Lake Chatuge Fishing Report – September 2022

Chatuge: Level: 1.2 feet below 1925 Temp: 81-83 degrees. Clarity: Clear.

Bass: Guide Eric Welch, of Welch’s Guide Service, reports,  “Fishing is still good. The topwater bite has slacked off some. You will see some fish breaking throughout the day, so you definitely want to keep a topwater bait handy on the deck of your boat. I always have a Whooper Plopper or Strike King Sexy Dawg Jr. tied on. If it’s a cloudy day, I throw something in a natural color or shad pattern. If it’s sunny, I like throwing chrome. I will also keep a 2.75- or 3.25-inch Strike King Sexy Swimmer swimbait on a 1/4- or 3/8-oz. swimbait head to cast and swim across offshore structure and cast around where fish have jumped. Most the fish we’ve been catching the past month are spitting up herring baitfish around 2.5- to 3.5-inches long. Since the water temps have been so warm, I have mainly been running an offshore pattern using my Garmin Livescope to narrow down the best structure to fish. If I pull up and scan the area and don’t see many fish, I don’t waste my time on that spot. We have been finding some areas holding a lot of fish close to some deep water. The baits that have been most successful have been a drop-shot rig with a 6-inch Roboworm and a shaky head with a 5-inch finesse worm. Most of these fish have been coming out of 12 to 40 feet of water. You will see on the Garmin Livescope the fish bunched up around the structure and you can watch them follow the bait down. You just have to be patient and fish super slow like you were fishing in the winter months. It seems once you get a couple to bite, it gets the others ready to bite and you can catch multiple fish off one spot. If we start seeing some cooler mornings going into next month, you should see the topwater bite increase, as well as the deeper bite.” 

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