Catfish No Report

Crappie No Report

Stripers No Report

Largemouth Bass No Report

White Bass No Report

We finally had a little rain over the weekend but it didn’t cool things down much. Daytime temperatures are still running in the upper 90’s with upper 70’s at night. Lake temperature went up this week and is now 89.9 to 90 degrees – that is hot. Lake level is 649.38, which is almost 5 feet below normal pool. With the extreme heat we have had this summer the lake level is really in good shape. The thermocline remains steady at 31 feet throughout the lake. 

White Bass became active this week pushing shad up onto pea rock banks an hour before sundown. It has been a strange summer and what the Whites are doing up in 89 degree water is anyone’s guess. 1 ½" white grubs on a 1/8 oz jig head has been the hot lure and one of the best spots on the lake is Brown’s Beach. 

Catfish are doing well at night on jugs, trot lines and off the banks. Best baits are frozen shad, chicken liver and nightcrawlers. 

Crappie was slow this week and are suspended or sitting on the bottom in the thermocline (30 to 31 feet). Crappie minnows is your best bait, fished on a slip bobber or just a split shot and hook. For the sunfish (perch/bluegill/bream) anglers now is a good time to fish docks or pole trees along the bluffs. Sunfish are deeper than the crappie by a few feet and the best baits are crickets, red worms and Berkley Maggots.

Largemouth bass – no change in their pattern. Top water with buzzbaits, Zara Spooks or Chug Bugs for the first hour in the morning. Carolina Rigs with Trick Worms, brush hogs or lizards work the best during the heat of the day off points and around deep brush piles. 

Smallmouth bass do not like hot water and they are staying down in the thermocline. Spider Jigs, tubes and Hula Grubs are the key baits for bottom feeders and drop shot rigs with 4" finesse worms or Swimming Minnows is working well on the smallies that are suspended. Live bait anglers are catching a few on shiners and leeches drifting through concentrations of shad. 

Kentucky bass are deep under the shad, suspended in the 40+ foot range. Drop shot and spoons are the best techniques at this time. Look in the deep pockets at the end of the cliff walls and over the drop offs on the main lake flats for schools of shad with Kentuckys under them.

Walleye remain active during the afternoon heat and I can’t tell you why. Bottom bouncers with crawler harnesses and leech harnesses are working great pulled at about 0.6 to 0.8 mph in 30 to 31 feet of water. Long liners are trolling with Reef Runners, Glass Shad and Wally Divers on lead core and that is working great. Trolling speed is around 1.3 to 1.9 mph around points and long pea rock banks. Vertical jigging a spoon is also working well in 30 to 32 feet of water on flats and around points. Best color in spoons has been white or gray with an orange belly.

NIGHT TIME UPDATE: The bite is okay before dark but after dark the bite is very slow until early in the morning (2:30 to 3:00 a.m.). Best baits are Texas rigged worms, Spider Jigs, brush hogs and centipedes.

LAKE RATING: Crappie are slow but okay, bass are so-so, White Bass are goofy, walleye are feeding. This week’s rating is good.

Fishing for trout on the White River has been good on Berkley Power Eggs in yellow, pink and orange, Berkley Nuggets in orange and Belgium red worms. With generation the Buoyant Spoons, Super Dupers and Little Cleos are the bait of choice. The fly fishermen did well on olive Woolly Bugger, Zebra midges, soft hackles, and olive scuds and sow bugs. The Brown trout are being caught on Countdowns, Flat Fish 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 8/22/05 <º)))><{

Largemouth bass are good to excellent and remain best early and late on Turbo Shads or Bass Assasin Shads in Bone Diamond, Salt and Pepper Silver Phantom, or Rainbow Trout colors this week. Twitch Assassins in lemon-lime, rainbow trout, and salt n pepper are still working in the pad edges, as are Johnson gold or silver spoons with spilt-milk white grub trailers. Overall patterns are relatively unchanged over last few weeks. Highest engergetic feeding periods remain at night, early and late in the day. Early and late Bass are feeding and biting well on Pop R's in Chrome/black back, or Gold/black back with real feather tails and Cordell Crazy Shads in chrome/black. Soft plastic rats and frogs like the Zoom Horney Toads and Scum Frogs are still taking a few good bass in back of pad fields, 3-6' depths, next to creek channel swings, and along edges of Little River.

Smithwick Rouges in black back/orange belly, baby bass/orange belly and swimming white jigs with pearl Zoom plastic chunks or spilt milk grubs on lead head jigs in 10 to 14 feet along the river are taking nice size bass. Brush Hogs and lizards in blackberry, cherry seed, or blue flash colors, are still taking some 12-17" bass on stumps in creek channels.

Crappie remain best early in the mornings, on 1/8oz jigs with smoke or cotton candy colored grub trailers early, 14-18 feet deep in contact with planted brush piles. The best bite remains 6am to 10am, and very few Crappie fishermen out after 9-10am.

Channel (Blue) Catfish bite is best using Charlie, cottenseed cakes and cut shad, on yo-yos or trot lines under cypress trees between Jack's Isle and Mud Lake and trot lines in Little River set at 12-15 feet depths. The best bite remains at night, in 9-10 feet depths.

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

For those fishing the river and below the spillway, as of Monday, August 22, the lake level has fallen and is approx 1.6 inches above normal conservation pool. Current is decreased in Little River due to change discharge at the dam. The lake elevation is 259.34.

Release at the dam is approx 172CFS with 1 gate open at 0.4 foot. Open gate is number 1. Water clarity in the river is approx 10-14". Clarity on the main lake approx 10+". North eastern sector of the lake around OK Landing, improving stain. Saline River clarity improving.

The upriver oxbows such as McGuire, Horseshoe, Mud Lake, Cemetary 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 88ºF early to 93ºF later in the day, depending on area of the lake and wind.

Thank you to the USArmy 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!!