Lake Nottely Fishing Report – April 2007

Nottely: Level: 12.2 feet below full pool. Temp: 58-60 degrees. Clarity: Clear.

Bass: The water temperature is climbing, and the bass are beginning to pull up onto main-lake and secondary points. Crankbaits, jerkbaits, flukes, small bucktails and small spinnerbaits will all catch fish. Look for windblown points and banks, and pull your crankbait through the dingy water. A shaky-head, green-pumpkin worm or drop-shot rig in the brushpiles on the points will also catch fish. James Beise said he has been catching bass, hybrids and stripers throwing a 7-inch Bass Assassin Fluke from the bank near the dam, and from his boat. He recently caught an 18-lb. striper from the bank. James said the hybrids had started schooling very early and very late in the day.

Striper/hybrids: Good. March and April are good big-fish months, said linesides guide Jeremy Seabolt. Jeremy’s wife Jamisa caught a 47 1/2-lb. striper on March 3 on a 7 inch long freelined blueback. The fish was caught near Point 1. On March 21, Jeremy boated a fish that weighed just over 31 pounds on hand-held scales. That fish hit a blueback behind a planer board on a flat less than 5 feet deep. By the end of March, most of the stripers and hybrids had moved up the lake to the area between Point 6 and 8, he said. “Ivy Log Creek is full of hybrids,” he said. “The fish are gradually working their way up the river.” In April when the fish are in the river, Jeremy said he will switch from fishing bluebacks to fishing big gizzard shad in the 9-inch to 12-inch range trying to catch bigger stripers.

Crappie: Excellent at night for big fish. Jeremy said he had caught a number of fish in the 1 1/2- to 2-lb. range around the Nottely Marina fishing brown/white Hal Flys about six feet deep under the light. “During the day you catch small ones,” he said. “The bigger fish are being caught after dark.”