Just back from KY and Barkley......

Actually.....I should say Barkley.......I never made it to KY :)

Fishing was pretty good Friday. I have not been down there for a little while, so it took us a while to "figure them out". It helped that I got some info from Dave Stewarts Reports and I also talked to him about some whites and yellows that I wanted to harvest. Never did get on those, mostly because we didn't fish KY.

At any rate.....we found shad STACKED up on creek channel banks. We followed these channel banks back about 100 yards from the mouth, throwing crankbaits, shakey heads, and redeye shad baits.

Again.....All on Barkley. We ended up catching 35 on Friday, with 9 keepers.....top 5 were a little over 14lbs. NOT a bad day.

Saturday was a lot tougher. We caught 6 dinks all day. At around 5:00pm we headed back to the ramp, but decided to fish on last "favorite" spot. On that particular area, the river channel bends REALLY tight to a bluff wall, leaving a 50ft area that is nice and flat, and about 15-20ft deep. This area was LOADED up with shad, and we caught 9 fish, including 2 keeper smallmouth in 45 minutes.

Friday, we fished between Donaldson and Dover on South Barkley.

Saturday, we fished between Poplar Creek and Prizer Point on South Barkley.

One thing I noticed........It seems like South Barkley had a lot more shad "doing their thing" and bass busting and chasing them.

I'm not too sure if current, weather, or what other conditions changed on Saturday to make it so "tough". I also wonder if there is any truth the the fact that the south part of those lakes could be "further along". That is what I was told by a few folks and I think that if is that much shallower, maybe it does cool of and warm up quicker, leading the the fish to transition first.......

Finally.....this was mostly a "fishing expedition" type trip for me. I've never been down towards Dover, and I've not fished passed the prison on North Barkley. I think we added about 20-30 new spots I definitely will be fishing next weekend, and the 10 days in October.

AND I really cannot wait until the spring.

Later,

Geo

Nice report Geo, I haven't fished Barkley in years but like you spring time it the time for me.Chuck

We were on N. Barkley on Friday...ledge bite was slow in the morning with some dinks...front started moving in late morning so we went shallow and busted them in 2-3 ft of water...lots of short fish but a few keepers too.

Saturday was tough bite because you were post frontal...lots of folks had a tough bite on Saturday.

Hey Dave......Mark ( thebassman30) said he talked to you Saturday...

He said he gave you some props for helping me out with some ideas for this weekend.

Funny thing.......I rarely outfish him......and I really think a lot of it has to do with the class and the prep time. Martinson and I had a really good day Friday, and it was made even better when we got back to the hotel and started comparing notes with a few club tourney guys that were really struggling.

So what do you think about KY and Barkley south of Fenton.......do they actually get started earlier in the spring and fall.......

Finally, while I'm not glad everyone struggled Saturday, I'm glad it was not only me. I still wonder if we had went back south, if we would have done anything.

Thanks......and THANKS for the info AND the info in the class.

Later,

Geo

just got back my self went down wed. moring had 6 keepers wed. biggest was 5+ one over 4 and the rest was just keepers thursday was slow small keepers friday had a better day with a few 4s saturday and sunday was a joke i did have 3 small keepers saturday and one 3.44 today lost a couple of good ones today ... never left eddy creek biggest came on green pumkin brush hog, had good luck on the golden sexy shad, and sundays bite was on a white spinner ,, all in all caught pleanty of them 14 inch 2 1/2 pounders lol