Lake Russell Fishing Report – October 2008

Russell: Level: Down 4 feet below full pool. Temp: 75-78 degrees. Clarity: Clear.

Bass: Tough right now because the lake is turning over. “There’s a few super shallow way up the rivers and creeks trying to get away from that bad water,” Trad Whaley said. “They were moving up three weeks ago when the cool weather started, but they just quit. They’re back-pumping (pumping water back from Clarks Hill into Russell) every night, and that back-pumping makes the turn-over effect last longer. Instead of a week, it will take a month to clean up. The pump-back just keeps mixing the bad water.” Trad said later in the month look for a good bite on points and flats at the mouths of creeks and on little secondary, flat points. “On about any little rocky point or flat, we’ll start getting a topwater, spinnerbait and crankbait bite,” Trad said. “You’ll also still have your spotted bass on the bridge pilings, and I’m also marking a bunch of bait and fish in 18 to 20 feet of water at the mouths of creeks. The spotted bass are there, and you could catch them on a shaky-head worm. There’s also some largemouths in the trees (standing timber) suspended about 6 to 8 feet down.”