Summer Pool is 359
Winter Pool is 354'
Articles
 A Fishing Trip with Bass Buster Dave Stewart
Bass Fishing at Kentucky Lake By John Hoffman
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Out
On A Ledge An Article By Dave Stewart
(Ledge Fishing on Kentucky Lake)
Kentucky
Lake, TVA Lake Levels and Predictions for levels
based on weather
Barkley lake levels & outflow:
Yr. to date
Last 10 days
Generation preschedule
Radar Map
Updated and Current
Advertising Information
peter@fishin.com
Current KY Lake Records
Yellow Perch*: .47 pounds Caught By Theresa
Mazzoli, Louisville, Ky. 5/30/96
Buffalo: 55 lb
Caught By Clint Roby
March 23, 2000
White Bass*: 5lbs. Caught By:
Lorne Eli, Dawson Springs, Ky. 7/11/43
To submit a fish for Lake Record Consideration ..
Submit Picture on a ruler or scale with a weight from a Certified Scale
Signed by someone at the Scale. + 2 Witnesses
All Lake Records are UNOFFICIAL unless they are State Record Fish
submitted to the KYDFWR.
Current Barkley
Lake Records
Yellow Bass*: 1 lb 1 oz Caught By: Dewayne West,
Hopkinsville Ky. 3/10/91
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Report
Updated July 22, 2010
Edit
July 22, 2010
Kentucky Lake: Water Level at Ky Dam - 358.70 Surface Temperature - 86
Lake Barkley: Water Level at Barkley Dam - 358.75 Surface Temperature - 87
Both lakes are just under summer pool level and on a slow drawdown. Expect the lake levels to reach one foot below summer pool by the end of this month in accordance with the TVA River Operating Schedule barring any unforeseen influx of water from upstream. We have been having the typical deep summer heat here in the lakes area this week but at least earlier this week we had cloud cover and some wind to take the edge off the heat. The forecast for Friday and Saturday is for sunny skies and daytime highs near 100 with heat indexes in the 105 degree plus range. A heat advisory has already been issued for the next two days by the National Weather Service. The present forecast for Sunday is for a 40% chance of scattered thunderstorms and a high of 93. If you are going to be out on the lakes this weekend, make sure you have plenty of cold water and sun block.
The ledge bite for bass has continues to be spotty, especially during the morning hours. The best ledge bite is of course, when the TVA is generating current, which this week has been between 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. We are catching some good keepers during the non current periods but not numbers of fish in most cases. The best pattern has been on ledges topping out at around 12 feet or deeper and dropping into the 25 ft range or deeper. The key is to fish slow with Carolina rigs, Texas rigs, shaky heads and dragging jigs. The most active bite during the morning and early afternoon has been in the creeks and bays where Largemouth are chasing schools of young baitfish from the spring spawns. A good topwater bite is present early and late in the day in the backs of coves and the creeks and bays. During the day, these shallow fish are being taken shallow on spinnerbaits, chatterbaits and lipless crankbaits. Largemouth are schooling on these fry on secondary points and channel banks in the creeks and bays during the early morning hours and through out the day. Most of these shallow summer fish are small fish but some nice keeper sized fish are also being taken with a few up to the 5 and 6 lbs range being reported. The night bite this week has also been reported as spotty, with some very active fish on some nights and some nights the bite has been reported as slow. White Bass anglers are still doing best during the non current draw hours by vertically fishing the deeper creek channel and old river channel ledges or by trolling these areas. The White Bass, like the Largemouth and Smallmouth are most active during the late afternoon and early evening hours when current is being drawn.
Largemouth Bass: Largemouth Bass are being taken on the old creek and river channel ledges primarily on Carolina rigged small creature baits and large worms, Texas rigged large worms, finesse shaky heads and dragging football head jigs. Largemouth are also being taken early and late in the day on the shallow flats in the backs of the creeks and bays and in the feeder coves on topwater lures, spinnerbaits and lipless crankbaits. Largemouth can also be taken on secondary points and channel banks in the creeks and bays feeding on schools of young baitfish topwater lures, crankbaits, spinnerbaits, Texas rigged creature baits and jigs.
