Hoosier Boy looking for good Kentucky lakes..

I'm curious about some of the lakes on the way to Dale Hollow from Evansville, IN.

Since I'm basically taking a whole week off work next May to come down to Dale Hollow, my buddy Mark and I were considering hitting a couple of lakes along the way. He's mentioned wanting to maybe fish a local tourney or two (which I have never done before), and I figure if I have at least fished once or twice on all of the lakes near Evansville, we'd certainly have a better shot.

With a quick look at Google Maps, I found several that I've heard of before, but know next to nothing about.

[B]Kentucky:[/B]

Rough River State Park

Barren River Lake

Nolin Lake

Green River Lake

Lake Cumberland - I've heard the lake is way, way down because they lowered it to keep the dam from failing and repair it...so this one is probably out.

[B]Tennessee:[/B]

Old Hickory Lake

J Percy Priest

Cordell Hull Reservoir


Are any of these lakes worth a visit? Worth only fishing Dale Hollow 5 days instead of 6 days good? We may hit Kentucky Lake or Barkley regardless (I've fished there before), but I'm all about discovering new fishin holes. As with wanting to catch a big Smallie, I've always wanted to catch a big Striper too, so if these lakes have them, the more the better.

In May I would fish Barren, has a good number of big largemouth, they don't jump in the boat but in May you stand a good chance of getting on them, it has a healthy population of smallmouth, I don't think it has any strippers, Barren would be my choice. JMO

Gary

Can't give ya much on advice on how to catch em...but if its stripers youre looking for lake cumberland would be the way to go.... a lot of other guys on this board can give you some good advice on findin em

if it was me id make a detour to barkley and ky lake

Not so fast there, neighbor ... LOL !!! While it is true that Lake Cumberland is down 40ft from normal Summer Pool levels ... it's still a huge & deep lake. It's still accessable by many ramps around the lake, and it's still a contender for best Smallmouth lake in KY. All they did, when they dropped the lake for work on the dam .... was make a 50,000 acre lake turn into a 35,000 acre lake !!! The drop was actually only about 10ft lower than normal Winter Pool.

Read here : [url]http://fw.ky.gov/pdf/2010fishingforecast.pdf[/url] for guidance on the potential of the lakes you care to try ;)

... Pappy

Barren

green river............... it has big largemouths big smallmouths and big muskies and they all can be cought. great lake to go to.

[QUOTE=crappiepappy;395698]Read here : [URL]http://fw.ky.gov/pdf/2010fishingforecast.pdf[/URL] for guidance on the potential of the lakes you care to try ;)... Pappy[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the great link, Pappy.

I'm also glad to hear that Cumberland isn't as bad as I thought. I guess I just hear "dam failure" and assume all hell is breaking loose LOL.

From what I've heard and read now, I'm torn between J Percy Priest and either Barren or Green River. Of course they're on totally different routes to Dale Hollow....Decisions, decisions!! :D

Green was hot in 2009. Lots of above average Largemouth, Smallmouth & Kentucks too. Of course there are some huge Musky as well. I fished Green heavily this year & done a lot better there than I did at Cumberland,Barren or Dale Hollow all together. It should be hot again this year as well if we have the right kind of weather & a lot less rain. It truly was more enjoyable for me this year than ever before. Try it you'll definitley like it. Good Luck