Barkley Report Thurs April 13

[Danny]

Darrell and I made it out today, and did pretty well.


Water temp was about 64 degrees at launch, and mostly in the mid to upper 60's however, the last bay we were in had 71 & 72 degree water. The water is stained, but pretty decent visability, maybe 18 inches or so.

We caught 14 fish, 7 apiece. We had 4 keepers, one was 5.2 lbs, and our total was close to 13 lbs probably.

All of our fish came from staging areas near spawn bays or spawn banks. We could not get any fish all the way in the back of the bays... nada... and the yellow flowers... forget about those today, at least for us. We did catch fish staging near the flowers.

None of the fish we caught had bloody tails, indicating they had not even begun to fan their nests yet. Also the female, 5.2 lber, she had begun to baloon with eggs, but was nowhere near full or ready to lay the roe.

Every fish came on a carolina rigged soft plastic, all of mine were on the baby brush hound by hook some bass lures, and Darrell's too came on CR soft plastics, except one on a floating worm, wacky rigged.

Our fish came either in a foot or water, or right at the drop from hard bottomed ledges. We kept our boat sitting in 9 to 14 feet, but all the fish were shallow.

We only had one or two hard bites, most of them were just the fish picking up the bait and taking off with it, or just being heavy when you picked up your bait.

I hope this helps some of you heading down for the weekend.

Tight lines and good fishing.

Danny

PS, thanks Darrell for a fun day.

[dew32202]

Had a ball we will hit it again soon

[SecretWeapon]

Thanks, Danny for the report. Sounds like a nice day of fishing!

Justin Hires
Tournament Director
www.USABassin.com

[DaveStewart]

Good report Danny...I was out there on Barkley today also....looked for you but did not recognize you. We were doing pretty much the same as you except we were dragging Texas rigs...we had about 40 fish with 16 keepers..best 5 around 15 pounds...we were doing a tournament prep so we hit a lot of spots and left fish biting at most of them. I had a few of the fish on a trick worm also today.

[MarkW]

Watch out Dave!!!!! He's after your job!!!!! Well the reports, that is??? LOL!!!!!

[SecretWeapon]

Thanks Dave,
I read your report, and you listed all the info. I was looking for. You're the best! Thanks for you're hard work doing these reports; it is much appreciated.

Justin Hires
Tournament Director
www.USABassin.com

[Danny]

No way am I after his job!!! Can't you tell the difference? LOL We had a 14 fish day, 4 keepers and were happy, he had 60 fish and 16 keepers?? LMAO... my report is no where near as thorough as his reports either. LMAO I am only trying to let everyone know how us regular guys do!

I wish I could do his job though. It would be great to be that good a fisherman.

Danny

[Danny]

Dave....

At one time I told Darrell that I thought that might be you. Don't you still run a brown Ranger? I saw a couple of guys in a boat that looked a little like yours, and started to come over to see if it was you.

I do have a question though. What size weight were you using on your TX Rig? I tried throwing a TX Rig, but we could not find a concentration of fish, and were having to search. The carolina rig was perfect because I could keep contact with the bottom while I searched, but the TX rig kept "swimming" up off the bottom. I guess I could have used a heavier weight. Or maybe, I just did not have enough confidence that there were fish where we were.

Thanks for the help Dave.

Danny

[DaveStewart]

Danny: I run a green Ranger...looks a little brown sometimes when it is dirty...LOL. We were using 3/16 oz bullet sinkers...dragging the baits.
Dave

[MarkW]

Danny,
Your report was very good. Just playing with you. :)

[Danny]

Thanks Mark.

I know I'm recovered enough that I sure wish I was back on the water today!!!

I guess since I'm still unemployeed though, I'll wait until Tuesday or Wednesday. Should let the fish settle down from all the tournaments today and tomorrow.

I hear Jeta is having their tournament today, and that will be what, about 300+ boats??

IF you are ever down this way, let me know, maybe we can spend a day on the water. I'm not nearly as good at putting you on fish as Dave, but I guarantee a day on the water!!!!

LOL

Danny

[Danny]

Thanks Dave,

I guess I just have to develop more confidence in my spots and fish slower to keep that light a weight on the bottom.

One thing though, except for a short period of wind, the water was really flat. We could not get bit on spinnerbaits or crankbaits at all.

Did you guys catch anything on hard cranks? We saw a lot of shad flipping around, I can't believe we could not get bit on shad replicas.

Wish we had seen you. We could have spent a few minutes sharing a cold drink.... I had plenty of water!!! LMAO

Danny