Lake Nottely Fishing Report – August 2006

Level: 3.4 feet low. Temp: Upper 80s. Clarity: Clear.

Bass: David Galli won the Saturday-night tourney on July 15 with more than 14 pounds, and placed second Tuesday night July 18 with six-plus pounds. David said the crankbait bite is really good in the river channel and on the adjacent flats. Any structure or cover in these areas are producing some sizable largemouths. On Friday, July 21, David ran up the river into water 2 1/2 feet deep, and the temperature cooled down to 67 degrees. He fished crawfish Shad Raps in the river but couldn’t locate any bass early. After the sun got up, he moved to where the river spills out into some grass and found a lot of small bass schooling on the herring and shad fry. “These weren’t big fish, catching 20 or 25 of them in an hour makes for a good time.”

Striper/hybrids: Fair. John Byers said the high water temperature is making it difficult to keep bait alive long enough to get it down to the fish. “You have to get the water temperature in your bait tank right so you don’t shock the bait when it goes into water that is 87 degrees,” he said. “You have to mix a little lake water to gradually bring the water temperature in the bait tank up. The last time I was out, we caught three hybrids in the four to five pound range on gizzard shad. The gizzard shad are a lot more hardy than bluebacks.” John said to look for fish in the mouths of the creeks down the lake and drop live shad or bluebacks to them. The fish have been holding in the 30-foot range, he said. The TVA is starting to drop the lake level, and fishing will improve as the water temperature drops in September, he said.