Lake Conditions:Lake Barkley - 359.9, 7,700-16,000 CFS, Light stain overall but turning stained, 71-74 degrees
Kentucky Lake - 359.85, 13,700-27,400 CFS, clear to light stain, 71-74 degrees
Weather:
It's been a typical summer pattern around the lakes the past week and a half with some very nice sunny, low wind, warm days along with some down right nasty, windy, rainy days also. The upcoming Memorial Day weekend and week a head look much the same. As Thurs-Sat. look great with plenty of sunshine and mild temps but then things turn sour with an chance of rain everyday as of right now starting Sunday all the way through next week. It doesn't look like a complete wash out any day but just keep an eye to the sky for any storms that may pop up.
Bass Fishing:
The past week and a half have been very trying to say the least. As we are seeing more and more fish moving from their spawning grounds to their summer haunts on offshore structure like underwater points, main lake flats and main river and secondary ledges. If you can get on a school of fish getting them to fire up has been anything but easy. Just as the case was with the FLW Rayovac tournament we aren't catching lots of fish from a spot but the ones you do catch on avg. are of the larger quality. It seems like the schools you can get fired up to bite seem to be the smaller fish in the 14"-16" range. The fact that it's been cloudy and very little current hasn't helped either as the schools seem to be fairly spread out and not bunched up which makes them much easier to catch. We would start out throwing a swimbait or slow rolling a spinnerbait through the school to see if there were any active fish we could catch right away. Those that did seemed to be the biggest fish of the school but we normally never got more than one or two bite on a spot. For the majority of the time we had to work them into biting by throwing a 10'' Juice worm by Big Bite Baits at them and dragging it very slow. After getting a couple fish to commit to eating the worm it would get the rest of the school excited. Then we would either stroke or hop a 1/2oz Outkast Tackle football jig or throw the spinnerbait or swimbait back on them. If they slowed down we start over with the big worm and try to fire them back up. Some times it would work other times you just had to find another school. I'm throwing a larger swimbait so I'm throwing it on a heavy action Powell rod model 795 that I also use for throwing an umbrella rig. You can get by with 16lb line but I tend to stay a bit heavier with #20 Sunline Sniper fluorocarbon on a 6.4:1 gear ratio reel as I don't want to over power it with a higher speed. As far a the worm fishing goes I throw that mostly on #14 Sunline Sniper fluorocarbon and have gone as light a #12 on open shell beds. This I will throw on a med. hvy. rod like Powell 733 or 734 but will use a higher speed reel such as 7.1:1 or faster. There are still many fish in transition between spawning grounds and the main lake that are being taken on lead in banks and channel swing banks. These fish are also being caught on a worm, along with Carolina rig and shaky heads.
Bluegill/Redear:
Man we have been putting the hammer down on these dudes. It has been an absolute fabulous spring so far fishing for these tasty critters. Though our fishing has been straight awesome we haven't been just sitting on a bed till we've caught them all. We'll catch a few good ones off each bed then I will pull us off and fish another one. As I've said before these are the easiest fish to over harvest and kill a genetic cycle of fish by just destroying a bed by catching every fish off from it. Please protect the harvest and leave some for seed if we don't you'll be telling stories of the good'ol days and that doesn't need to happen. As far as what and where most of the pockets will have some sort of pea gravel point or indentation along the shore these are areas the they will pull up and bed on. We've been using mostly crickets again as it's just my preference to keeping the boat clean but night crawlers, red worms and wax worms all work just as well. We are putting them to work on a either small jig dragging it across the bottom or on a drop shot system, you can see how I rig this up in my YouTue videos at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJO...5yhfXBlcc9Vetw.
Crappie:
I didn't spend anytime fishing for them again this week as they have taken a backseat to the bluegill bite right now. I did however idle over some brush piles and stake buckets while looking for bass and have seen quiet a few fish using them in 14-18 feet of water. Seems to be more fish in them now than there was earlier this spring when I was trying to catch them...lol.
****** A big Thank You to all the anglers who came out and fished the first annual Hu-B's Bass Classic this past weekend ran by Renegade Marine. They had a 105 boats for the first ever event and the winners took home $5000 first place prize and they paid back 10 places with two other teams taking home big fish checks for $2,500ea. for only a $50 entry. Wayne already has dates set for next year for the same time so if you missed out this year be sure to mark you calendars for next years event. There is now where else to can fish for this kind of money for $50. You can check out the results at http://www.renegadebasstournaments.c...asp?Article=33.
We've got a few more weeks of good bluegill fishing and the bass fishing is about to break wide open out on the ledges as the schools keep getting bigger and bigger and more active. Give us all call today and book your trip so you don't left on the dock, 612-889-2423.
Capt. Brian Brown
Fishing Hype Guide Service
www.fishinghype.com
612-889-2423