Barren today Saturday March 4

[thebassman30]

Today is technically a family day at the lake so even though I'd rather be at Dale....I'm at Barren....Muddy and 44 at lauch from Sawyers....I gave the left Hogback 10 minutes...no love....then stuck a 3.4 off the Yacht club cove on a jerkbait....yes I said jerkbait. It's about 8 a.m. by now....I've got the lake to myself....I stick two more on the same deal each about 1.5...but they measure. By 8:30-9 a.m., there are 10-15 boats in my area now...got to love it. No worries...I'm onto something right....well that whole deal just shut down....I snagged some old fishing line and a bluegill to round out the day....went back to the cabin for lunch.....went back out with the wife and kids....made a run up towards beaver past the Narrows...found 54 degree water! Ran into some guys talking up the fact they caught a 6 lb carp...I thought to myself.....this is definitely not Dale. Water color was really muddy several people fishing shallow with crankbaits. Barren just##### right now....plain and simple.....I think I might be on to something with the jerkbait deal.....but you might want to use something colorful and head back in the creeks. I threw a shaky head with 4" dark colored worm and a lipless in a clown color....again no love. I even vertically jigged the lipless on several bluffs. I marked a ton of fish suspended 10-20' next to schools of bait. The bite was pretty active until the sun came out and pushed the bait down....then there wasn't enough wind to keep them from suspending.....I think with the water color and conditions....you probably had to snag them today or use live bait.

[thebassman30]

Sunday follow up.....well I change my mind on the jerkbait thing and went up the creeks with about 100 other boats. Barren feels like Taylorsville right now. It's like the same 200 guys scratching it out for that one 3 pounder a day. Absolutely ridiculous.....muddy and cold....I'd go to KY lake or Dale if I were anyone deciding to spend a weekend.

I pretty much scratched out a few on crankbaits up shallow like everyone else.....I tried some other things....got no love. I didn't fish past noon and the evening bite was probably the deal....I saw a lot of deer moving on the way back to Louisville so the bite might have improved for the evening bite. I still stand by my advice stated earlier and don't recommend this lake for at least another month.

[Devils Horse]

Good report,thanks. I wouldn't wait a month though, about 2 more weeks ought to improve the situation there quite a bit. This has been the toughest winter at Barren I've seen in a while. The few times I've been this year hasn't been like other cold weather times. Slow.

[crazyfishinnut]

Well I wish you could have done better but I would never discount barren let alone for a month> i have stuck more pigs this last 3 weeks on barren than I will all summer. If they bit on saturday they didnt go anywhere just not wanting what you are offering. Most people slow down this time of year, some throw jerk baits, I rip and i mean rip crankbaits and have done well but I am not targeting the lethargic but the feeding. I also dont fish on weekends unless I am in a tourney Just dont give up on the water ...change your way to something everyone else isnt Barren can change in 10 minutes
Rodney
Tight lines
NEVER DRIVE FASTER THAN YOUR ANGEL CAN FLY !!!

[thebassman30]

You guys are right...I've just been spoiled by Dale and KY lake the last 10-15 trips and don't expect any love from Barren anymore. I mean.... I firmly believe I can just go do something that makes sense and hook-up at KY anytime and just about anywhere.

The quality fish I caught were on jerkbaits....but I've been catching 8-10 keepers a day on trips to the other lakes.....one over three and I lost one that was probably 4-5+ but that's a freak'n joke man. There are too many good fisherman pounding that lake.....it's like Taylorsville.

[4given]

Fished a tourn at Barren Sat. 3/4 and it took 15lbs plus to win. There was also a 14lb bag, a 13,a 12, two 11's a several more limits. One 6 3/4lber was weighed and two 5's. Maybe a jerkbait wasn't the bait to fish?

[thebassman30]

funny....Let's see so I fished about 3 hours and caught over 5 lbs....the tourneys are how many fish 5-10 fish two guys? Please dude... It doesn't take a rocket scientist to run all over the lake and fish a crankbait all day to scratch out enough for a limit. I focused on trying to catch larger fish only that day....some days you choose wrong.

A 6.8 is impressive dude. I hooked one really big Sunday....probably 4-5 might of gone 6...but I like to be realistic....it's just Barren and it's over-fished and there are too many tournaments on that poor little lake when it's low.

Later in the day 1 p.m.....I could barely find a point to carolina rig....let alone crank. People running everywhere....I thought it was summer although I never saw a jet ski.

[thebassman30]

There are no doubt some great fisherman in those tournaments who know the lake. Forgot to ask....how'd you do?