The big news on the fishing front has been the sudden rise in the lake level for Kentucky lake. Lake levels at NewJohnsonville started last weekend at normal summer pool, at a level of 359ft. Today, Friday June 28th the lake has risen over 3 ft to a level of 362.1ft with a crest predicted by TVA, of 362.61ft by Sunday afternoon. Flow rates on Kentucky lake are 'slight', with Pickwick dumping around 60,000cfs and Kentucky dam only releasing 25,000cfs. Water temps have been around 80 degrees, but expect water temps to rise with the current heat wave in our area.
Bass fishermen have been finding the 'ledge bite' to continue spotty, with a few areas producing fish. the pattern seems to be having to hit quite a few spots to find the fish. with the rising water this weekend, expect the bass to move shallow and feed on the newly available feeding areas on crawfish, insects, and the extremity abundant shad minnows along the shoreline.
Crappie are still being taken, mostly by spider-riggers and long line trollers. seems like covering a lot of water is the ticket to finding numbers of fish. water depths that have been producing have been in the 12-20ft range.
Catfish have now came off of bed and have been showing up in better numbers, most still have been the channel cat, but a few good blues have been taken in the main river channel along the river drops in depths of 25-40ft on cut bait. channel cats have moved up with the rising water levels, and have been taken on nightcrawlers fished on floats