Honest opinion? Fall Crappie Kentucky Lake

Hi all,

A buddy of mine and I try to take a fishing trip at least once a year, usually targeting crappie. After hearing about what a great fishery KY/Barkley Lake is for years, we figured we needed to check it out. We booked a place to stay on the north end of KY Lake for the first week of October.

Recently, I've been seeing people talking about how rough fishing has been out there this year, due to the invasion of Asian Carp. Is it bad enough that you guys would recommend moving the trip to another lake? I'm not the type of guy thats disappointed if I'm not constantly catching fish (I enjoy just being out there), but I would like to have a pretty good chance of catching some slab crappie at least some point on the trip. If the AC problem is as bad as some make it, we may have to look elsewhere.

Just looking for an honest opinion from someone who has fished it recently, or knows what fall is likely to look like. Any tips on spots to target, etc appreciated too!

Thanks!

I sent a PM, but just wanted to say that I have always loved fishing Ky Lake, but have seen the fishing decline. It has gotten to the point that I had planned to buy a lakehouse there, but have now been looking at other lakes. Hopefully they will find an answer.
Good luck wherever you decide to go.
RJP

This will be the first year in 15 years that I don't spend 6-8 weekends at KY and Barkley Lake........If that tells you anything.

My last good year of fishing for crappie on KY lake was 2012. Continued to go up until 2016 hoping it was a fluke. It's not, and I have hung it up for good making the trip west. There are other good lakes. They don't match what KY lake once was in it's prime, but they sure beat what KY lake has become now. Sad but true.

[QUOTE=GeoFisher;575853]This will be the first year in 15 years that I don't spend 6-8 weekends at KY and Barkley Lake........If that tells you anything.[/QUOTE]

Wow.

[QUOTE=peter;575884]Wow.[/QUOTE]

It must be getting really bad if George is not going the to fish. I've not been crappie fishing at KY lake since the early 2003 or 2004 years. And it was not that good back then for me. But I was fishing a new area without any knowledge of where to fish for the crappie and the winds were up keeping me off the main lake. I did manage to catch on fish that went 1.5#'s. I've not been back since. Years ago in the 1960's though 1980's I went to KY Lake twice a year for a week each time. And every spring we could catch crappie using minnows and the KY Lake Crappie rig and tight lining with some bass rods. They were not like the BnM graphite crappie poles that we have today. Not very sensitive at all and we used clip on round red/white plastic bobbers. Not the smaller more sensitive foam torpedo slip line bobbers that I use these days. I've learned a lot about crappie fishing over the years. I wish that back then I knew what I knew now and had the Electronics that I have to day back then. Digital maps of the lake would have been really nice to have back in 1965. LOL

It's a crying shame that some IDIOT brought those Asian Carps to the USA and let them escape into the Mississippi River System. That person should have been shot by a firing squad IMHO. They screwed up the Ohio River and Mississippie River systems with those exotic carps. Same with the Rivers where he asian Snake Heads were released into the wild out East. The people that released the big constrictor snakes in Flordia's everyglades also should be rouned up and shot. The damage that they did by releasing those boas and Rock Python's is irreversible.

[QUOTE=Moveon;575891]

It's a crying shame that some IDIOT brought those Asian Carps to the USA and let them escape into the Mississippi River System. That person should have been shot by a firing squad IMHO. [/QUOTE]

It's not one person to blame. It's multiple people and multiple agencies but mother nature gave us the ultimate final dagar....Asian carp have been around for SEVERAL years but its only been the last 10 or so years when you really hear people start talking about them. People in the Illinois government along with the fish and wildlife decided to allow private asian carp farming. They knew the species could overtake a water system so the farmers had to raise them in private farm ponds. All went well for several years until one year mother nature decides to have epic flooding along the Illinois River. Water gets high enough it floods the private carp farm ponds and the rest is history.

It took them a few years to go down the Illinois river, into the Mississippi, over to the Ohio and the into Ky and Barkley and establish a population. All the while Ky Dept of Fish and wildlife knew they were coming but they decided to drop $ in establishing an elk program into eastern Ky instead of combating asian carp. If my memory is correct Illinois and possibly some other northern state has placed an electric fence under the water where barge traffic passes from the great lakes in route to the Mississippi River. The electric fence prevents any fish from swimming through the area. KY knew over a period of time they would migrate down to us. If they had installed a electric fence we might not be having this conversation.

Ultimately it was not one person responsible for the introduction of Asian carp. It was multiple people an multiple agencies that decided it would be okay to farm raise them. Then mother nature thew us the final blow with an epic flood that flooded the Illinois river into the private carp farm ponds.

Never been on Ky Lake but On a good note, been on several trips on Cumberland in the last 2 weeks and catching plenty of nice crappie!!

[QUOTE=luvtohunt;575896]Never been on Ky Lake but On a good note, been on several trips on Cumberland in the last 2 weeks and catching plenty of nice crappie!![/QUOTE]

I would be interested in hearing more about this. We grew up going to KY lake and fishing crappie. Now we spend time at Cumberland in the Jamestown dock area. Catch lots of stripes but we never could really come up with a successful plan for crappie at Cumberland. My thought process struggles since the 2 fisheries are so different. Going to be down there in 3 weeks for hopefully jump fishing but some crappie would be nice too! Love to hear your thoughts on how to be successful at Cumberland. Thx bg