch up with your slack and do it again. If they are not up on the flat they are close so we back off to the first ledge and cast it out over it and bring it up at angles so you get more of the ledge area. Boat placement is what I preach to anglers just learning how to catch whites.

As for the deep whites I am trying to get right over them and vertically jig my spoon. If not we are doing the same thing casting to the ledge and allowing it to freefall. They will hit just before it hits bottom sometimes several times. BOTH OF THESE METHODS ARE A BALL AND WHY I LOVE SUMMER WHITE BASS.

“KENTUCKY LAKE CRAPPIE”
Each week I am getting a little closer to having all my trips full on The Big Sandy. Currently I have November 4,5,11,17,20,26,27. These trips are a ball. We fish very deep 15-30ft. on stakebeds and stumps so I put both clients up on the nose with me as I have a three seat system. We hover over the top and fish straight down with either a drop-shot rig and a large shiner or my 1/4oz. Deep Ledge jig and Brushpile plastics. Sometimes I use my 1/4oz. casting sinker and then put a small hair jig under it. This gets finicky crappie. We all stay at The Lake Lodge and go to breakfast and dinner together. Then on Thursdays Blues Landing to see Johnny Mac. We catch wall mount size crappie well past two-pounds some over three. Kentucky Lake is really a special place.

My website has a calendar with my openings for the remainder of the year. You can email me from there or simply call me at 217-840-1221 to set something up. Just need a name and phone number to hold the date. Never have required a deposit, my people show up for the most part.

Steve Welch
Latest posts by Steve Welch (see all)