Back from KY lake...........No monsters, but a few that got away :)
Fished 1/2 day Friday, Saturday and 1/2 day Sunday ( 09/28 - 09/30).
Friday:
Only caught a few on Friday 12 or so, but only fished 3-4 hours. Fished Sugar and Rhodes. The shad is THICK in both of those bays, but we didn't find too many fish on them. I bet they are there, but I just didn't get them dialed in.
I did have some fun with some topwater on Friday. Lots of BLOWUPS, but only 1 hook up on it. All fish were caught on a Red Eye shad. The hilight of Friday was a 10lb catfish on a redeye shad. I also caught a few smallies, which was fun.......No size, only 2 that would have kept, and those barely.
Saturday:
Morning: Put in at Sugar bay at 6:00AM ct. Fished Sugar bay hard for 2 or so hours. Shad was STACKED thick. Only caught 1 fish. BUMMER. Made a run to Smith Bay.....fished hard for 2-3 hours.......No fish. Again, shad were STACKED up. Moved to another area in Smith and caught 22 in 1 hour. 5 would have kept, for about 12 lbs or so.
I Smith I saw some blowups, and went to investigate. I threw a shakey head towards the blowups and caught 6 on 6 casts. I then switched to red eye shad, and continued to POUND them. Most folks are burning the red eye, but I found that I was catching them by stop/go/burn combinations. I think the erratic and stop/go really got them going.
I will tell you this too......a REALLY good rod makes all the difference with that bait. I could feel the wobble, and then with the stop, I could feel the wobble stop. With a gentle lift, the fish was there. WEIRD bite, but man, was it fun. ALL 22 fish came off the red eye shad or the shakey head. Actually, I think I caught most of them on the red eye after the initial 6. I caught all these, as my wife was really interested in her book :) :) .
Pulled off and went to lunch:
After lunch we went back to the room......
Evening:
We headed back out around 4:00pm....launching from Poplar Creek. Headed to Nickel Branch. Caught a few fish in there, but no keepers. After about an hour, we headed to Demumbers. Demumbers is one of my favorite bays, but the last few falls it has let me down. I've only had 1 good fall trip there in the last 3-4 years. I was let down again this time, only catching 3-4 fish in Demumbers.
Fish in Nickel Branch were caught on shakey head. Fish in Demumbers were caught on red eye shad.
At Dusk, we ran back to Poplar Creek, where I fished a few areas there. We caught no fish in Poplar Creek.
Totals for the day 30, with 5 that would have kept.......
Sunday:
We ended up at South Barkley, using the Calhoon Ramp. Not a bad ramp. Fished a couple bays RIGHT off the main river. These bays come out of 40 ft of water into 2 ft.....QUICKLY. I managed to catch 4-5 smallie, and a couple spots. I lost what would have been a 5 or 6lb smallie at the boat. GREAT fight, and GREAT fish.....but no cigar this time.
Ended up fishing for 6 hours and boating 10 or so fish. I easily missed 5 or 6 more, so it could have been a banner day.
After loading the boat, we spent the next 2 hours on the REAL reason for this trip. Driving around the "neighborhoods" around Calhoon. There are 5-6 areas that I've been looking at with a mind to purchase a place. I'm not ready yet, but I did take information for 10-12 places, and want to call and get a "feel" for asking prices, etc, etc.
Maybe one of these days.
All in All, I had a GREAT time and spent some quality time with my wife on the lakes.
Later,
Geo
