Steve McCadams

Kentucky Lake’s fishing scene this week delivered another good one for bass and crappie anglers as bluegill and shellcracker (biologically known as red ear sunfish) transition toward shorelines in their prespawn phase.

April has been kind to Kentucky Lake anglers lately and numerous reports are coming in from a variety of successful anglers.

(Meanwhile, everyone is invited to the World’s Biggest Fish Fry starting next week in Paris, TN. All you can eat fish dinners begin Wednesday at Henry County Fairgrounds. Log onto www.worldsbiggestfishfry.org)

Seems the biological clock has been somewhat ahead of normal, a likely result of unusually warm weather. Just this week temps have been several degrees above normal and knocking on the door of record highs some days.

However, long range forecasts indicate a significant drop in temperatures will arrives Sunday and Monday but rapidly rebound early next week. Temps will dip down into the low 40’s beginning Saturday night and slowly start to rebound by Monday. Looks like fishermen will need jackets and long sleeve shirts for a couple of days before a warm spell returns.

Surface temperatures have climbed to the 68 to 69 degrees this week. Some anglers have already found 70-degree water in shallow pockets. Water color remains clear across the reservoir.

Lake levels are still slightly above the norm on TVA’s schedule and were resting at 358.1 as this report was posted. Under normal conditions TVA’s target date for summer pool level (359) is May 1 each year.

Nice stringers of crappie have been coming in around the Paris Landing and Big Sandy sector as well as from West Sandy. Several anglers are reporting 20-fish limits on days when the wind allows them to get out and about.

High winds have been a factor this spring for fishermen. Despite some high hurdles at times anglers have managed to find decent numbers of crappie in the 4 to 8 foot range lately. No doubt the fish are up there spawning. Male crappie are sporting a magnificent dark color as their hormonal change is underway.

Females are showing bulging egg sacs and eggs are bloody and mushy, a stage that indicates spawning is underway.

Normal for Kentucky Lake is the variety of techniques and methods that are producing fish. Some boats are catching good stringers as they long line Road Runner style lead heads and assorted twister tail or tube skirts. The slow trolling method always seems to be popular this time of year.

Also producing has been slow moving spider rigs as boaters meander their multipole presentation over submerged stump fields, brushpiles while also catching suspended crappie. Live minnows have worked well at times in addition to jig color buffets.

Vertical fishing jigs over manmade fish attractors such as brushpiles and stakebeds has paid dividends too. And, hefty stringers have been reported by those casting jigs in shallow water and along gravel shorelines using both live minnows and jigs fished beneath slip bobbers.

Both bank fishermen and those casting from boats are landing enough fish to keep them enthused.

The approaching cold front may bring a short hiatus to the bite but watch for it to resume quickly once winds shift from the northerly direction and get back to a southerly flow by early next week.

Bluegill and shellcracker have improved since last week and continue to move up shallow. Nice coolers of shellcracker have been taken by anglers casting wax and meal worms plus red worms and nightcrawlers.

Some dandies have been lingering slightly out from shorelines at times. Shallow grasslines and bushes need a little more water on them but that will happen by next week.

Already biting good have been bluegill that moved up shallow over the last two weeks in response to the early warm spells. Most folks agree the timetable across the lake has been a week to ten days ahead of normal as to both surface temps and movement of fish.

It’s not unusual to see shellcracker a bit ahead of the bluegill spawn. And, with surface temps on the threshold of 70-degrees already look for a significant transition to take place the next week to ten days. A full moon arrives on May 1 so that will trigger an early spawning phase for both bluegill and shellcracker.

Best get the light tackle ready and dust off the cricket boxes. The shallow show for aggressive panfish is about to begin!

Bass fishermen have been scoring nice stringers as they experiment with some early arriving bass to shallow shoreline areas. Casting some topwater jerk baits have worked but deadly has been Texas rigged craws, worms and lizards on the edges of shallow grassbeds.

Smallmouth had been showing up good too in their early spawning phases. Tossing finesse baits plus suspending crankbaits and curly tail and hair jigs have worked well.

Spinnerbaits are worthy of consideration too as anglers fan cast shallow shorelines while parallel casting the banks where bass are staging just out from the grassbeds. Water levels are not quite summer pool so that means a lot of the grass and bushes are just on the verge of holding more bass.