KY Lake Report 4/21-23

[MagikSmallie]

Well I took my dad out to KY Lake, he hadn't been since the 70's. Thursday we put in at KenLake and hit some bays to the north on the LBL side. Found the water stained and 62-65 degrees, perfect really. Pick up a couple nice ones right off the bat slow rolling a white spinnerbait in about 12' on a chunk rock bank, one was around 4 lbs. Caught 1 or two more on a spinnerbait but then never could get another bite on it, even with the wind. Which blew pretty hard all three days, at times it calmed down but really delt with 15-25 mph the whole time. Made for some rough main lake runs. But we found a bank in one of the bays where we caught maybe 15 in about 7 minutes lol it was alot of fun, they were all 2-2 1/2 pounds. We fished that bank alot the first two days caught around 40 of our fish off that bank mostly on a shaky head but dad caught several on a jig. He caught mostly SM on the jig. The third day was calling for 30 mph wind so we went to the Blood River and caught 20 all on Shaky Heads and yhese were better fish than we had been catching. We fished till a nasty storm ran us off and our trip was over. We caught 36, 30, and 20 for the three days, and had absolute blast!

[cooter 33]

Was the of the lake high? Lakes in northern half of the state are terribly high with possibilities of going higher.

[MagikSmallie]

Im not sure about toda but Friday it seemed to be right at summer pool and then yesterday I think they started pulling, I heard they were going to try and drop it a foot this weekend but i know they were pulling it this morning when we went over the river below the dam. We did get alot of rain though.

[davidsa]

As the rain was mostly above KYL I think, I would not expect a flood. But, given the flooding on the Ohio which did get hit, I don't think Barkley/KYL will be able to drain into the OHIO which I woulid think would drive them higher. I'm scheduled to come down this weekend but going to let weather and Dave's Thursday report make my decision. Just too far for me to drive if conditions and weather are not acceptable.

Sounds like MagikSmallie had a great trip in spite of the weather! well done! What would we do without the shakey head!

[mhall]

Nice report, I'm glad you were able to take your Dad and put him in some fish.

[cooter 33]

Headed down sunday for a few days. Depends on daves report also. Dave needs to wave that magic wand of his.

[Carter1]

That sounds like a great father/son trip. Glad y'all had such a good time and the fish cooperated.

[Dave Stewart]

Thanks for the report. Wind has not been below double digits in so long I can't remember what it was like to go through a day without getting beat up or having to hide out of the wind. Despite these conditions, bass fishing has been good overall with some 6's and 5's in the boat as well as lots of bucks and just keepers.

Not sure where this is going reference water conditions.....record flood warnings are out all along the Ohio...lots of flooding here in the local area...we have had 6-8 inches of rain locally over the past few days and expecting 6 or more inches additional rain through Wednesday. The TVA is dropping the lake in anticipation of a big influx of water with the rains....they have had 9-10 gates open for a number of days now...they are projecting to drop the lake another couple of feet in their forecast over the next couple of days which would put the lake at about 2 feet above winter pool....that certainly would not help the fish that are on the beds at all, but luckily, I don't think the majority of the LM have spawned yet because my best patterns have still been on staging locations over the past week.

Bottom line here is we are all just gonna have to wait and see what the near future brings...one thing for sure, we need to keep a lot of folks in our prayers right now....lots of folks have received a lot of damage and lost a lot in these storms and high waters and it looks as though there will be more.

[lilmule]

Most of the rain has been goingjust to the north ,Benten where Dave is at has had twice as much as me,and just above him twice as much as he has so most has missed us or the bulk of it.
Gates are wide open,have been for awhile,lake with some rain raises and if you catch it at 357 or 358 going up next day at 358=359 is a decent bite,day after when they **** it down a ft and a half it plain *****.
Many largies are shallow,spawning tend to shut down some move out a tad,most get super spooky.Backs of bays im in are past 70 f,but shallow westerly bays.
A great deal of the vegetation south of me around newjohnsonville appears to be late in coming,there are some rhumors that it got sprayed last fall?

[Dave Stewart]

Vegation is late because of the early floods and colored water...was no spraying. I have never seen the TVA **** the bottom out of the lake this time of year like they are doing now, especially with record flooding forecasted on the Ohio River downriver from us.....you have to remember...Ky Lake is connected to Barkley so the lakes have to be relatively equal in levels...and there has been just about as much rain up river on the Cumberland as there has been here...and it has to go somewhere....just because there was not that much rain in the upper Tennessee valley does not mean the flood is not coming.

[lilmule]

I agree flooding plays a part,and that while most has been going north it is slowly getting more southerly and more wet,we arnt out the bag yet.
As for spraying they did spray the paris landing state park area,cove from swimming pool to main lake swimming area.Result was less american lotus in deeper water but not gone and some lilly pads replacing the lotus in shallower water,still thick in the back end.Beavers close this off so early in the season not accessable via boat.
At around same time they planted stakebeds,you are most likly correct about the main lake veggies,for some reason my neighbors pond which is chock full of lotus hasnt come up and its normally topped in late march,cold front?
Same thing down back end of birdsong not up normally is that is several hundred acres of lotus.Last years floods thinned it but didnt kill it.
And yes sucking the bottom out,does effect the bite.Kina figgure not only flood but major current hurts veggies,right now more than niagra falls is going thru hourly.

[Dave Stewart]

The spraying at Paris Landing State Park was well documented and even saw it on tv...not a big secret...I was referring to the rumor of wholesale spraying in the New Johnsonville area you indicated.....fact is that in these days and times, any wholesale spraying would be on Utube within a couple of hours...just the way it is in these times of video phones etc. We had good grass beds started last year in all the bays on the north end, but the big flood and muddy water took it out.