Catfish No Report

Crappie No Report

Stripers No Report

Largemouth Bass No Report

White Bass No Report

TUESDAY NIGHT OPEN TOURNAMENTS

SPONSORED BY R & H MARINE

$25.00 PER TEAM WITH $5.00 GOING TO BIG BASS POT

Rules and information available at R & H Marine and Wilderness Trail

Summer will be here on Tuesday and if that means warmer weather it could be a sizzler. Upper 80’s with mid 60’s at night was the range this last week with a little sprinkle of rain. The lake temperature is 81.8 degrees and the lake clarity is around 15 feet. Lake level this week is 653.08, just a little over a foot down from normal pool. The thermocline has become stable at 36 feet and the secondary thermocline at 26 feet has weakened throughout the week. There are still a number of game fish shallow from the bank out to 26 feet and the shad are in the same range. 

Crappie slowed some during the day light hours this week but the early evening and night bite has picked up. Crappie cribs and watersheds are holding schools of crappie. Best baits are live crappie minnows on colored jig heads and Bobby Garland Swimming Minnows in pearl, smoke and Blue Thunder colors.

Largemouth bass have been active in the back of the creeks, cuts and pockets early in the morning on buzz baits and Zara Spooks. Their main food source is crawdads but they seem to switching over to sunfish and shad in the mornings. Football jigs and Carolina rigs are starting to pick up during the day light hours off the drop offs around chunk rock secondary points. 

Smallmouth bass have been hard to find this week. They are moving off the pea rock banks and points and we are guessing that they are positioning themselves in rocky areas for shade and crawdads. There will be a full moon and a crawdad hatch this week, so maybe that explains the movement. Jerk baits, grubs and jig worms are working on the roaming smallies. Tube baits started to pick up around chunk rock banks over the weekend and some early morning top water out in the middle of nowhere. 

Kentucky bass remain with the shad, which are located at about 20 feet down, halfway back in the creeks, on cliff ends and in the middle of main lake pockets. We caught a few on spoons this week, ½ oz slab spoons, fished under the shad in 30+ feet of water. Mojo rigs are also starting to produce nice Kentuckys with centipedes or finesse worms. Fish this rig keeping your boat in 40 feet of water and casting into chunk rock points.

Walleye are still inside of 28 feet feeding on sunfish and shad. Ledge banks and chunk rock points are good places to look for feeding walleye in the mornings. Fish crawler harnesses or leech harnesses behind bottom bouncers in the 20 to 26 foot range and pull them from 0.6 mph to 0.9 mph. Long liners are catching a few on Glass Shad and Reef Runners between 27 to 30 feet of water also around points. Night time walleye are active and striking X-Raps and Suspending Rogues on points from 9 p.m. to midnight. Main lake points are producing the nicer walleye.

NIGHT TIME UPDATE: The bite is very slow until 9 p.m. or so, then the bass are moving up on the banks, feeding on crawdads. Jig and pigs, Texas rigged worms, brush hogs and tube baits are all working well. Transition banks, points and brush piles are night time feeding areas.

LAKE RATING: Day time bite is fair, morning bite and night bite are good. Overall – Fair to Good

Fishing for trout on the White River has been good this past week. The Berkley Power Egg bite has been good in yellow, white and pink, or Belgium red worms. With generation the Buoyant Spoons, Rooster Tails and Blue Fox are the bait of choice. The fly fishermen did well on Olive Woolly Bugger, tungsten bead head midges, sow bugs and scuds. The Brown trout are being caught on Suspending Rogues, Countdowns and nightcrawlers.

Remember to keep only what you can eat and release the rest for another day. Rick Culver of Wilderness Trail does the research for this report and the writing of this report.