Smallmouth Bass: Smallmouth Bass are being taken on the old creek and river channel ledges on Carolina rigged small creature baits, finesse shaky heads and dragging football head jigs. The better Smallmouth bite has been reported at night on main lake points and the first secondary points in the creeks and bays. These fish are being taken on dark colored spinnerbaits, Carolina rigged small creature baits and tubes, tube jigs and finesse jigs.
Some of the productive lures reported this week are: Lucky Craft sammy in ghost pearl lemon, Rebel Pop R in black/chrome, Slong's spinnerbait in blue glimmer, Bandit 200 and 300 crankbait in rootbeer and splatterback, Rapala DT 6 and 10 in silver, Strike King red eye shad in blue/chrome, sexy shad and chrome sexy shad, Charmer timber pup in watermelon/purple and green pumpkin, Charmer 10.5 " ribbon tail and gator tail worm in plum and green pumpkin, Strike King rodent in amistad special, Slong's fooball head jig in voodo and D&L football head jig in cumberland craw.
White Bass: White Bass are being taken along the old river and creek channel ledges on the main lakes by vertically fishing with inline spinners, small spoons and minnows on tight line rigs. White Bass are also being taken by trolling inline spinners and small spoons behind deep diving crankbaits. During periods of current draw, Whites Bass can be taken while surface feeding on the flats near the old channel ledges by casting inline spinners, small spoons and small surface popping lures into the feeding the schools.
Catfish: Catfish are being taken along the old river channels on bottom bouncing rigs baited with leech/shrimp combinations as well as on bottom rigs baited with large minnows, cut baits and leech/shrimp combinations. The Channel Catfish are being taken in 20 - 30 ft depths and the Blue Catfish are being taken in the 25 - 40 foot depths. These fish are most active during the periods of current draw and at night.
Bluegill: Bluegills are being taken along deep rocky creek channel banks on small jigs tipped with worms fished just off the bottom. Bluegills are also being taken at night around deeper lighted docks with wood cover on crickets and worms fished under bobbers.
FLASH: On July 1st, one of the nicest and well respected members of the bass fishing community here was severely injured in and auto accident. Ronnie Brinegar, a tournament director for FLW Outdoors is now currently a patient at Shepard Center in Atlanta, Ga where he is beginning a long journey to recovery and rehabilitation. In addition to being a great all around person, he is also a young husband and father. On September 4th a benefit bass tournament will be held at Ky Dam Marina to assist the Ronnie and his family. Registration for this tournament will be held at Fast Eddie's Tackle on U.S. 68 East in Fairdealing from 5-7 p.m on September 3rd. A pretournament meeting will be held at 7:15 following registration. There will be free hotdogs and hamburgers compliments of Fast Eddie's. One can also register at the ramp up until 5:45 a.m. on Saturday morning. There has been a number of donations made to guarantee payout for this tournament so the proceeds can go to assist the Brinegar family. For more information contact Danny York 270-906-5477 or Steve Alvarado 270-841-4626.
CONGRATULATIONS!! Congratulations goes out this week to the great folks at Jet-a-Marina. Ranger Boats has named Jet-a-Marina as the winner of the 2010 Top Single Market Award. This prestigious award is given each year to the Ranger Boats dealership that has the most sales of single units over the previous year. What makes this award so special is that this award is normally won by Ranger dealers near large metropolitan areas like Charlotte, N.C., Cincinnatti Ohio etc.. For Jet-a-Marina to win this award, they had to have had to drawn customers from a large region of the country. There is no doubt that the reason that they won this award is that Jet-a-Marina has earned a national reputation for customer service to bring in folks from around the country to purchase their boats here rather than their local dealerships. Take time to stop by Jet-a-Marina soon to congratulate the good folks there and check out their great line of Ranger and Stratos boats. Jet-a-Marina is located on U.S. 62 in Calvert City, just a couple of miles north of Kentucky Dam.
FLASH: Lowrance Seminar: The Cabin Bait and Tackle will have representatives from Lowrance at their store to do a seminar on the new Lowrance HDS sonar units on July 23rd at 5:00 p.m. This is a great opportunity to get some top notch instruction on Lowrance sonar from the experts as well as get your questions about sonar answered by those in the know. While your there, check out the great line of rods/reels and tackle in the store. The Cabin Bait and Tackle is located on U.S. 62 in Kuttawa about one mile west of the I-24/U.S. 62 interchange.
