The lake Level is 599.62 or .29 under summer pool. Water temps shot all the way up to 86 now have settled in around 82. It has been very hot which has moved the crappie to cubes and deep down trees. The whites are roaming channel banks busting on shad early in the morning.

“CRAPPIE”

I am fishing some flats early in the morning looking for the last of the shallow crappie mixed in with channel catfish. I am marking off several stumps then moving from one to the other casting a slip bobber and minnow at the area next to the stumps. The crappie hide in the root system. Then about mid morning switching to cubes or down trees. The cubes need to be bunched up the singles don’t hold enough fish for me. So later drops have these bunched up spots so do your homework. The maps are available at Chip’s Marine of all the cube drops. There are very few down trees that have enough branches to hold fish. Once they fall into the lake the small branches just fall off leaving just the trunk and maybe a few heavy branches. Using a slip bobber and minnow for all applications. Distance is key!!!! I am fishing on the main lake during the summer months always!!!! Bait is on the main lake and so is the wind that pushes them around.

“WHITE BASS”

The few I have been catching are on the edges of flats mixed in with the crappie on stumps. I have seen them busting on channel banks mid-lake chasing small shad. These whites are small in the 9-10 inch range. The deep drops I usually catch them on don’t have them yet so I am scanning channel banks looking for buffalo the whites are mixed in or close by. We are using my jigging spoon hair jig combo and working it on bottom then rip it up and watch as it falls. Whites aren’t bashful they will hammer the spoon and so will the buffalo and they weigh 20-40lbs. so hang on.
I will work harder on the whites once I find a few spots that hold them consistently but late July through late September is far better than now. We need a thermocline to bunch them up on drops.

Steve Welch
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