Elkhorn Creek Report

[jcb]

Went out yesterday and waded Elkhorn during the drizzle. Got out about 1:00 and fished for 2 hours.

Don't know the water temp but it wasn't too bad, and still very clear. Plenty of flow, but the water level wasn't real high. Is anyone else getting the sense that there is more flow in Elkhorn now at a lower water level than there used to be? It used to be that if the water wasn't up in the sycamore roots etc., there wasn't much flow at all.

I caught three total, one 2.0 and the other two about a pound. All of them looked healthy.

All three came on an olive 1/4 oz. jig from the same kind of place. Tight as they possibly could be to the bank in either a deep cut or undercut bank near fast water. I got absolutely zero action out in the pools, where I threw a small Rapala. I also tried a frog-pattern Spook when the rain was around to break up the surface a bit, with no hits.

I didn't see any evidence that smallmouth had hit the beds yet. All in all, not a bad day for March 31.

[Chubminnow]

You did better than me...I went on Saturday and came home a zero instead of a hero...Had two other guys with me and they also didn't catch a thing. As for me, this trip was my first trip to Elkhorn but I'll definitely be back in the very near future because I can sense "thar's fish in them thar pools"...If all works out I'd like to back this week maybe after work one day now that we have longer day light, time will tell...

I was able to meet up with Mr. RedneckShadrap and that was pretty cool in itself, once again Shadrap, nice meeting you. And Shadrap, while I got you here how about shooting me your email address? Mine is [email protected]

[redneckshadrap]

It was good meeting Chub Minnow and his Posse.....

Mando and I put in about 2miles downstream. We caught 7 fish. Nothing real big, but they were fat. We spent most of the times checking the ole bedding areas looking around and did'nt see any signs. The water is still COLD!....
I caught my first fish on a #5 Shadrap. It was in about 2ft of running water. My other 3 came on a spinnerbait in the head of a big pool.
Mando caught his 3 on a Yammie grubb....

With these warm rains we are getting this evening along with the warm weather the water temp should boost it some....

Next weekend I'll be floating both days.

Billy


Redneckshadrap
www.thecreekbank.com
[email protected]

[Chubminnow]

Does anyone here know if Elkhorn is stocked with fish by KDFWR?

The buddy of mine that I went with Saturday said that about 10- 15 years ago when he fished it regular, he said back in the day you couldn't help but catch fish...he also said that fishing it this weekend that it seemed a little mossy to him, he said he didn't remember it being that mossy 10 - 15 years ago. Perhaps the missiness comes from nearby land development, fertilzer run off, etc??

I'll definitely be back soo though...

[NateO]

The moss is probably a result of the drought we had last year, probably left the water more stagnant resulting is excessive growth. Just a thought.

[jcb]

>Does anyone here know if Elkhorn
>is stocked with fish by
>KDFWR?
>
>The buddy of mine that I
>went with Saturday said that
>about 10- 15 years ago
>when he fished it regular,
>he said back in the
>day you couldn't help but
>catch fish...he also said that
>fishing it this weekend that
>it seemed a little mossy
>to him, he said he
>didn't remember it being that
>mossy 10 - 15 years
>ago. Perhaps the missiness comes
>from nearby land development, fertilzer
>run off, etc??
>
>I'll definitely be back soo though...
>

It's still a great place to fish. There has been moss in it ever since I remember--whether or not there's more moss today, I don't know.

Yep, it's declined in my opinion (but hasn't almost everywhere else?). I think a lot of things have contributed to Elkhorn's decline, including development and the increased runoff that brings about.

There's also some other things you can't blame on man. In the flood of March 1997, for example, thousands--millions?--of catfish fingerlings escaped from the KDFWR hatchery pools into the main creek. For a while afterwards, you could see swarms of baby cats surrounding your bait--looked like the big balls of shad you see on Cumberland or in the KY River. I believe those catfish absolutely decimated the hellgrammite (go-devil) population in the creek. I know it's a waste of time to seine for those anymore, at least it has been for me.

Couple that with the high water we've had for several years during the spawn, and you've got a pretty tough challenge for the biologists. They say in their own publications they know stocking has its limitations in creeks.

The good news? The most recent surveys show promising results in both size and numbers of smallmouth. Right now, if you find the suckers, you find the smallmouth--they are staging for the spawn in the "scours" next to current.

One thing that's not so cool is there is evidence that some smallmouth are leaving the creek and heading into the KY River. Water quality may be an issue...

Anyway - I'll keep going too. :-)

JCB

[redneckshadrap]

"One thing that's not so cool is there is evidence that some smallmouth are leaving the creek and heading into the KY River. Water quality may be an issue..."

I look for some more transmitter studies to surface in a couple of yrs. The water quality will continue to decline until the Water Treatment plants are upgraded to handle the amount of over populated subdivisons that feed into the South Fork. The North Fork has held it's own, so far. But as you see devlopement up and down US 460, look for it to go on a downhill spiral as well.

The flood did do some damage in 97, but the spawn busters we had the yrs following that really hurt. Canoe Ky and the other canoe trip outfitters have also contributed to the increased fishing pressure along with the wide wide world of websites, mine and the American Whitewater included.

But, time on the water will give me a better picture in the next month,,,

Stay tuned

Billy





Redneckshadrap
www.thecreekbank.com
[email protected]