FLASH: If you have not heard yet, Fisherman's Headquarters Tackle Shop has reopened under new ownership. John Parks, formerly of Jet-a-Marina is now the proud new owner. John has been stocking the shelves every day now for over two weeks and has the store in great shape. Stop by and meet John and check out all the great fishing tackle. If you don't see what you want, I am sure John will get it for you if possible. Fisherman's Headquarters is located at the U.S. 68/U.S. 641 triangle in Draffenville.
If you are in need of a bass fishing guide for some fun bass fishing, tournament preparation, lake familiarization or technique instruction, don't hesitate to give me a call or drop me and email to reserve one of my open dates. I have the following dates available for July, August and September:
July: Sorry, I am booked up
August: 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 26, 27, 30, 31
September: 1, 2, 7, 8, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 29, 30
If you have not made your reservations for the fall bass fishing in October and November, you really need to do so very soon to get the date(s) you want. I am getting a number of bookings for this period each week now.
LEDGE FISHING INSTRUCTION:
I offer a focused teaching trip on how to fish the ledges. This trip consists of a class on how to eliminate the water on your topo map before you leave home so that you can concentrate your time on only the highest percentage ledges while on the water as well as some time on the water to learn how to use your electronics on the ledges, set up on the ledges and learn the techniques used to fish the ledges. This teaching trip has been very popular over the past few years since I started offering it as it will teach you how to go out and find and fish those ledges on your own. To book one of these trips, all you have to do is give me a call or drop me an email to book one of my open dates.
Captain Dave Stewart
Bass Buster Guide Service
270-354-5039
dave@kentuckylakeguide.com
www.kentuckylakeguide.com
"Fish with a Professional"
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Lake
Barkley COE Information
Kentucky
Lake, TVA Lake Levels and Predictions for levels
based on weather
Barkley lake levels & outflow:
Yr. to date
Last 10 days
Generation preschedule
Radar Map
Updated 2006
Articles
Bass Fishing at Kentucky Lake By John Hoffman
Advertising Information
peter@fishin.com
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Report Updated June 27, 2009
June 25, 2009
Air Temp Low 75° / High 93°
Water Temp Low 86° / High 89°
Water Elevation 359.5 (354 Summer
Pool)
Water Clarity Clear (4’ to 5’
visibility)
Which is the COOLEST?
Before I got my boat in the water this
morning, I could see a school of fish in a surface feeding frenzy
not far from the ramp. I got my boat off the trailer, dropped the
trolling motor, grabbed a rod with an inline spinner on it and cast
into the boiling fish. BAM! I was rewarded with a 12” Largemouth.
I unhooked and released the fish and cast again. BAM! Another, BAM!
Another, BAM! Another. After 7 or 8 fish in quick succession I
thought to myself, Man this is COOL! I pulled up my trolling motor,
started the big engine and headed upstream along the mainlake
shoreline. I noticed there had been a large Mayfly hatch the night
before. There were Mayflies hanging heavy in several trees that
hung out over the water. This reminded me of a “COOL” trick an old
timer taught me years ago. Get yourself a can of pebbles and anchor
a good cast from one of these trees, then cast a cricket, small
popper, worm, or small jig under the tree and you’ll catch nice
Bluegill and an occasional Bass. When the action slows, throw a few
pebbles into the tree, which will knock some Mayflies into the water
and the action will start all over again. COOL!
Where was I? Oh yeah, as I cruised
up the mainlake bank I saw that each shallow gravel bar at the mouth
of a bay had surface feeding schools of fish on them. I passed
several schools up and then stopped on one I knew was an extra good
one. Here I again caught small bass but also some White and Yellow
Bass. I noticed the fish weren’t eating Mayflies, they were eating
this year’s fry (baby fish) which are just getting big enough for a
little larger fish to eat. Also, many of the fish that were feeding
on them were Skipjack, and bigger fish eat Skipjack! COOL! By the
way, I also noticed lots of surface feeding fish in the back of
small bays. The sun was now getting higher and I knew the surface
action would soon “COOL” off, so I motored out to one of the
off-shore humps I’d been catching quality bass on for the past few
weeks. As I motored over the rise that topped out at 20’ I saw a
small group of larger arches (fish) on my graph and pitched a marker
buoy nearby, but off to the side. I cast a Texas rigged whacky
stick worm to where I’d saw the arches, hopped it a couple times and
felt a strong heavy bite. After setting the hook and getting a
pretty strong tussle, I brought a fat, healthy, solid 3.5 Lb bass to
the boat. And guess what? Swimming right behind and beside him
were 3 or 4 more just like him! Now that’s really COOL! I quickly
released the fish and cast several more times but no more bites.
