Lake levels have slowly begun to fall. Lake levels on Friday March 11th, at New Johnsonville, were at 357.3ft, and TVA was predicting a slow fall back towards the mid to low 356ft range by next Friday. Flow rates remain strong, with flow rates in the excess of 150,000cfs predicted most of this upcoming week. Lots of debris and logs are present, so boaters be observant and carful. Both the Duck and Buffalo Rivers are up, but not flowing bad. The water has cleared up for the most part in both rivers, but debris remain within the water column. The Duck River water temps this past week were slightly warmer than the Tn. River, with an average temp around 58 degrees. The Tn. River was around the mid to low 50’s.
Fishing has improved, but with mother nature off her meds, warm weather one day and snow the next, the fishing scene hasn’t seen the stability we need to kick start the fish into moving into pre-spawn patterns. Once we start seeing some constant lake levels, water temps a little warmer, we should see many of our sports fish moving up towards the spawning area. A few crappie are being taken in the moderate to deeper depths. Most crappie have been taken in water averaging 15-20ft deep using slow presentations. No big numbers have been seen as of yet, but we should see that change over the next few weeks as the weather warms and fishermen start getting out more often. The bass fishermen have been finding some good catches on some days, and have been struggling on others. The bass were shallow along the shoreline when the water rose over the last few weeks; most fishermen were tossing crawfish colored baits over rocks, with jerk-baits and swim-baits also finding some fish. As the water has started to fall and cooler weather entered the picture last weekend, the bass seemed to pull back out and became harder to catch. The ABA district 40 tournament last Saturday was canceled due to bad weather but is rescheduled for next Saturday, March 19th out of Cuba Landing. Catfish action has definitely begun to improve. Some really good sized fish are starting to show up, most are still deep, but seem to be found just along the river drops where the current isn’t so strong. Baits of choice to catch the larger catfish include cut skipjack and gizzard shad.
The Duck River bottoms will be back open on March 16th. The flood earlier this month did flood the bottoms and had done some damage to the interior roads, but hopefully they will have the roads fixed and opened by the 16th. With fishing season upon us, remember to purchase your new hunting/fishing license. Also turkey season will be opening soon. The juvenile turkey hunt will be on March 26-27th, with the regular turkey hunt beginning on April 2nd.
The NWTF turkey banquet is scheduled for March 26th. Most of the tickets have sold, but you can contact any member of the Three rivers chapter to see if any might still be available. Josh Stanfield 264-1348 or Eric Fuller 622-3521.
There will be an ‘in class’ Hunter safety class taught at the Humphreys Co. shooting range, off Scepter Rd this upcoming Thursday and Friday, March 17-18th. The class is limited to 20. You can pre-register by visiting TWRA’s website; TnWildlife.org. The class is free and is available to anyone 9 years and up.