Report from a week on Barkley

[swimjigboy]

Hello all, got down sat and left this morning to come home. What a strange trip! Get down there on Sat. and it is 41 degrees, rainy and water dropping like a rock! By tues sun came out and one full day of sun on Wed. and 80+. Thurs and fri were one second dark one second beautiful and now water rising again. Surface water temps all across the boards. ARE YOU SURE THIS IS May? Power fished all week. The reason we go down this time of yr is to flip and chuck a blade. Well this is what one should be doing this time of yr. Caught the most 3lbers ever but the numbers fell off the charts. Tough was the talk at every dock we were around. Did get a 6lb 13 oz and saw another boat catch a 8 1/2 about 100 yards from us. Best day was wed. with a little over 20lbs. but together we had less than 30 fish in boat a day and that was so weird on Barkley this time of year. To me the water seemed cold and high and to many places for fish to scatter too. Love 361 dislike 363!!! with cold weather. When you come down prepare a lot of rods on deck you can truly expect alittle everything and not what you expect. My guess is one can go fish shallow even in june this year? Once the weather heats up and stays so will the shallow guys. Disappointed again, already dreaming of next year. Floods, drought and floods again, what ever happen to the days 359-360 and yellow flowers? Good luck and be flexible.

[bigwormy]

I also went on my trip Monday through Friday, and you are dead on........weird trip. I go for the power fishing and buzzing the flowers and was disappointed yet again with no flowers. What was funny is I found a few flower patches in two cuts and caught three buzz fish off them.lol. My best day was tuesday with estimated20- 21 lbs. But didn't touch that again. My partner had two near 5 and a for sure 6 on a buzz in a flooded field. My dad found a different flooded field behind the bushes and wore them out Tuesday to thursday morning. Multiple 3-4 lb fish on buzz bait in a foot and half water. They were catching 15-18 keepers a day with most being back there. We power fished all trip in the backs and sides of bays. I have no idea where the bucks were. We caught more keepers than short fish it seemed. The day of the 20-21 lb bag, we only caught 11 fish and 10 were keepers. All caught in bushes and as far back as we could get the boat. I too can't wait til next year and I will pray hard that there will be flowers next year!!!!!!

[AllBoutBass]

well, i might as well give details to my trip too. Fished Barkley from Tuesday morning till Thursday evening. Tuesday my son and I put 60 bass in the boat, flipping 8 inch zoom lizards into brush back into every cove and residetial back water we could find. Water up into peoples back yards...we hit every bush and tree stumps. More 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 pounders i could count. nothing on top water, nothing cranking... a few on flukes... but the lizard just wore them out. Always have fun fishing this lake in May, even if conditions change from year to year. All hail the Barkley!! Fishing Patoka most of the year, because I livein Corydon... its a blast coming down here.