By: Captain Phillip Rizzitello, Rizz’s Outdoors
803-230-6309 www.rizzsoutdoors.com
With the lack of rain, lake levels are way down. This can be a blessing and a curse. It’s a great time to get out and look around and find shallow structure that would normally be under water. Take note of this and remember for once the water levels pick back up. This is also causing new vegetation that the fish will eat and hide in once water levels pick back up. It can also create additional dangers so be cautious.
With the weather cooling, the early morning bass bite has been prolonged further into the day and the top water bite has been productive, switching to deeper water as the day goes on. Early evening has been yielding the same results. As the water cools, look near rocks that are still holding warmth from the days sun. Depending how late you stay out, once that cold drop hits, the fish have been shutting off almost instantly. With all the various lures, realistic looking shad and anything with chartreuse are good options.
The catfish are enjoying this weather and have been out in full force. They can be caught anywhere on the lake but much like other species at night with the quick drop in temperature, they will slow down quick until they adapt to the quick change. Live bait is always a go to.
Crappie are taking full advantage of the minnows being out. From end to end the minnows are up and the crappie are chasing them. Long lining during the day and fishing live bait at night is resulting in daily limits pretty regularly. You don’t have to fish very deep to find the fish but still try different depths until you find what works and stick to that.
Remember to always try and handle your fish carefully and dislodge hooks with as little damage as possible. Circle hooks are a great way to keep catfish from swallowing and end up in the corner of the fish’s mouth every time. Long shafted hooks for crappie and sunfish will result in easier hook dislodging. The more fish you catch and release unharmed, the more fish there will be for another day. You can’t catch again what you don’t put back!