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

I wish that we could say the fish are jumping in the boat but they are not. It has been a slow week with temperatures ranging from 90 during the day to mid-70’s at night. Lake temperature is 87.6 degrees this week, cooling down to 84 to 85 degrees at night. We had a little rain over the weekend, which might help the bite. Lake level this week is at 649.73, 4 ½ feet below normal pool and the thermocline is at 29 feet. 

White bass have moved out over the channels and are holding under schools of shad that have moved down into the thermocline. It is spooning time! Silver, white and silver/blue spoons are starting to trigger some nice Whites in the mornings under the shad. It is not a hot bite but it can be rewarding. 

Crappie have moved back out away from the brush piles and have relocated off points or over channels. Live crappie minnows are the best baits fished either on a slip bobber or a jig head down around the 30 feet level.

Largemouth bass remain slow during the day but the morning and night bite is okay. Largemouth are up on the banks at dawn and can be caught on buzz baits, Pop R’s, Zara Spooks and Chug Bugs up until the sun is shines on the water. The night bite starts around points and drop offs and moves to brush piles and channel swings throughout the night. Texas trigged worms and jigs have been the best night baits. During the daylight hours fish Mojo rigged finesse worms or centipedes and a Carolina rig with lizards or brush hogs on drop offs with 30 to 40 feet of water. 

Smallmouth bass are now down in the thermocline where the shad have moved to in the last week. Spooning will trigger a few smallies that are feeding on shad but your best technique at this time is fishing a drop shot rig or swimming a grub or 4" worm. Best baits on the drop shot have been 4" finesse worm, tiny brush hog, beaver tail grub and bass size Swimming Minnow. 

Kentucky bass are on the same pattern as the smallies, only deeper. The smallies are under the shad at about 30 to 34 feet and the Kentuckys are down in the 50 foot range. Drop shot technique will also work on the Kentuckys although vertically spooning is the key. Brink's spoons and Cotton Cordell spoons in the ¾ oz. size have been the best.

Walleye are acting strange; they are feeding from about 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.. They are inside and on top of the thermocline, which puts them in the 30 foot range. Leeches have been hot all week fished on a leech harness with bottom bouncers. Main lake pea rock banks and chunk rock banks are key holding areas. Long liners are catching a few out over the top of the standing forest throughout the lake. Lead core has been the technique with Reef Runners, Wally Divers, Glass Shad and Bill Norman’s DD14’s.

NIGHT TIME UPDATE: The bite has moved to the early morning hours from 2 a.m. until dawn. The baits are the same; worms, craws and jigs. June bug, strawberry/gold and red shad colors in worms, brown/orange claw or green/orange claw colors on the craws and black/blue or June bug colors in jigs. Points and bluff walls along with brush piles have been producing the majority of bass.

LAKE RATING: Crappie have moved deeper, bass are slow during the day and walleye are feeding up a storm. This week’s rating is fair for bass and crappie – good for walleye.

Fishing for trout on the White River continues to be good on Berkley Power Eggs in yellow and pink and Belgium red worms. With generation the Buoyant Spoons, Rooster Tails and Super Dupers are the bait of choice. The fly fishermen did well on olive Woolly Bugger, tungsten bead head midges, soft hackles, and scuds. The Brown trout are being caught on Suspending Rogues 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 8/08/05 <º)))><{

Water temps: 85º-88º; good clarity, 3 inches above normal, & Discharge = 777CFS.

Largemouth bass are best early and late on Bass Assassin Shads in salt and pepper, rainbow trout and baby bass colors, Johnson gold spoons with spilt-milk white grub trailers. Firecracker colored War Eagle spinner baits, are taking nice size Largemouth's in pad edges, grass lines, and vegetation, close to deep drops along Little River. Highest energetic feeding periods remain at night, early and late in the day. Overall patterns are relatively unchanged over last few weeks. A 12.9 pounders was caught and released in the creek mouth of Mud Lake next to the river, this week.

10-12" Berkley Power Worms in blue fleck, Lizards, Brush Hogs & Hawg Assassins, in blue flash, cotton candy, or blackberry, Texas rigged, are working next to stumps and the creek mouths dumping into Little River, approx 9-12 feet deep. 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 in these areas. Additionally, swimming white jigs with pearl Zoom plastic chunks or spilt milk grubs on lead head jigs in 9 to 12 feet along the river are catching nice size bass.

Crappie fishermen on the lake this week, were catching average sized Crappie on live shiners or smoke colored grubs early, 10-14 feet deep in contact with planted brush piles. 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 between Jack's Isle and Pugh Slough, best bite remains at night, in 9-10 feet depths.

White bass are still trying to school up, on Little River last few days between the mouth of Cosseted River inflow, and Patterson Shoals, are hitting Chuck-n-spins, 1/4 oz white or chrome/black Rat-L-Traps and white Rocket Shads, small Rooster tails in chrome/red, or Cordell Crazy Shads in chrome/black back. The schooling activities are random and times have shifted in last 2 weeks, with most occurring after 3 to 5 p.m.

}><(((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, August 8, the lake level has slightly fallen and is approx 3 inches above normal conservation pool. Current is slightly reduced in Little River due to change discharge at the dam. The lake elevation is .

Release at the dam is approx 777CFS with 2 gates open at 1 foot each. Open gates are numbers 1 and 12. 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 3-4 feet in places. Water temperatures have increased in the last 2 weeks and range approx 85ºF early to 88ºF 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.