Lake Nottely Fishing Report – September 2010

Nottely: Level: 3.7 feet below full pool. Temp: High 80s. Clarity: Clear.

Linesides: Fair. Jeremy Seabolt said the striper bite has slowed, but he’s catching pretty good numbers of hybrids with a couple of decent stripers thrown in between points 3 and 6. The fish are on humps that come up to 30 or 40 feet over a 60- to 80-foot bottom, and they’re hitting downlined herring. There is also a decent topwater bite for 2- to 3-lb. schoolies starting to show up in the mornings. This means the good schooling action should show up on time in mid-September. He likes to throw a 1/4-oz. silver spoon and reel it back with a medium retrieve through the schooling fish.There is also a decent umbrella-rig bite going on down around the dam. Jeremy likes to troll the humps and river-channel ledges from point 1 to the dam with a U-rig loaded with bucktails and a gizzard-shad swimbait in the center. Josh Garrison reports, “The stripers on Lake Nottely have been extremely active this summer with catches of 25-plus schoolie-sized stripers early every morning. The fish are mostly mid-lake around the rocky points. Blueback herring fished on very light tackle from 25 to 35 feet have been the most successful. As the summer winds down, look for the topwater action to start picking up in the morning and evening around these schooling areas. Zara Spooks and Redfins in blue and chrome have been working well on these fish. Start to look for the bigger fish much deeper around the steepest banks along the river channel.”