Looking for a lake to take the canoe out on...

Looking for some local knowledge here....planning on coming down to KY maybe 2-2.5hrs. from Cincy and trying to figure out a lake to take my canoe on.

Do any of the mid-size lake like Cave Run, Rough River, Herrington have parts that would be better to take the canoe as to avoid getting tossed around. Obviously smart enough to keep out of the way and jump from cove to cove just looking for a little input. Primarily a small mouth fisherman but largies, crappie, hybrids, stripers, etc. all ok with me.

So if you had 2 in a canoe, what would ya do this weekend?

Thanks for any help.

TJ

How long do you plan to be here? You can canoe at most of the lakes; even the larger lakes like Barkley and Dale Hollow. They all have coves. I would check Google Earth and look at the lakes you may be interested in. Your issue would be finding places to put in and take out for a canoe. I would probably recommend against Rough for a canoe.

I took my kayak on Barkley and had a blast. You just have to stay in the coves; easy to do at Barkley. I think Dale Hollow is easy too and that is one of the best small mouth lakes around.

You might even consider Elkhorn Creek near Frankfort. Check out website for Canoe Kentucky. This is a good small mouth creek.

I agree with Elkhorn Creek. Go to [url]www.canoeky.com[/url] to get main stem creek info. Call them for water levels, fishing reports, etc. Good smallmouth fishing in that stretch.

Elkhorn looks pretty nice....hopefully the water levels are down, I'll call them and check later today. Do have a 5hp trolling motor for the Scanoe which never hurts, plus paddling gets old after about the first half hour.

Any other suggestions out there? Or places to possibly put in @ Elkhorn if the water levels are reasonable.

Thanks for the responses guys I appreciate the help.

TJ

What town or city are you going to be close to or staying in when you come down? Elkhorn is definately a good suggestion, along with some of the other creeks or rivers around. If you could let us know where you will be we can help you out with a spot to put in.

Those are good suggestions but there is alot of fishing pressure on that creek. I would recommend Tygarts Creek in Cater County about a 2 hour drive from Cincy. It has little to no pressure from fishermen. It is almost complete unacessable from the banks. I fish a 15 mile or so strech that takes about 8 to 10 hrs to float. The creek holds about every major spieces of game fish and if your lucky you might even hook a monster muskie. I caught 3 over 36" on my last trip down. There were a group of 6 of us in canoes and kayaks and caught no less than 70 fish on that stretch. Everything from Bluegill, largemouth, to muskie on worms, rooster tails, and lipless cranks. Plus you can stay at Carter Caves State Park. That is were you would be getting out of the creek. It's very convienent.
There is an episode on Ky outdoors of Tim Farmer floating the creek.

Thanks for the info medic that sounds awesome! We will definitely plan a trip there sometime this spring...I think with the rain coming through today that we are going to stick to a lake.

That is exactly the type of info I was looking for, love finding honey holes in places that most people can't access. Not much experience in the Muskie department but would love to get into it, I am a thrill seeker and I can see myself now getting pulled downstream by a Muskie and loving every minute of me trying to figure out how to land it with one of my friend gawking onboard...

Right now I think the plan is go down and check out Cave Run and put in where 519 crosses the lake on the East end. Since I do have a 5hp trolling motor and two batteries I think we will head West there look to be some nice coves there on some of the smaller fingers and I think we will go down about 1-2 miles and work our way back.

Has anyone fished that part of the lake? Any recommendations on what has been working, planning on targeting some largies with rooster tails, nightcrawlers, and was even thinking about picking up some minnows. We were going to stop at Jerry's bait shop down there, is that a good place - it's on US60 I believe. Planning to stay in Morehead on Saturday night after fishing most of Saturday and praying the rain holds off or we will find a bridge to park under and fish anyways.

Thanks all!

TJ

IM Sent

If you are putting in Cave Run off of 519, you will be better off putting in up in the river. The fishing is 1000 times better and traffic shouldn't be that bad. Two boat ramps in that area to use are Bangor and Blackwater. Paragon is a good area too. Good size crappie are being caught there and with all the standing timber a conoe will be perfect.

Thanks all! We are planning on putting in at Bangor now after receiving everyone's helpful feedback. Look to be some small fingers and coves there that should be good and are still within screaming distance of a ramp in case my ride along buddy decides to jump ship lol. Hoping to land a few nice bass and maybe an accidently Muskie (have never caught one before, I'm a smallmouth angler by trade - or at least thats what I call myself) - will post a report once we get back Sunday or Monday.

If anyone is in that part of the crick on Saturday feel free to drop by and say hey we'll be in a 17' Ram X Scanoe with a trolling motor hopefully reeling in fish like crazy, **** sometimes my optimism gets in the way of my realism haha...

Thanks for the help everyone you have made the planning for this trip so much easier and I have a much better idea of what baits to use, what areas I can throw the canoe in at, etc. MUCH APPRECIATED!

I used to take my canoe out on Laurel Lake when I lived in London. Mine was just me and a paddle though. It all looked good on a map until I rounded the point. I found out the hard way that there tends to be a strong breeze that blows through the main channel. For a while, I was a little worried that I was going to be stuck on the other side of the lake. So be prepared for that on the big lakes.

A decent sized lake for a canoe that's close to Cincy is Kincaid in Falmouth. It has a 10hp limit on motors, so not a lot of wakes to tip you. And if you get tired of the lake, you've always got the Licking right there (and it looks nothing like the Licking you see across from Cincy).