Area lakes and rivers saw a rise last week with the much needed rainfall. Kentucky Lake rose to almost 356ft (2 ft over normal) on last Friday (Jan 12th), and we'll see a gradual drop by early this week to a level around 355ft. The flow rates saw a significant increase with the rise in water levels, with flows averaging up to 80,000cfs last Friday. I do expect TVA to keep the flow rates high, in an attempt to get the water levels back towards winter pool. The DO levels continue to rise, with current Oxygen levels at 13mg/L with a pH level of 8.01. The average surface wate temperature on Kentucky Lake last Friday was at 43 degrees. The Duck and Buffalo Rivers saw a good rise this past week as well, with the Duck cresting at 5.6ft on last Thursday, and the Buffalo cresting at 5ft.
With the cold weather setting in, I do expect all but the most die-hard fishermen to forgo hitting the water. With the extreme cold we’ve seen, expect a shad kill over the next few weeks, making fishing tougher. I did get a chance to head out in search of crappie before all the rain and cold weather last week, and had some great days. Two trips out and both days produced nearly 20 fish each day. The crappie were out on the river for the most part, but a few were found in fairly shallow water inside the bays. Most of the better fish were found along the river drops in depths of 12-20ft by tossing jigs fished along the bottom where the depth finder showed crappie. As a note to the bass fishermen, a few bass were hanging out with the crappie in the same areas. With the increase in flow this past week, expect most of the fish to seek out calmer areas, usually inside the bays and creeks, as 80,000cfs can be enough flow to cause fish to move into the bays. As mentioned, a shad kill is likely to occur this week as some types of shad cannot tolerate water temperatures below 42 degrees, and if they cannot find warmer water, will die. Often you will see many “yellow tail” shad in the shallows, dead on the bottom, often gulls and other birds will be seen feeding on the abundant shad. This occasion will present a lot of food to the fish we may be looking for, making for some tough fishing. I have seen a few individuals that have been sauger fishing with some success. Not sure where, but over the last few years, sauger seem to be making a comeback. Last year the best producing areas included “Ladys bluff” and below Pickwick Dam.
The deer season has ended, with the Juvenile Hunt last weekend. I’ll have the total for the whole 23/24 deer season next week, but as of last Friday, here are the totals, not including the Youth hunt; Benton-1,429, Dickson-2,146, Hickman-1,819, Houston-851, Humphreys-1,888, Perry-1,138 with the statewide total at 148,523 deer. The top harvesting County remains Giles, with 3,760 deer. Last year's Juvenile hunt weekend in Humphreys Co. saw 15 deer harvested.
Waterfowl season continues to be poor, although we did see a good number of ducks and geese move into our area with the cold front that passed last weekend. The vast majority of waterfowl remain west of our area, with a good number already south of us. The Federal Refuge has a good amount of crops (food) for the migrating waterfowl, but a few local blinds should see a good hunt over the next few weeks. What we need in the final stretch of the waterfowl season, is to see a good amount of snow and cold weather north of us, pushing the waterfowl south looking for open water. The regular waterfowl season will end on January31st. Hunters have other options this time of year, as many other small game seasons remain open through the end February and into March, including squirrel, rabbit, and trapping season to name a few.