The lake is now 6 ft above normal power pool with a very cold surface temp.  The water is clear at the marina, but a lot of surface debris remains from the recent flooding.  The lake starts to change color and rise in temperature past the 37 marker.  This end of the lake has seen a 10 degree drop in surface temps causing all species of fish to become very slow.  I hope by next weekend to have a better report than what we are going to see this weekend!  Snowing hard right now!  Keep the jerk baits tied on!  We have February weather in May!

Water Temp – 49 – 54 degrees

Water is Clear with Surface Debris

Water Level – 660.2 and rising

Black Bass are Fair on Jerk Baits, Jigs and small Plastics.

Crappie are Slow on Live minnows and 2″ swimming minnows.  Try clear and glitter, Tennessee shad or Pink plastics.  Most crappie are still holding eggs.

Walleye are Slow on medium crank baits trolling.  (Debris has made it very difficult to troll around the K Dock area since the flood)  Also try Shiners and 1/2 oz spoons.

White Bass are Good when the shad surface.  We have seen a huge number of whites come into the marina in the past few weeks!  Find the shad, you will find the whites.  Big females are still full of eggs.

Just a quick report on the K Dock area.  Crappie are really hot right now!  They are in their spawn.  Fish the coves from 5 – 10 ft from the bank.  Colors to try are – Tennessee Shad, Clear and Glitter and Pink.  Go small with a 1/16th oz jig head and a 2″ plastic.  Good Luck!

The warmer temps arriving this weekend should really increase the feeding of all species of fish. We have been averaging a cold 41 degrees surface temp for the past several weeks, which has slowed the fishing down some.  If the lake can get into the upper 40′s, we will see a dramatic increase in fish activity in shallower water.  The lake has been stable at 649 ft which puts us at 5 ft below power pool.

Water Level – 649.1 ft

Water Temp – 41 – 43 degrees

Water is Stained to Clear

Black Bass – Bass are being caught in good numbers on a variety of baits including: Jerk Baits, Wiggle Warts and Spinner Baits.  Colors to try in the Jerk Baits are purple, pearl and Table Rock Shad.  Red Craw has worked well in the Wiggle Warts and Bomber A’s.  The Alabama Rig has been working in clear water off the steep drops near the river channel.

Walleye – Fair amounts of walleye have been caught off the sand flat drops using a green/orange belly Jerk Bait.  Also several keepers being caught off the rock bluffs on crank baits, spinner baits and jerk baits. 

Crappie – Fair on live minnows and swimming minnows around brush piles.  Try smoke & glitter, black & pearl and straight pearl colors. 

White Bass – Good while trolling shallow running crank baits over the sand flats.  Should start seeing the whites move into the coves and streams as the water temp rises.