Kayak on Percy Priest

[Adough]

My friend and I are taking our kayaks out Saturday morning to try our luck out on JPP. We've been fishing rivers all summer but, haven't tried any lakes yet, this will be our first experience. Any tips on where to put in and what type of lures to use? We're primarily after LM and SM Bass. After looking at maps my thoughts are the Fall Creek area. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Andrew

[Reel Tune]

I haven't fished Priest since spring, but I would think the smallmouth would be holding off deep rocky points, or creek channels that meet with the main channel. With the heat I would go with a finesse presentation like drop shotting, verticle jigging blade baits, bouncing a wacky rigged worm off the bottom, or dragging jigs. I would think they are going to be in atleast 20' of water with the air temps we have been having and lack of rain.

Good luck, it will be tough, be safe because it can get rough out there during the day. If it was me I would rather fish at night with a 3/4 dark colored spinnerbait with gold colorado blades.

[bd-]

Best advice I can think of is get out there early, before daylight, and fish hard in the early morning. As long as this brutal heat and bright sun sticks around all day, any bass fishing after about 10:30 a.m. on the reservoirs is going to be tough work.

bd

[txnative]

Priest will have a definite thermocline this year. Look for structure in the 15-20 ft depth range and fish it hard. Points will be good pre-dawn, and bluffs and deep structure as the sun rises. Also, try vertical jigging a 1/4 oz castmaster spoon in gold. A couple of hotspots are elm hill cove and the pass between bear island and anderson rec area. Look for 20 ft depths.


Chris

[Travis C.]

After looking at maps my thoughts are the Fall Creek area. Thanks Andrew

If you are going to be up in that area it's a long way to the deep body of the lake. I'd go up one of the forks and try to find moving water.

On the lower end you may find better fish but harder to catch fish. I'd imagine with no generation hardly from the Dam and these hot days what ever fish biting will be biting at or before the sun gets up then maybe a couple hours after. The window will be small unless you go deep. If you find some running water and shade that will give you a little longer of a bite.

[bd-]

Priest's water quality can suffer when we have a really hot summer. It's possible that the water below the thermocline may be getting low on dissolved oxygen. If you don't find fish deep, it may be because they are being forced into shallower, warmer water to breathe. This is especially hard on the hybrids and smallmouth, which can get pretty temperature stressed.

bd

[Adough]

Thanks for the info guys. Hopefully we'll get out Saturday morning and have some fun! Thanks, Andrew