Carters Lake Fishing Report June 2015

Carters: Level: 0.5 feet above full pool. Temp: 76-79 degrees. Clarity: Clear.

Spotted Bass: Good. Guide Louie Bartenfield reports, “Our spotted bass are finishing up the spawn, and the majority of fish are now post-spawners and making their way to deeper breaklines and offshore summertime areas. June is a fantastic month to fish Spotsticker Jigheads and drop shots on deep breaklines from 18 to 30 feet. The threadfin shad are also still spawning and will continue to do so until mid month, so each June morning will offer a variety of shallow-water fishing, too. Topwaters, shallow cranking and fluke-style baits are my choices to cover water and catch those bass keying in on the last of our threadfin shad spawn.”

Stripers: Guide Eric Crowley reports, “Carter’s has come to life after a touch-and-go April and a slow start to May. By mid May, we started to see the stripers on a pattern, and it has only gotten better since then. Big hybrids and big stripers have been boated fishing both early and later in the day. Big threadfins and bigger alewife are key, and the extra time spent catching them is worth while. Big points, islands and secondary points on the main lake are a good place to look for the schools of bait that are almost always being followed by something. Big numbers and big spots have also been steady. Fish from 4- to 5-lbs. have come on board to have their pictures taken on almost every trip. Trees, points, fallen timber and rock transitions are all holding green fish.” Guide Louie Bartenfield reports, “With water temps approaching 80, look for the stripers to group up and start working main-lake humps and timber tops in June. My choice pattern is downlining big threadfin or herring 30 to 40 feet deep around offshore breaklines and submerged timber. I use a 2-oz. weight, 15-lb. Sunline Super-Mono for my main, and a 6- to 7-foot leader of 12-lb. Sunline Sniper Fluorocarbon with a 1/0 Gamakatsu Octopus hook. If you’re an artificial guy, June is also a great month to catch a big striper on topwater or casting bucktails early thanks to the last of our threadfin shad spawn. Keep your eyes open early each morning for surfacing fish, and have a bait you can throw a long way and retrieve fast. Stripers have extremely good vision, so if you can get close to them, they’ll often track your bait and get it. My preferred topwaters are Strike King Wake Shad or Sexy Dawgs, and for bucktails it’s hard to beat Castaway Baits, Lanier blueback color.”

Walleye: Guide Eric Crowley reports, “The walleye are moving up to shallower water at night and can be targeted under Hydroglow lights in 30 to 60 feet of water near rocky points. We have had our best month ever for walleye on Carters catching fish from 3 1/2 to 7 1/2 pounds on live-bait rigs on the bottoms near rocky points and on the river edge is the place to look.”