Bartletts Ferry Fishing Report – August 2007

Level: 1.5 feet below full pool. Temp: 84 degrees. Clarity: Clear.

Bass: Slow, said Dennis Hudson. “When you have 25 to 30 boats every week and only half a dozen guys weighing in, and they’re bringing in less than 8 pounds each, you’re not exactly tearing them up,” he said in reference to his Tuesday night tournaments. He said the weather has been cooler than usual, and irregular water-pulling schedules from the dam are making the spots and the largemouths hard to pattern. “It seems like they start biting the last hour of daylight. It’s been that way for the last three weeks,” he said. “I can’t hardly catch a fish until after 8 o’clock.” Fish are being caught on shallow brush around Blanton Creek on white spinnerbaits and flukes. The most consistent pattern Dennis has seen is a bite on shaky-head worms in 8 to 12 feet of water around docks, rocky ledges and points in Halawaka Creek and out on the river-channel. “There’s been a pretty even mix of largemouths and spots,” Dennis said. “Guys are bringing in some pretty good spots, 14- or-15-inch fish, they just can’t put a lot of them together.” He also said the small fish stack up around bridge pilings when the corps is pulling water. Dennis likes either a Zoom Finesse or Trick Worm in junebug or green pumpkin. On a hot, calm day, the mayfly hatches produce a good topwater bite at the bluff banks around Idlehour. A Pop-R, bone in color, will produce, and sometimes a Trick Worm or Senko fished under the action is the ticket.