Bass fishing at Peabody WMA?

Hey guys! First post here but have been reading for a few weeks. Lot of great info on here! This is my first year fishing from a boat (restored an old fishing boat this winter) and have been looking for trolling motor only places to fish. I bought my Peabody permit and have fished on the Ohio county side several times but have had limited luck. I fished South lake in the spring and put together a decent stringer throwing a spinnerbait at the laydowns along the banks. Since then I have finished a couple other lakes near there but haven't had much luck since the weather has warmed up. What patterns do you focus on? Its been a little overwhelming to me fishing something as large as these lakes, lol...I know these are small compared to the big lakes, but I grew up fishing small farm ponds and haven't really been shown how to target bass on a decent size lake.

Would appreciate any advice or techniques you could give me? Also I live in Owensboro and would love any suggestions on other places to fish within an hour or so of here. Nice to meet everyone and thanks for your help.

[QUOTE=young2001;373687]Hey guys! First post here but have been reading for a few weeks. Lot of great info on here! This is my first year fishing from a boat (restored an old fishing boat this winter) and have been looking for trolling motor only places to fish. I bought my Peabody permit and have fished on the Ohio county side several times but have had limited luck. I fished South lake in the spring and put together a decent stringer throwing a spinnerbait at the laydowns along the banks. Since then I have finished a couple other lakes near there but haven't had much luck since the weather has warmed up. What patterns do you focus on? Its been a little overwhelming to me fishing something as large as these lakes, lol...I know these are small compared to the big lakes, but I grew up fishing small farm ponds and haven't really been shown how to target bass on a decent size lake.

Would appreciate any advice or techniques you could give me? Also I live in Owensboro and would love any suggestions on other places to fish within an hour or so of here. Nice to meet everyone and thanks for your help.[/QUOTE]
Try using a graph if you have one. Drive around the lake trying to find structure on the bottom. I have always caught fish on Prowler tubes and Hook Some Bass jigs in natural colors.

I don't know if they get too much pressure or what, but those lakes are hard to fish. I know there are monsters in there, just don't know how to catch em

[QUOTE=Trophyhunter8;373719]I don't know if they get too much pressure or what, but those lakes are hard to fish. I know there are monsters in there, just don't know how to catch em[/QUOTE]


Don't know either...seems like a lot of the people I see there are fishing for crappie or blue gill, although there were quite a few there this spring. I think I am going to try and focus on the 5 foot to 20 foot range this weekend. I have mainly just fished the shallows and this will be a little new to me but will give it a shot.

I used to fish them twice every year,spring and fall. There are so many different type lakes at peabody. Shallow lakes,deep lakes. Different colored water lakes. Lakes with stickups etc. I have caught bass but not easy to find them. I have had the best luck with texas rigged worms usually in natural colors. The biggest bass i have caught was at the back of a lake where there was a small channel that led back to a big flat. Used buzz baits across the flats and caught 10 bass up to 4 pds doing this one day. Try as many different lakes as you can and as often as you can. Experiment with different lures. I live in louisville and since i have heard that a lot of the land was sold there i have not been back. Hope this helps and good luck. Also if the bass arent hitting go bluegill fishing. They can grow huge in those lakes, up to 12 inches ! Maybe they are shellcrakers i dont know but they get big ! Jc

South lake is a little different to fish now since they raised the dam. The spots we usually drilled them are about 7 ft -10 ft deeper or so now. There used to be a big tire pile on the left side that was shallow but is now deeper. The upper end by island lake has a ton of tires in it and is flat. Thats a good spot also. There is standing timber on the left around the bend, left side. Had a nice drop we tossed jigs into but that is now probably 40 ft deep there. throw senkos around the tire areas and jigs/ baby brushogs where it's a little deeper. We used to fish there every weekend but since the old man sold his farm in Grayson Co. It's a good drive to visit now and T-ville and Rough are alot closer for me. PM me and I'll give you a few more spots for Island and South.

I used to fish South and Island lakes every year. In the summer throw a buzzbait morning and evening, too bad you have to quite fishing there before dark, as I bet you could slay them at night on both those lakes. I have not fished them in a long time, since they sold off a lot of the other good spots in Peabody, South and Island get his real hard in the spring and early summer,and a lot of catch and eat people fish them. I do not know if KDFW stiil stocks them anymore, they did put trout in Island lake. fish it around the islands, use a c rig also and use a long leader, 4 to 5 ft as there is a lot of grass in both lakes, try in front of the standing timber on south a weightless senko type bait works good, just let is fall. Also in the spring spinner baits on the shallow end will produce. If you want to give those lakes a try I will gladley show you some good spots on those lakes, I live not far from them. Just PM me.Good luck. Also there is a hump om south lake that has produced some hawgs in the past.

Forgot to mention make sure your out by dark, they will try their best to ticket you for anything and they will lower the boom on you for that. It used to be 1/2 hr before and 1/2 after sunset but F&W don't understand what that means so just for your benefit be out by dark. Have PFD's too, they check regularly, I've been checked 2 times in one day

Thanks for letting me know that you have to be out of there by dark...was not aware of that at all. I fished way past dark one night on Twin Tiles lake so will make sure that doesn't happen again. Judging by everyones comments I will try some senkos and lizards the next time I am out there. I have mainly just fished cover and never really tried to focus on structure...part of growing up fishing farm ponds and small lakes I guess...but looks like I should start focusing on that especially this time of the year. Thanks a lot for all the info and want everyone to know I always practice catch and release , so no fear of someone cleaning out your honey hole...They don't get bigger if you don't put them back.

:eek: WHEN I USED TO GO I WOULD STAY FROM FRIDAY TO SUNDAY. I HAD NO IDEA YOU HAD TO BE OUT BEFORE DARK. GUESS I WAS LUCKY NOT TO HAVE BEEN CAUGHT !

I may be wrong but I think the only ones that matter are south and island. I've seen a bunch of people camp everywhere else. Of course most are private property now