Kentucky Lake remains in the mid 354ft levels, with TVA predicting them to remain stable this week. Although, depending on how much rain enters the river system, we may see lake levels finally reaching the winter pool level of 354ft over the next week or so. Flow rates remain average at between 25,000-30,000cfs, but flow rates may ramp up as TVA tries to maintain current lake levels depending on how much rain we receive. Water temperatures continues to fall, with average surface temperatures between 46-48 degrees as of last Friday. The Dissolved Oxygen remains great at 12.73mg/L with a pH level at 7.47. I do expect the Duck and Buffalo Rivers to see a slight rise due to the rainfall predicted over the weekend and beginning of the week.
The fishing has continued to get better, even with the falling temperatures. Crappie have been schooling up much tighter, and once fishermen locate areas with groups of crappie, some good numbers can be caught. I’ve been targeting areas just outside of the bays on the main river flats, looking along river drops in water depths of between 10-20ft. Often you will not see many fish on the depth finders this time of year, but keep looking until you “see” crappie around cover, especially with baitfish nearby. Most of the crappie are not as active during cold weather, so fishing near or on the bottom will produce the best catches. Jigs and minnows have been the “go to baits” of choice. Not much information on the bass bite this week, as I haven’t seen many bass fishermen out or talked to many, but I continue to catch a few in the same locations I’ve been finding crappie, out on the river flats and drops. Catfish action is becoming more predictable, as the water cools, larger catfish often will start heading to the deepest areas in the river, but close to baitfish. Whatever you may be targeting, remember that a good understanding of baitfish behavior is of great use in locating sports fish. As the water cools, baitfish often will head deep, looking for warmer water. If the water temperatures continue to fall into the low 40’s and into the 30’s, we may see a “shad kill” which happens due to some shad species not being able to tolerate cold water temperatures. When this happens, a lot of shad will become easily available to predator fish, making catching these fish very difficult. If you see dead shad in an area, often it's best to find other activities to entertain yourselves than fishing. Also for the bluegill and shell cracker fishermen, you can still catch many this time of year looking around brush piles and cover either on the river flats or inside of bays. Use your electronics to locate the fish, which on your down scan sonar will look like “dots” or “saucers” in and around the cover, and use worms fished on floats.
The Deer season is now coming to an end, as the regular deer season ended on January 7th. We do have a “private lands hunt” which started on January 8th and will continue through the 12th. Only anterless deer may be harvested, and the limits in Humphreys Co. are 3/day. The 2023-24 deer season will end with the Juvenile hunt on January13-14th. Here are the totals as of last Friday; Benton-1,184, Dickson-2,012, Houston-782, Hickman-1,625, Humphreys-1,612, Perry-1,049 with the statewide total at 130,172. Humphreys Co. saw only an increase of 148 deer over the holiday, and so far we are 524 deer less than last year for the same period hunted. The statewide total mirrors this trend, with almost 9,000 deer less this year as compared to last year. The top harvesting Co. for the state this week was Giles, with 3,474 deer harvested, with both Sumner and Henry Counties over the 3,000 mark as well.
Waterfowl season continues to be fairly bad this year, as many hunters have remarked that this year seems worse than last years season. Looking at the migration map, most of the ducks remain north and west of us, with quite a few already along the southern coast. There seems to be a good number of ducks along the Mississippi River around Natchez, Mississippi, but numbers in our area remain low. For the Trappers, the fur market forecast is looking like beavers will do well this upcoming year, as well as good quality red foxes. Fur harvesters inc. is reporting there may be interest in Otter and some of the better grades of Bobcats. Castor prices remain at $90.00 for Grade #1, $45.00 for grade #2 and Grade #3 is at $20. If selling to Fur Harvesters auction inc. (www.furharvesters.com), the last receiving dates are January 13th and April 20th this year.
The only upcoming events I’m aware of will be the USFW Duck River Waterfowl/Bald Eagle Tour on February 3rd from 12-5pm. More information as we become closer to the date. As the winter gives way to spring, I’ll have more events to share.