Bartletts Ferry Fishing Report – December 2006

Bartletts Ferry: Level: 3.4 feet below full pool. Temp: Low 58-60 degrees. Clarity: Muddy around creeks, stained in the river, but clearing up fast.

Bass: Fair. The fish are kind of scattered and hard to pinpoint right now, according to Dennis Hudson, who hosts a weekly Saturday-morning tournament on Bartletts Ferry. Anglers are having some luck flipping jigs on wood around the points and bluffs in water down to 15 feet deep. The average size of the bass being caught is between 1 1/2 to two pounds right now, and the larger fish are hard to find. “They’re running kind of small. I’m not sure where the big fish are,” Dennis said. “I know we put ’em all back in there, but I’m not sure where they go.” Most of the larger fish are coming from the swift water in shoals on the upper end of the lake. On into December, Dennis said the fish will stay on the river banks, and they’ll start to move into the coves and around the boat docks, especially if the water stays stained. He said skipping Senkos and Trick Worms around the boat docks can produce fish, as well as flipping jigs and running crankbaits in the coves and around docks. Another pattern to try for numbers of bass in December is to fish a jigging spoon on flats and humps in 15 to 25 feet of water where you mark plenty of shad. The jigging-spoon bite will get better as the water temperature falls to the low 50s.