Barkley

[bigwormy]

Anyone fish it this weekend? My dad and brother going Wednesday. I'm supposed to go Thursday and hear it's tough. I do t want to waste a vacation day if I ain't flipping shallow and throwing a buzz or spook. Appreciate any help.

[DonC]

Fished KY Lake and Barkley north ends. Caught most of the bass with a few catfish and drum on main lake pea gravel or rock bluffs. Best fishing was sitting in 12-18 feet of water and fishing tender tubes to shore or out 10-20 feet from shore. Some fish in Carmack bay.
Did better on Barkley.
Fish slow with 3-5 seconds pauses.
I personally fish with crushed barbs.
Good luck,
DC

[swimjigboy]

Just got home from 8days on Barkley. The worst trip ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Only fish I caught were flippin', but had to flip a million bushes!!! Tough does not begin to describe our trip. Fished Dam to Donaldson and it sucked! Tried leading banks, secondary pts., main lake pts, and 6" of water. Scattered fish is being PC. Boats everywhere thurs-sun. and thurs-sat. Dragged, spinner baited, swim jigs, lizards, baby br hogs, c-rigs, lipless,topwater and buzz baited the flowers. TOUGH! TOUGH! TOUGH! When sunny flipping ruled, cloudy was shaky head on pts or swim jig around flower and brush. Not What I expected! Great weather and light boat pressure during week was great! Except little to no fish. Been home for 2 days and still tired from working so hard. The last 6 yrs keep getting worse and worse. We all ways blame weather or water levels but no reason this time!
Sorry for bad report I went last week of march and last week of april this year and both were AWEFUL!

[GeoFisher]

Just got home from 8days on Barkley. The worst trip ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Only fish I caught were flippin', but had to flip a million bushes!!! Tough does not begin to describe our trip. Fished Dam to Donaldson and it sucked! Tried leading banks, secondary pts., main lake pts, and 6" of water. Scattered fish is being PC. Boats everywhere thurs-sun. and thurs-sat. Dragged, spinner baited, swim jigs, lizards, baby br hogs, c-rigs, lipless,topwater and buzz baited the flowers. TOUGH! TOUGH! TOUGH! When sunny flipping ruled, cloudy was shaky head on pts or swim jig around flower and brush. Not What I expected! Great weather and light boat pressure during week was great! Except little to no fish. Been home for 2 days and still tired from working so hard. The last 6 yrs keep getting worse and worse. We all ways blame weather or water levels but no reason this time!
Sorry for bad report I went last week of march and last week of april this year and both were AWEFUL!

I guess this was a good year to WORK on the house, and not fish all spring .

[joey heller]

Just got home from 8days on Barkley. The worst trip ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Only fish I caught were flippin', but had to flip a million bushes!!! Tough does not begin to describe our trip. Fished Dam to Donaldson and it sucked! Tried leading banks, secondary pts., main lake pts, and 6" of water. Scattered fish is being PC. Boats everywhere thurs-sun. and thurs-sat. Dragged, spinner baited, swim jigs, lizards, baby br hogs, c-rigs, lipless,topwater and buzz baited the flowers. TOUGH! TOUGH! TOUGH! When sunny flipping ruled, cloudy was shaky head on pts or swim jig around flower and brush. Not What I expected! Great weather and light boat pressure during week was great! Except little to no fish. Been home for 2 days and still tired from working so hard. The last 6 yrs keep getting worse and worse. We all ways blame weather or water levels but no reason this time!
Sorry for bad report I went last week of march and last week of april this year and both were AWEFUL!

I had the same exact weekend

[Nitrobird]

I had the same weekend Thursday to Saturday. I got really frustrated and wore out. Long days when you ain't landing fish

[Owskiwoski]

I've fished Barkley for 20 plus years and it's just different now. The last 6-7 times I've been the fishing has been awful. I fished 6 days in the last month and have not caught a bass under 12 inches. Not many over either. That is very concerning that there aren't many small bass. I usually catch them non stop. I think I'm going to start going elsewhere.

[riverrat12]

Big difference in the river to.We may be seeing the impact bighead and silvers are causing during spawn. Just a thought.

[Moveon]

Big difference in the river to.We may be seeing the impact bighead and silvers are causing during spawn. Just a thought.

Those bighead and other non native species are taking a big toll on your native species and it's showing.

I read that in Australia they want to try to eliminate the CARP down there with a virus. We need to find a disease that's specific to these big head carp and grass carp and infect these non natives in our water ways with these. But extreme caution should be taken to understand the entire effects on the ecosystem before we try something like this.

Do these fish have a predator in their native lands that preys on their eggs or anything else in their life cycle? Importing more non native species to control the ones we already have may not be too wise though. One can't always predict what will happen in the wild once something like a non native species is introduced into a new habitat or niche.

[bigwormy]

We cancelled the trip. My buddies down there are catching some on a-rig. Having tough time with other baits. Having tough trip. I too have been going for years myself. We caught a lot of fish last year but no big guns. A couple little over 4. They were all shallow last year. I do agree however, it seems to be slowing somewhat. Used to cat h 14 inch footballs every cast it seemed. Fish are definitely in different spots than we used to catch them though. I used to spend a whole day in demumbers without having to leave. That's been a while now.

[SteveM4A1]

So I shouldn't waste my time coming down this weekend? Barkley was tough for me earlier in the year, so it wouldn't be any different than then. I'll be going south on kentucky lake towards the end of the month...maybe I will have better luck then

[Dave Stewart]

I am not having any problems catching fish on North Barkley...just not getting very many over 3 lbs except we have taken a couple of nice smallies over 4lbs there this week. Best bite for us is on staging banks and points. Getting prespawn and post spawn. Jigs, lizards, creature baits and shaky heads. Getting a lot of bedding fish picking up the baits and moving them in 3-7 ft of water, bedding deep.

Dave