That’s ok though, because I had their address and today I’m just
scouting. I then fished several more humps and caught 4 or 5 nice
fish on one, none on a couple spots 1 or 2 on a couple and called is
a day before noon. The deep bite was slower action but larger fish,
and I knew the best deep bite was afternoon when there was more
current.
Last Sunday I had two 14 yr olds in
my boat and Mom & Dad followed in a pontoon boat. We went to a deep
ledge on the main river channel and cast 3/8 oz white inline
spinners into 30ft of water and reeled them quickly uphill into 18ft
of water and then to the boat. It took the boys just a little while
to get the knack of it but once they did, we were catching White
Bass 1Lb to 1.5 Lb nearly every cast. Mom and Dad weren’t catching
as well, but once we caught our limit we gave Mom & Dad our spot and
with a little instruction, they caught them pretty good also. At
the end of 5 hours we had 53 White Bass, plus caught and released
several Largemouth, and kept one 3 Lb Striper. Lots of fun and Mom
& Dad and the kids have several good fish dinners ahead of them.
COOL!
This past Monday I fished with Bret
(Dad) and Brandon (son). Brandon is going to be in a high school
bass fishing class! COOL! Some high schools in Illinois are
offering a bass fishing class with credit towards graduating. Super
COOL! We had a good day fishing ledges and off-shore humps.
Brandon said he thought he caught 18 bass (tournament quality), Dad
held his own, and so did I. Brandon is well on his way to becoming
an avid fisherman. The day was warm but we drank plenty of liquids,
put on our sunscreen and moved frequently to get some air flow. One
particular ledge I came across had an unusually large amount of fish
showing on the graph. I hadn’t fished this ledge (hump) this year
so I wasn’t sure if we’d catch bass or not. After repeated casts to
the area and no bites I was wondering what all those fish were, when
out of the water came about 50 big shad. Something big was trying
to eat them. COOL! We all got excited and cast where the fish came
out of the water. I even switched to a big spoon and still no
takers. I was a little perplexed at this point. Then several big
splashes came in the area and I saw the tail of a big catfish. That
explained why they refused our bass baits. A school of big cats
were feeding on these large threadfin shad. Upon further
investigation, I realized that a large tree had drifted into and
hung on this main river ledge and a school of cats had made it
home. I bet if a guy vertically fished some large minnows or
leaches around this tree in 25ft of water, he’d probably hang into
some behemoth catfish. COOL! Also, if a guy vertically fished
smaller minnows around this tree, he’d probably catch some nice
Crappie. COOL!
Last Saturday there was a BFL
Tournament on the lake ,so to stay out of their way, my friend and
sometimes client, Jeff, decided he wanted to go bass fishing below
the KY Dam in the TN River. We had a very enjoyable learning
experience. We caught quite a few small Largemouths, one nearly 5
Lbs, one Smallmouth nearly 4 Lbs, one Striper about 10 Lbs and I
hung into probably a big Striper that burnt my thumbs as I tried to
slow his run, but he won! COOL! We caught fish on a shaky head
worm, a green pumpkin jig, and a crankbait. There’s lots of fish in
that river! COOL!
The only other thing I can think of
that may be as COOL or COOLER than these other forms of summer
fishing would be catching a big Smallmouth on a spinnerbait in the
COOL of the night under the millions of stars in the sky. Maybe
I’ll do that this next week!
So, if you’ve read all of this you
now know there are lots of COOL ways to spend your time on KY Lake.
Which is the COOLEST? You decide.
See you on the water!
Capt Kirk, out!
Captain Kirk's
Guide Service
877-354-6017 or 270-354-6017
11442 Hwy 68 East
Benton, KY 42025
info@captainkirksguideservice.com
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"Specializing in Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass,
Lake Familiarization, Tournament Preparation, and
Technique Instruction"
