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

This has been a comfortable week; we had a front come through, which dropped the temperatures from 100 degrees to the upper 70’s and low 80’s. With the temperature change there has been a big change in the lake conditions. Surface temperatures dropped from 88 degrees down to 84.8 degrees, the thermocline has moved from 35 feet to 30 feet and the shad have moved into the thermocline. With these changes it will take a few days for the game fish to reposition on new structure. Lake level was pulled down this week and is at 650.38, 4 feet below normal pool and 1 foot down from last week. Oxygen levels were checked on the lake this week by Game and Fish. The numbers were amazing, the highest level was at 30 feet and there are safe levels all the way down to 125 feet, so that means game fish can go anywhere they want to. 

Crappie picked up a little with the lake temperature cool down. They moved back toward the brush piles hanging around the 28 foot level. Crappie minnows are working the best along with crappie tubes and Bobby Garland’s Swimming Minnows.

Largemouth bass continue to feed early in the morning and throughout the night. Buzz baits, along and around creek arm secondary points, is the key for some morning action. The bite is over when the sun light hits the water surface. Carolina rigs and football jigs should come into play during the day in the next few weeks. 

Smallmouth bass are still using ledge rock banks and boulder banks but they have slipped down into the thermocline (30 feet) and are positioning themselves under the ledges and boulders where there is some shade. The bite is slow and you need to fish slow. Best baits are tubes, brush hogs and Spider Jigs. There are some smallies that are up on the banks in the morning chasing bluegill and shad. Zara Spooks, buzz baits and Chug Bugs will trigger a few strikes. 

Kentucky bass have not changed; they are still under the shad moving when the shad moves. This movement makes it difficult to pin point their whereabouts. Graph channel swing points and the middle of main lake cuts and pockets for schools of Kentuckys. Vertical fishing a drop shot or spoon is the best method for triggering some strikes.

Walleye have been active throughout the week in 29 to 32 feet of water along pea rock points and banks and long transition banks. Leeches and crawlers have been the best bait fished on harnesses with bottom bouncers. The bite has been on all day and some nice limits have been caught. The bite for the long liners has been so-so on Reef Runners and Glass Shad. The suspending walleye don’t seem to be as active as the walleye in shallower water

NIGHT TIME UPDATE: The bite is starting at dusk up until 2 a.m. or so along channel swings and on points. Best baits have been jigs, Texas rigged worms and tubes. Some of the "go to" baits are Gene Larew craws and 8" strawberry/gold worms, Spider Jigs or football jigs and Berkley 10" June bug worms.

LAKE RATING: Even with the lower pool level, the lake temperature dropped and the thermocline moved up, the bite has improved. This week we will call the rating GOOD.

Fishing for trout on the White River has been good this past week. The Berkley Power Egg bite has been good in yellow and pink or orange and Belgium red worms. With generation the Buoyant Spoons and Little Cleo's are the bait of choice. The fly fishermen did well on olive and black Woolly Bugger, tungsten bead head midges, soft hackles, and scuds. The Brown trout are being caught on Suspending Rogues, Flat Fish and nightcrawlers or red worms.

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.

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Largemouth bass from 2 to 4 pounds each are good, best during early and late periods of the day on various top waters like Zara spooks, spitting images, buzz baits, and soft plastics such as Bass Assassin Shads, Zoom Horney Toads. Johnson gold spoons (on cloudy days) and chrome spoons (on sunny days) with white grub trailers are taking nice size keepers in pad edges, coontail moss, and hydrilla, close to deep drops along Little River. Highest energetic feeding periods remain at night, and early and late in the day. Overall patterns are relatively unchanged over last few weeks.

During heat of the day, from 11-4, switch to medium diving cranks like a Cordell Big O, in shad pattern or white, and work it slow along the deeper River ledges and vegetation and lily pad lines. 10-12" Berkley Power Worms, in June Bug or Red Shad, are working in the creek mouths into Little River 8-11 feet. Slow moving cranks in shad patterns, this time of year, have caught numbers of large bass, that are feeding on shad. It has to be worked slowly and patiently to entice a big fish to hit. This time of year, (and in dead of winter) the big fish simply are not going to expend more energy to chase a meal, than the energy the meal will provide for the chase.

Carolina Rigs are also working in Little River along the creek mouths, cuts, wash-outs and current-cut steps from 10-12 feet deep, and in mouth of feeder creeks along stumps. Due to recent improvement in water clarity, try Lake Fork French Fries in green pumpkin, or watermelon-red colors or 5" Bass Assassin Shads in these areas.

Early and late in the day, and even between 11am-2pm in this heat, the bass are still feeding and chasing shad schools near top water in the up-river oxbows. Spot remover colored buzz baits (and spinner baits), white Rocket Shads, small Spiting' Images Jr.s, Zara Spooks, Rat-L-Traps in various shad patterns, and Bass Assassin Shads, and clear Baby Torpedoes all are working well during the feeding frenzy.

Crappie fishermen on the lake this week, were catching fair sized, 1-2 pound Crappie on live shiners, or jigs early, 13-17 feet deep on shiners. The best bite remains prior to 10am, and very few Crappie fishermen out after 10am.

Channel (Blue) Catfish bite remains fair on homemade prepared blood bait, & Catfish Charlie on yo-yos under cypress trees, best at night, in 9-10 feet depths.

White Bass were periodically schooling after shad, in Little River last few days up Little River near mouth of Cossatot River and hitting Chuck-n-spins, 1/4 oz Rat-L-Traps and Rocket Shads.

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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 Sunday, July 31, the lake level has slightly fallen and is approx 4 inches above normal conservation pool. Current is slightly increased in Little River due to change discharge at the dam. The lake elevation is 259.56. Release at the dam is approx 1170CFS with 1 gates (#1, #2 & #12) open at 1 foot each. Water clarity in the river is approx 8-9". Clarity on the main lake approx 6+". North eastern sector of the lake around OK Landing, improving stain. Saline River clarity improving.

The upriver oxbows such as McGuire, Horseshoe, Mud Lake, Cemetery Slough, etc, away from any current in Little River, still have much better water visibility, estimated at approx 3-5 feet in places. Water temperatures have increased in the last 2 weeks and range approx 87ºF early to 90ºF later in the day, depending on area of the lake and wind.

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 let me say it again, PLEASE, PUT IT ON! Folks don't drown wearing LIFE JACKETS!! That's why they call it UNEXPECTED, you never expect it to be you, to hit the lake! Don't forget your sunscreen, and take some Gatorade to replace electrolytes, and lots of bottle water. With this much heat out there, persons get dehydrated quickly, and sunscreen will help your skin thank you later.