Lake Nottely Fishing Report – August 2009

Nottely: Level: 0.9 feet below full pool. Temp: 80 degrees. Clarity: Clear with a very light stain in the river.

Bass: Decent. Look for topwater activity early and late on wind-blown, main-lake points. Spooks, Sammys, Gunfish and flukes are good baits. During the day, find brush on the same rocky points in 15 to 20 feet of water or criss-cross the whole point with your bait. A Texas-rigged finesse worm works well. A few largemouths are coming from docks. Fish a jig ’n pig or a Texas-rigged U-tail worm in green colors.

Linesides: Slow. Jeremy Seabolt said July has been a tough month on Nottely. Last year’s strong summer bite occurred when the temps got into the mid 80s by late June, but with the lake at full pool, that hasn’t happened yet this year. Jeremy expects a thermocline to set up and the fish to tighten up into big schools as the surface temp warms up in August. Jeremy has been catching a few scattered fish, including 11 the morning of July 27, on secondary points and the edges of the river channel between points 7 and 9. He’s caught a few on an umbrella rig pulled 100 to 140 feet behind the boat and baited with Mack Farr bucktails. He’ll put a 1- to 1 1/2-oz. gizzard shad swimbait in the center of the U-rig. The outside baits have an assortment of white and chartreuse trailer grubs. If you find a school of fish with the U-rig or on the graph. Slow down, and drop some downlines. Jeremy said bait is still hard to find on the lake, but he’s been using bluebacks 3 to 6 inches long. He said you could wear out the small, 1- to 3-lb. fish with smaller live baits, but that’s not what he’s looking for. The fish he found on July 27 were suspended at 15 feet over a 30-foot bottom. They are finicky, so use 10 to 15 feet of fluorocarbon leader below a 1/2- to 1-oz. sinker. “The thermocline is just starting to set up,” Jeremy said. “If the water warms up a little, I think they’ll tighten up into bigger schools, and they’ll be easier to catch. They’ll be just a little deeper than in July.”