Fishing Report

[Phil Lilley]

Provied by Marty Thompson, guide

Walleye are being taken off the face of the dam with Hopkins or Cast Master spoons, silver with a white bucktail is the best color. Slow troll the spoons tipped with a minnow in around 30 feet of water and you'll catch fish. Find the shad schools first and follow them throughout the day. Another good tactic around the dam and the main lake points in the dam area is trolling deep running crank baits such as Wally Divers or weighted stick baits such as Smithwick Rogues or Rebels. Shad imitators work the best. In the Turkey Creek arm, try the same techniques near the Cedar Ridge boat ramp (which by the way is closed, so you'll have to put in at State Park for a shorter run).

Crappie fishing has been good in the Cedar Ridge area off the crappie beds with crappie jigs which seem to work best. Minnows are also contacting fish, but seem to be less appealing than just a crappie jig in white or chartreuse (experiment with colors). Mutton Creek area is another good spot for crappie; try the same technique around Chicken Rock and fish the timber in Birch Branch. The lake is 8 feet low, so be careful of the stumps in that area.

Small mouth bass: 1/4 oz- 1/2 oz spinner baits in white or chartreuse are showing some good fish around Price Branch. Also tube jigs in white or brown work well. The bigger fish will be in about 25-30 feet of water. Small deep diving crank baits late in the afternoon on the downwind side of points at the mouth of Maze Creek is a good idea.

Black bass: if you don't fish slow, don't go. That's the motto. My best luck on large mouth have been on a drop shot rig with white and light blue french fry 4 inch worms. Chunk rock bluffs is a good place to start and remember to fish the irregularities in the bluff as this is where the bass congregate. 25 feet of water seems to be the average depth no matter what structure you are fishing. Late in the afternoon, fish will move up in around 10-12 feet of water and can be taken on suspended jerk baits. Another technique for the deeper fish off main lake points is black and blue 1 oz jigs or Carolina rigged 6 inch plastic worms; dark colors seem to work best.

[Thompson Fishing Guide Service]

Anybody with any questions about the fishing report, please reply to thompsonfishingguideservice@yahoo.com or post your questions here and I'll be glad to answer them. Marty Thompson