Kentucky Lake:  Water Level at Ky Dam - 358.70  Surface Temperature - 86

Lake Barkley:  Water Level at Barkley Dam - 358.75  Surface Temperature - 87

 

Both lakes are just under summer pool level and on a slow drawdown.  Expect the lake levels to reach one foot below summer pool by the end of this month in accordance with the TVA River Operating Schedule barring any unforeseen influx of water from upstream.  We have been having the typical deep summer heat here in the lakes area this week but at least earlier this week we had cloud cover and some wind to take the edge off the heat.  The forecast for Friday and Saturday is for sunny skies and daytime highs near 100 with heat indexes in the 105 degree plus range.  A heat advisory has already been issued for the next two days by the National Weather Service.  The present forecast for Sunday is for a 40% chance of scattered thunderstorms and a high of 93.  If you are going to be out on the lakes this weekend, make sure you have plenty of cold water and sun block. 

 

The ledge bite for bass has continues to be spotty, especially during the morning hours.  The best ledge bite is of course, when the TVA is generating current, which this week has been between 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.  We are catching some good keepers during the non current periods but not numbers of fish in most cases.  The best pattern has been on ledges topping out at around 12 feet or deeper and dropping into the 25 ft range or deeper.  The key is to fish slow with Carolina rigs, Texas rigs, shaky heads and dragging jigs.  The most active bite during the morning and early afternoon has been in the creeks and bays where Largemouth are chasing schools of young baitfish from the spring spawns.  A good topwater bite is present early and late in the day in the backs of coves and the creeks and bays.  During the day, these shallow fish are being taken shallow on spinnerbaits, chatterbaits and lipless crankbaits.  Largemouth are schooling on  these fry on secondary points and channel banks in the creeks and bays during the early morning hours and through out the day.  Most of these shallow summer fish are small fish but some nice keeper sized fish are also being taken with a few up to the 5 and 6 lbs range being reported.  The night bite this week has also been reported as spotty, with some very active fish on some nights and some nights the bite has been reported as slow.  White Bass anglers are still doing best during the non current draw hours by vertically fishing the deeper creek channel and old river channel ledges or by trolling these areas.  The White Bass, like the Largemouth and Smallmouth are most active during the late afternoon and early evening hours when current is being drawn.  

 

Largemouth Bass:  Largemouth Bass are being taken on the old creek and river channel ledges primarily on Carolina rigged small creature baits and large worms, Texas rigged large worms, finesse shaky heads and dragging football head jigs.  Largemouth are also being taken early and late in the day on the shallow flats in the backs of the creeks and bays and in the feeder coves on topwater lures, spinnerbaits and lipless crankbaits.  Largemouth can also be taken on secondary points and channel banks in the creeks and bays feeding on schools of young baitfish topwater lures, crankbaits, spinnerbaits, Texas rigged creature baits and jigs. 

 

Smallmouth Bass:  Smallmouth Bass are being taken on the old creek and river channel ledges on Carolina rigged small creature baits, finesse shaky heads and dragging football head jigs.  The better Smallmouth bite has been reported at night on main lake points and the first secondary points in the creeks and bays.  These fish are being taken on dark colored spinnerbaits, Carolina rigged small creature baits and tubes, tube jigs and finesse jigs. 

 

Some of the productive lures reported this week are:  Lucky Craft sammy in ghost pearl lemon, Rebel Pop R in black/chrome, Slong's spinnerbait in blue glimmer, Bandit 200 and 300 crankbait in rootbeer and splatterback, Rapala DT 6 and 10 in silver,  Strike King red eye shad in blue/chrome, sexy shad and chrome sexy shad, Charmer timber pup in watermelon/purple and green pumpkin, Charmer 10.5 " ribbon tail and gator tail worm in plum and green pumpkin, Strike King rodent in amistad special, Slong's fooball head jig in voodo and D&L football head jig in cumberland craw.

 

White Bass:  White Bass are being taken along the old river and creek channel ledges on the main lakes by vertically fishing with inline spinners, small spoons and minnows on tight line rigs.  White Bass are also being taken by trolling inline spinners and small spoons behind deep diving crankbaits.  During periods of current draw, Whites Bass can be taken while surface feeding on the flats near the old channel ledges by casting inline spinners, small spoons and small surface popping lures into the feeding the schools. 

