By Aaron Kephart
Well, August is here, and with it comes the proverbial “Dog Days” of summer and the heat and humidity associated with it. Luckily, our mountain reservoirs in the Murphy area still provide opportunities for you to “beat the heat” and catch some really nice fish. I know it can be hard to tear yourself away from the AC, but when you do, you can be rewarded with some awesome summertime fishing. Here is what I foresee happening in terms of the bite for a few different species in August.
Hybrids and Stripers:
This has been a phenomenal summer for the Hybrid bite on Lake Chatuge. As of right now (early July), a lot of the fish are still on the deeper flats adjacent to creek channels, but by August, most will have taken up residence on the main channel. In all honesty, I have fished Chatuge for over 30 years, and the hybrid fishery is currently as good, or possibly even better, than it was in its heyday 25 years ago.
The Striper bite on Hiwassee has been consistent. We had a phenomenal shallow bite for them in early summer, but now that the water temps have risen our most consistent action has come from creek mouths and rocky points on deep downlines. Some fish are biting lines set as shallow as 20 feet and some are biting bait set as deep as 50 feet, but the main consideration is to set up somewhere between 40 and 60 feet of water. Bait presence, as always, has been a big key. This pattern should remain stable until the water cools and the lake lowers in early fall.
Smallmouth, Largemouth, and Spotted Bass:
The big smallmouth are really chewing right now, especially when current is involved, and we have had some incredible 30 fish mornings lately. I foresee this bite actually continuing throughout the summer, and in fact, I am supremely confident I can put you on some big smallmouth all the way until they spawn again in spring (I don’t like messing with spawning smallies given how rare they are becoming in a lot of our lakes). The largemouth are also still biting, and we have caught quite a few 5-plus pounders in the last few weeks. The spotted bass on Chatuge are still as big and willing to bite as ever, and we have had a number of mornings where we went through 8 or 9 dozen baits in just a couple of hours. The spots on Hiwassee are also still biting, although they are a bit smaller on average than their cousins on Chatuge.
Crappie, Walleye, Trout, and the rest:
We have had a couple of very productive night trips for crappie recently, although I don’t get to do this as much as I used to. We landed 38 keepers in 2 hours on my most recent trip. The walleye have really slowed down and gone deep, and while we are still picking up one or two a week, I probably won’t focus on them intentionally again until they make their spawning run in late winter/early spring. We have also been picking up a few nice brown trout while smallmouth fishing, and have run into quite a few channel and flathead catfish the last couple of weeks.
I hope this gives you an idea of what you can expect in the coming weeks on our awesome Murphy area lakes. While summer is a busy time for a guide, I do often have openings due to cancellations and whatnot, so if you are interested in a trip give me a call at 865-466-1345. I would love to hear from you. Have a great day!
Aaron Kephart is the Owner of Mountain Lakes Guide Service. To book a guided trip on one of the Murphy area mountain lakes, contact him by phone at 865-466-1345 or by email at mtnlakesguide@outlook.com Check out his website at http://www.mtnlakesguideservice.com and catch him on facebook@mountainlakesguideservice.