KY Lake crappie fishing ?

[darealbigcatman]

Going to KY Lake next weekend fishing out of Moors.I was wondering if anyone ever had any luck fishing this area(Big Bear) in the Fall for crappie.Also are the stake beds a productive area and if so how can I get a map of there locations?What is the best map of the lake in your opinion?What and where is the best Fall crappie fishing at on KY Lake?Thanks for any and all reply's.

[MsgMills]

was just at KY lake and all the stake beds I saw were out of the water about 4 to 5 feet in the coves. I did see one that was in a cove that was about 1 foot under the water and the stakes were in an area about 25 feet around. This was the only one I saw that was under the water. These were in Jonathan Creek and Sugar Bay, plus the water depth to get to these stakes beds that we saw was only about 1/2 to 1 1/2 feet deep. The one stake bed that I did see under water was in 4 feet. Good Luck

[Danny]

This time of year MSG is right, most stake beds are either super shallow or dry.

I know a couple of places I've found on Barkley that have deeper stake beds and this time of year they have about 4' on them. I couldn't even begin to try and describe where they are though.

BTW, MSG, how'd you do on your 2 day tournament? Now that your wallet is full of money, what's ya' gonna buy??

Danny

[Moose1am]

Check out www.kentuckyhydrografx.com

Pat Hahs of KFWD did a good job of mapping the lake in certain areas.

As for fall crappie... check the weeds if you can find any submergent vegetation. Black Crappie like to hide in the weeds. Most people fish for the White Crappie along the ledges. The Mouth of the creek where it drops into the River Channel can be good. If there are long sloping points you should check them out also. Underwater creek channels are good as they form a ledge or drop between the top of the flats and the bottom of the creek channel. Check the areas where the creek makes a big U turn as that's a good spot. Underwater humps can also produce if the top out above any thermocline. And check the current by checking with Generating schedule of the power plant at the ****. Fish turn on when they pull current to generate power. Fish the eddies when they pull lots of water through the ****. The fish won't want to fight the current so they will hide behind or around current breaking structure. The shad will be pulled along with the current and make easy pic kens for the sport fish. bass and stoppers and crappie.

As the water cools down to 50 deg f at the surface the crappie fishing should pick up in the bays. The white crappie won't go as shallow as they do in the spring when they are spawning but they will head into the bays to feed on the shad. Follow the gizzard and thread fin shad to find the big crappie.

Try trolling some 300 series bandit crank baits about 100ft behind the boat with some 10 lb test line. Go about 1.5 mph and that should put your baits at the correct depth for late summer crappie.

Think current, bait fish and dissolved oxygen during the pre fall turnover period.

Going to KY Lake next weekend fishing out of Moors.I was wondering if anyone ever had any luck fishing this area(Big Bear) in the Fall for crappie.Also are the stake beds a productive area and if so how can I get a map of there locations?What is the best map of the lake in your opinion?What and where is the best Fall crappie fishing at on KY Lake?Thanks for any and all reply's.

[artcarney_agr]

If you're just looking to fill the freezer, you could easily load the boat on yellow bass and white bass! They are all over the flats and backs of bays right now feeding on the gigantic balls of shad!

I was bass fishing this weekend and there were so many whites in the schools, I couldn't get my bait underneath them to catch the largemouth. Nearly every time I cast into the school to try and get underneath it, I'd hook a white and have to reel it in, and there would usually be a largemouth swimming along side it hoping to get whatever it was eating. It was frustrating, but kinda cool at the same time! A 1/4 oz chrome and blue Rattle Trap was what I was throwing. I'd say a man with two white grubs tied on could easily catch the whites two at a time!

I haven't heard much about the crappie lately. Good luck!

[Dave Stewart]

Most of the Crappie reports here put them around 12-20 ft deep on the creek channel ledges around the mouths of the bays...folks are fishing them by spider rigging with small jigs and small minnows. I had heard a few reports of some Crappie being taken around 5-7 ft of water in brush piles by casting Crappie jig early and late in the day.

You don't have to worry about all that stuff this weekend like current..(we have not had any real current since spring and it isn't about to happen now), 50 degree water temps...the water temps are in the high 70's, we don't have any thermocline so that is out too. There are plenty of threadfin shad in the creeks and bays right now.

You can find brush piles along the Big Bear Creek Channel coming into Big Bear. You can also find them along the creek channels in the feeder creeks of Big Bear (Buckhorn, Malcolm and King). Plenty of brush piles in the water in front of Camp Currie in Big Bear also..actually it is hard to not find brush piles in Big Bear Creek area. Also there are plenty of stake beds in the water...you just can't see them with your naked eye unless they are shallow...lots of these located in the front part of Big Bear as well as on the flat in Malcolm and King Creeks. These are put in by guides and locals...not the ones you see in the backs of the creeks with the white pvc markers.

[darealbigcatman]

Thanks for all the help.Darealbigcat