worst trip to barkley ever

fished 4 days. we caught a total of 26 fish and 9 keepers. thats usually a morning total this time of year at barkley. i tried to make them bite in the bushes the first day and of course got no takers. i hate fishing points at barkley but thats what we turned to. i come to barkley this time of year to pitch and throw buzzbaits so i was truly dissapointed. on a side note. the fishing was picking up as we left. we had 5 good keepers on the last day. but no real monsters. my dad caught 10 keepers yesterday with the front moving in. his buddy lost a what he said is a monster back in the brush also. soooo im sure they are moving back now that i have left. i have been coming to barkley for quite a few years now and have never done this terrible. oh well, i guess there is next year. on a side note, we had wonderful camping weather and a really good fish fry!!

I was on I-24 Saturday around noon and looked at Barkley from the interstate and knew I had just eliminated a whole lake this past weekend. Extremely muddy and with the way the temp dropped as well the fish had to move out of the shallows. Tough fishing conditions for sure and too bad you did not have a chance for the trip that you planned. Chunknwind and I had the same deal but over 7 days a couple of weeks back. High cold muddy water pretty much eliminated Barkley for us all week and that was where we planned to fish all week when we scheduled the trip back in January. We both learned a valuable lesson that trip, "Don't expect too much or expect it to be like it was the same week last year". We did both and after 7 days of boating a bunch of fish, we never had any single day like we had several of last year. Funny thing was the week prior we had fished Barren for 2 days and landed exactly 1 fish and would have killed for any of our single days at Ky to be at Barren. Our expectations were so high that anything short of 5+ pounders each day would been a dissapointment. We live and we learn. We will be back next year doing it all over again for sure.

I thought the bite on Barkley was pretty good this past weekend. You just had to fish extremely slow. The creek channel drops were a hot ticket for me - but I think I was getting lucky. I think the high winds had more to do with stirring the lake up than the rains.

It is a huge difference once you go through the channel. I couldn't believe how clear ky was. I fish these lakes quite a bit, I do fairly good, but every once in a while I just hit it all wrong and have a terrible few days. I guess it all evens out.

Well Col...you have hit it dead on my friend. We fished it Thurs-Saturday and it was only to get out of the crazy wind and to find some lower pressured areas away from the FLW boys.

Then Saturday afternoon we went over to KY and blistered them by comparison. You could say that we saved the trip by making that move. Still our numbers and size were well below average. It will get better.

guess i should have went to kentucky. however, its hard to leave barkley because it has been soooo good to me in the past. its also hard because out of all the years i have been there, i have only been to kentucky once. i only had 4 days to fish so i did not have a ton of time to make a switch. i still enjoyed being off of work and fishing for four days.

do you guys think the fish will still be up for the holiday weekend of 24,25,26?

I think you will need to fish a little deeper by then. You may catch a few up shallow, but I think the majority of the fish will be dropping back down and starting to get into summer feeding patterns.

[QUOTE=bigwormy;325790]do you guys think the fish will still be up for the holiday weekend of 24,25,26?[/QUOTE]

I think you will still have fish spawning until the end of the month. The way Dave Stewart explained in in the boat on Monday convinced me of this. With all the fluxuations in water levels and temps this spring, fish were in shallow ready to spawn then back out due to changes, then shallow then back out. With the full moon around the 23rd, my guess is the last wave of spawners will be up then. Just my guess.

I fished Barkley last Wed. and we ended up with a couple good fish my nieghbor had one over 6. We tried the backs of the bays but no luck all of our fish came off points and channel banks. Thursday we fished on Ky, Man what a GREAT day we had around 2 and a half limits in 6 hours but we never found that kicker fish. Yesterday day was a good day but still no monster fish. Dont know what i'm doing wrong????
Elwood did call me and tell me to stay off Barkley and East Ky last week. said his ppl were going to get in touch with my ppl. He and I are suppose to fish next Thursday " I wonder which side of the lake he will let me fish" LOL!!!!

my dads buddy got one 5.13 yesterday on a lizard back in pockets.

The big bass are definitely starting to hit. The week before last I was catching short fish after short fish, this week I have had lower numbers but way more keepers. Since last saturday I have had several over five, and one over 6. Still no patterns are producing any better for me than others. I have caught the bigger ones on sallow crankbaits of points, jigs on drops, lizzards in backs of bays, and spinner baits on lips of drops.

I whole heartedly agree. This was our toughest trip in ever!!! Going now for about 7 or 8 yrs. And the only thing to compare was maybe a fall trip about 5 yrs ago. The only bite was in the back. I fished the backs so hard I could almost predict which bush a fish would be in. A few on spinnerbait out infront when the cloud would finally sneek out but flippin and pitchin' was it for my dad and me. Thanks to offdtop for the help on what to throw just about all on a crawl. I must be a terrible fishermen because I couldn't find the right leadin banks,of course didn't want to try very much. That's not what I waitted all year for! Found I lot of fish at all levels but couldn't get them to bite. Barkley looked like chocolate milk Sat. when we put in. Cleared up nice throught out the week, love the color bye the end. Got a 5.7, 3.4, 3.1 and several 2-3s, but definetly no number comparsion from yrs past. Only 16 to 25 fish aday and that is a SUPER LOW # for barkley for this time normally, it was so dishearting/disappointing. Ramps REALLY crowded when we got there and about Tues. or wed. dead, including all the hotels around us and ours had several cancels. We stayed this was our yearly vacation and I still rather be there than back home workin'. :(