 

Catfish:  Catfish are being taken along the old river channels on bottom bouncing rigs baited with leech/shrimp combinations as well as on bottom rigs baited with large minnows, cut baits and leech/shrimp combinations.  The Channel Catfish are being taken in 20 - 30 ft depths and the Blue Catfish are being taken in the 25 - 40 foot depths.  These fish are most active during the periods of current draw and at night.

 

Bluegill:  Bluegills are being taken along deep rocky creek channel banks on small jigs tipped with worms fished just off the bottom.  Bluegills are also being taken at night around deeper lighted docks with wood cover on crickets and worms fished under bobbers. 

 

FLASH:  On July 1st, one of the nicest and well respected members of the bass fishing community here was severely injured in and auto accident.  Ronnie Brinegar, a tournament director for FLW Outdoors is now currently a patient at Shepard Center in Atlanta, Ga where he is beginning a long journey to recovery and rehabilitation.  In addition to being a great all around person, he is also a young husband and father.  On September 4th a benefit bass tournament will be held at Ky Dam Marina to assist the Ronnie and his family.  Registration for this tournament will be held at Fast Eddie's Tackle on U.S. 68 East in Fairdealing from 5-7 p.m on September 3rd.  A pretournament meeting will be held at 7:15 following registration.  There will be free hotdogs and hamburgers compliments of Fast Eddie's.  One can also register at the ramp up until 5:45 a.m. on Saturday morning.  There has been a number of donations made to guarantee payout for this tournament so the proceeds can go to assist the Brinegar family.  For more information contact Danny York 270-906-5477 or Steve Alvarado 270-841-4626.  

 

CONGRATULATIONS!!  Congratulations goes out this week to the great folks at Jet-a-Marina.  Ranger Boats has named Jet-a-Marina as the winner  of the 2010 Top Single Market Award.  This prestigious award is given each year to the Ranger Boats dealership that has the most sales of single units over the previous year.  What makes this award so special is that this award is normally won by Ranger dealers near large metropolitan areas like Charlotte, N.C., Cincinnatti Ohio etc..  For Jet-a-Marina to win this award, they had to have had to drawn customers from a large region of the country.  There is no doubt that the reason that they won this award is that Jet-a-Marina has earned a national reputation for customer service to bring in folks from around the country to purchase their boats here rather than their local dealerships.  Take time to stop by Jet-a-Marina soon to congratulate the good folks there and check out their great line of Ranger and Stratos boats.  Jet-a-Marina is located on U.S. 62 in Calvert City, just a couple of miles north of Kentucky Dam. 

 

FLASH:  Lowrance Seminar:  The Cabin Bait and Tackle will have representatives from Lowrance at their store to do a seminar on the new Lowrance HDS sonar units on July 23rd at 5:00 p.m.  This is a great opportunity to get some top notch instruction on Lowrance sonar from the experts as well as get your questions about sonar answered by those in the know. While your there, check out the great line of rods/reels and tackle in the store.  The Cabin Bait and Tackle is located on U.S. 62 in Kuttawa about one mile west of the I-24/U.S. 62 interchange.

 

FLASH:  If you have not heard yet, Fisherman's Headquarters Tackle Shop has reopened under new ownership.  John Parks, formerly of Jet-a-Marina is now the proud new owner.  John has been stocking the shelves every day now for over two weeks and has the store in great shape.  Stop by and meet John and check out all the great fishing tackle.  If you don't see what you want, I am sure John will get it for you if possible.  Fisherman's Headquarters is located at the U.S. 68/U.S. 641 triangle in Draffenville. 

 

If you are in need of a bass fishing guide for some fun bass fishing, tournament preparation, lake familiarization or technique instruction, don't hesitate to give me a call or drop me and email to reserve one of my open dates.  I have the following dates available for July, August and September:

 

July:  Sorry, I am booked up

August:  15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 26, 27, 30, 31

September:  1, 2, 7, 8, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 29, 30

 

If you have not made your reservations for the fall bass fishing in October and November, you really need to do so very soon to get the date(s) you want.  I am getting a number of bookings for this period each week now. 

 

LEDGE FISHING INSTRUCTION:   

 

I offer a focused teaching trip on how to fish the ledges.  This trip consists of a class on how to eliminate the water on your topo map before you leave home so that you can concentrate your time on only the highest percentage ledges while on the water as well as some time on the water to learn how to use your electronics on the ledges, set up on the ledges and learn the techniques used to fish the ledges.  This teaching trip has been very popular over the past few years since I started offering it as it will teach you how to go out and find and fish those ledges on your own.  To book one of these trips, all you have to do is give me a call or drop me an email to book one of my open dates.