• Melton Hill Fishing Report - TN

    Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
    (423) 587-7037 http://www.tnfish.org/index.html phshaw@comcast.net
  • Paul grew up in Auburn, Alabama and graduated from Auburn High School in 1969. Before leaving high school, he began working in Auburn University's fisheries department on an experimental channel catfish cage culture project. After a year at the University of Mississippi (1969-70), he transferred to Auburn University, graduating in 1974 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Fisheries Management.

  • Melton Hill Fishing Report - TN

    WATER CONDITIONS
    There has been little change in recent weeks due to reduced channel flow and low rainfall. The water elevation is fluctuating slightly around 794-feet and is expected to continue to do the same through Friday, June 27th. Surface temperatures in the channel may vary through the day according to the discharges from Norris Dam and the discharge through Melton Hill Dam. Because of the low level in Norris Reservoir, the outflow from Norris Dam into Melton Hill continues to be low, with outflow rates running between 200 and 400 cfs. The Melton Hill channel has warmed to 86 degrees (surface temperature) with some of the larger hollows up to 87 degrees. The high water temperature and reduced flow through the reservoir makes catching fish during the daytime difficult. The summer season sees little daily change in fish patterns, except for the night hours when most fish will come into shallower water, and often much closer to the shoreline.
    Flow rates, elevations, and generation times can be found online at http://www.tva.gov/lakes/noh_r.htm.
    To view maps to all access areas on the reservoir, go to: http://www.tnfish.org/ReservoirLakeM...rinas_TWRA.htm
    Moon phase: waning gibbous. The new moon will be June 27th.

    SPECIES DETAILS
    CRAPPIE
    Slow during the day. Fair at night under lights in the creeks in brush.
    5 to 15 feet deep, early morning hours or at night under lights, near shoreline or deeper brush. Some night catches are coming from just off the bottom in 15 feet of water where brush is nearby.
    The better locations were in the heads of the larger creeks, near flooded brush and near timber. Main channel crappie fishing has been slow.
    Tuffy minnows tightlined into the brush, 1-inch tube jigs, popeye flies tipped with minnows, trout magnets.

    LARGEMOUTH BASS
    Fair; better at dusk on shady, rocky banks, and at night. Very few quality sized fish have been caught during the day.
    Surface to 20-feet deep, either tight to shoreline cover, or near the bottom in deeper wood structure. Some have been caught on Carolina rigs or pig’n jigs fished on mid-channel flats and submerged islands, near the drop into deeper water. Milfoil beds have produced some fish at night for those casting plugs or spinners fished just over the top of the vegetation.
    Pig’n jigs, rubber skirted jigs with medium trailers, on main channel shorelines. Topwater action was best at dawn. Lures which have produced: Slider worms or lizards, 3/8 oz to ½ oz rubber skirted jigs with medium to large trailers, rubber grubs (Twisters), and Brush Hog-type lures caught some on the main channels and creek mouths. Any shade of pumpkin or watermelon color has been good. Brush in the backs of the larger hollows has produced on soft plastic fished down to about 10-feet, bottom depth.


    SMALLMOUTH
    Slow.
    20-feet, shallower at night.
    Very few smallmouth were seen caught during the daytime. Most smallmouth catches have come at night on the main channels on the lower half of the lake, near small points and on main channel humps. Shiners took some at dusk on the main channel, rocky shorelines.
    Surface to 20-feet on points leading into the main channel, near wood structure. Those fish have been in deeper water along the channels, on broken rock banks or occasionally on rock bluffs. Surface hits are slow.
    Brush Hogs, ¼ oz rubber skirted pumpkin colored jigs, and shad or pearl colored Flukes, shaky head jigs rigged with 4- or 6-inch Slider-type worms in pumpkin colors.

    STRIPED BASS
    Slow. Best at dawn.
    Surface to 25-feet.
    Striped bass catches were reported in the channel from the bridge at Bull Run Fossil Plant down to the mouth of Bull Run Creek.
    The Bull Run warm water discharge has stopped, eliminating the baitfish concentrations which had been attracting striped bass. Live shad/skipjack, umbrella rigs (see hook rule). Upriver action has almost stopped due to low water levels when there is no generation from Norris Dam. Zara Spooks in rare early morning breaks above Solway and to Bull Run Creek.

    WHITE BASS
    Moderate.
    Surface to 10-feet.
    White bass catches slowed since last week. Afternoon or early morning breaks have produced some in the channel above Solway, and at the mouth of some of the creeks. The Bull Run fossil plant had some late afternoon surface action at the entrance to the discharge canal. Night fishing under lights has been best. Cast to the breaks at dawn and dusk with small chrome/white spinners, minnows, white hair jigs, 2 to 4-inch plastic swimbaits or grubs on leadheads.

    BLUEGILL and SHELLCRACKER
    Good.
    Popping bugs and small flies have worked best. The larger fish have been caught before 9 a.m.
    Crickets or red worms are catching bluegill and shellcracker on the bottom, in the rear of coves, especially where creeks enter the lake and cover is present. Shellcracker catches slowed. Good bluegill catches are being taken on crickets fished with no float, the bait dragged along the bottom in coves and flats. Deeper water is producing some in shady, rocky, main channel areas on crickets tightlined to about 10-20 feet.

    CATFISH
    Moderate
    Shallow in rocky areas at dawn.
    Some catfish are spawning in the flat rock formations along the main channel and in the coves where rocky areas are present.
    Nightcrawlers fished on the bottom, or under a float at about 5-feet deep, very close to the shelf rocks.

    phs
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