}><(((º> Millwood Lake Fishing Report 6/20/05 <º)))><{

Largemouth Bass remain good on chrome/black baby torpedoes, bleeding red & white buzz baits, red/orange sparkle and chrome/black Rat-L-Traps, & white Zoom horney toads, all around lily pads, and baby minus one crankbaits in baby bass or spring bream color along the edges of the vegetation. Swimming white jigs with milky white grub trailers, and "bleeding" gizit tubes in green pumpkin/red or black and blue are taking good keepers in the river cut outs and creek mouths dumping into Little River where stumps are located in 9-12 feet depth, or outside river bends where stumps range from 8-10 feet depths around current. Black bass remain fair by flipping 3/8oz jigs in Texas craw color w/green pumpkin or pumpkinseed trailers, at the base of cypress trees, or Carolina rigged Zoom lizards in watermelon red, or green pumpkin, and Bass Assassin Shads in gizzard shad color, along Little River. Early and late in the day, bass are still feeding and chasing shad near top water. This is where the baby torpedoes and also white Rat-L-Traps are working best. During heat of the day, the heavier 1oz size Rat-L-Traps in shad pattern or white, the Carolina rigs, along with medium runner Bandit crankbaits or Excalibur Fat Free Shads are taking various larger bass. Pull out away from those shallow bank areas to fish the river drops and the hydrilla in 8-9 feet deep. If you want to fish those shallow grass areas or floating hydrilla and grass mats out on the main lake, pick up a stout rod, heavy line with a 3/4 or 1oz jig to penetrate the grass and vegetation and down into those open spots underneath the grass, and hang on. There are some huge bass that do remain shallow all year, especially out on the main lake body, and they cruise the flats and under the numerous species of Millwood's grasses, in search of recently spawned bream, crappie, and shad.

Spotted (Kentuckys) and White Bass remain fair to good, hitting the smaller 1/4oz Rat-L-Traps in white, or white and chartreuse rocket shads, Little Georges and Rooster Tail spinners in chrome/red colors.

Crappie fishermen report fair catches over brush piles between 12-15 feet depths. Few catches in shallow water around cypress trees in last couple weeks between 4-6 feet deep on jigs and shiners, but the fish in those locations remain smaller.

Bream are fair on crickets and red worms off the bank at the state park and Jack's Isle.

Blue (Channel) Catfish are fair to good, up to 6 lbs each, on Yo-Yos are still taking good blue catfish at night, underneath cypress trees in sloughs adjacent to Little River, Horseshoe Lake and in Mud Lake oxbow areas, in 7-12 feet depths using shiners and cut shad.

}><(((º> Millwood Lake & River Conditions Report <º)))><{

Thank you to the US Army Corps of Engineers and AG&FC personnel who are currently in process of evaluating the increase and spread of various vegetation species on Little River and Millwood Lake. A recommendation & report is pending, on potential control measures which would be the most physical effective manner of the vegetation growth explosion in all the creeks, oxbows, Little River and the main lake; as well as which methods could be the most cost effective to maintain.

Use EXTREME caution navigating Little River in low light conditions, and SLOW DOWN! Careful watch for floaters and debris in Little River's current, and wearing your PFD is a requirement!!

For those fishing the river and below the spillway, as of Monday, June 20 the lake level has stabilized at approximately 2 inches above normal conservation pool. Current is slightly decreased in Little River due to change discharge at the dam. The lake elevation is 259.37. Release at the dam is 386CFS with only 1 gate open at 1 foot. Water clarity in the river is approx 12-18". Clarity on the main lake approx 9-14". North eastern sector of the lake around OK Landing, Shaw Branch and Mine Creek has moderate, but improving stain. Saline River clarity improving to 7". Creeks and sloughs of Little River are beginning to clear.

The upriver oxbows such as McGuire, Horseshoe, Mud Lake, Cemetery Slough, etc, away from the current in Little River still have much better water visibility, estimated at approx 5-8 feet in places. Water temperatures have increased in the last 2 weeks due to warmer ambient temperatures, and range approx 82ºF early to 90ºF later in the day, depending on area of the lake, wind, and sunlight penetrations.

Millwood Guide Service and all the Millwood anglers, would like to take this opportunity to thank the US Army Corps of Engineers for their dedication to continual improvement in the navigability and maintenance of Millwood Lake, continually fighting mother nature and the rising and falling level due to influx of run off from area lakes and rivers, and rain.

Don't forget, be safe, and respect the other guy's right to use the lake too. Release those big bass to spawn and fight again, and take home those little 16"ers to fry up! Use caution in low light conditions, wear your Life Preserver and SUNSCREEN! If you are suddenly thrown from your boat, or knocked unconscious, your life preserver can potentially be your only hope to survive, so PUT IT ON!