Dam Area Saturday & Sun

[abkeenan]

Found fish scattered for the most part. Didn't fish beyond 35 feet because I didn't feel like going the spoon or drop shot route. Brother and I picked up one here, one there, when beating the bank. If fish were bunched up they were right on breaks and roll offs that have that sudden 10-15 foot drop. Usually big flats or pockets adjacent to those drop offs is where we found them.  Mainlake transition points type locations produced most. There is a definitive thermocline set up from 22-25ish feet in spots in the dam area. Big fish of the trip was the 4 pounder (1st pic) early in the AM that came off said roll off in that thermoclish depth on a 10" straight tail worm on stand-up head. Weather was a real BEAR this weekend. Mostly due to the nonstop winds that persisted on into the night on Saturday. Had a hot spot going in a location like I mentioned above but could not stay on it with the wind like it was. Had to leave them biting as fighting the troller at night became too much. Tried a crank, popper and jerkbait at certain times throughout the trip and didn't get a sniff on any. All fish came on bottom baits. Mainly a 1/2oz NuTech Elite jig with a full brush hog or paca chunk or big shakeyhead worms. Had quite a few short strikes on the full brush hog but at the same time did get more bites than the smaller profile of the paca chunk for whatever reason.  In certain spots it was hard to keep the blue gill off your junk. About the least amount of fishing pressure I've seen around the dam area in quite some time. Had any mainlake point I wanted this weekend which was refreshing. Not sure if the weather kept people (both fishermen and pleasure boaters) at bay or what but I will NOT complain. Too short of a trip, but it always is.

Good luck out there, stay safe and tight lines.

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[Champ188]

Great report, abk. Thanks for the detail. Glad you had a decent trip. 

[m&m]

abk, thanks for the report. Sounds like you got hold of the right bait at the right time on a good pattern. Nice pictures. 

Mike

[merc1997 Bo]

nice catching.  the bass down stream seem to have the feed bag on right now.  fished monday and  sunday nights and just put s smacking on them.   we fished until 1:30am sunday and ended up with 11 keeps with six of them in the 3lb. range.  the really strange event was that 8 of the keeps were lmg's.  monday  night stayed another hour later and it was non- stop catching.  bites are from the bank out to 20 ft. deep.  best two lures are a 3/4 oz. grassjig with a bluegill skirt and a solid blue trailer, and a 1 oz. spinjig.  monday night ended up with 17 or 18 keepers, but most were just keepers only a couple that would make 3 lb. and most were brownies and k's.

 

bo

[abkeenan]

3 hours ago, merc1997 said:

nice catching.  the bass down stream seem to have the feed bag on right now.  fished monday and  sunday nights and just put s smacking on them.   we fished until 1:30am sunday and ended up with 11 keeps with six of them in the 3lb. range.  the really strange event was that 8 of the keeps were lmg's.  monday  night stayed another hour later and it was non- stop catching.  bites are from the bank out to 20 ft. deep.  best two lures are a 3/4 oz. grassjig with a bluegill skirt and a solid blue trailer, and a 1 oz. spinjig.  monday night ended up with 17 or 18 keepers, but most were just keepers only a couple that would make 3 lb. and most were brownies and k's.

 

bo

Funny you mention the largemouths. This trip was the highest largemouth to smallie /kentucky (usually all I catch around the dam) ratio that I can remember in a LONG TIME around the dam area. Not sure if that has to do with the water being high and in the bushes for the majority of the summer or due to the thermocline setting up and pulling some fish out of their deep haunts. Don't know but either way it was a welcome surprise.  Not to say I don't prefer smallmouth but it's nice to get the size on the LM's.

[m&m]

abk, I'd like to say that I have been sneaking up around Big M and raiding the honey holes of some of our ARK friends and bringing the LM down to the dam area but I can't say it. Cause I'm a fisherman and we don't tell fibs. Glad to see that there is a LM bite going on. My wife's family is here for the week so won't be out until next week so I hope it holds. 

Mike