Back from KYL/Barkley- not much happening

Fished Kentucky Saturday to Wednesday of this week and made it to Little River one evening as well. I fish the lakes 3 to 4 times per year over the last 10 years.

I can honestly say this trip was the worst fishing I've ever experienced on either lake. Saturday and Sunday after the cold front was just plain terrible catching; think Cumberland on a bad day:) The fishing picked up a little on Tuesday and Wednesday. I had 6 fish on a swimbait early on Tuesday morning fishing main lake points. After the sun got up we quit and went golfing as the flat water made it clear that golfing was more productive.

Wednesday I had a 5lber on a buzzbait before sun-up and got bit on a Sammy each our first 3 spots on the way out the creek but then all bites stopped.

We found plenty of shad in the bays but nothinig chasing them. I checked my records from last year in late November and found the water temp higher last year then the 58 I saw Wednesday morning. Last year though the fish were busting shad like crazy everywhere.

We had a ball golfing and getting away from things but catching not so much. I try and learn something every time I go fishing. My takeaway from the trip was that if the weather is abnormally hot, with rain abnormally low and Dave is reporting scattered fish then this probably means marginal fishing. I'd hoped the cold front of last week would have turned them ON and this was why I went ahead and went. It had the opposite affect as best I can tell. With the crazy weather we have in Kentucky, I've decided to hold Friday's next spring open for a possible trip to KYL but until I see good fishing reports and good forecasts I'm going to abstain from the long drive.

Not sure why you would think the bite would be different..I have been reporting this bite for 5 weeks now. Our water temps did finally drop with the cold front...but we have had high pressure behind it every day this week....blue skies and flat water. We have another front coming in today and favorable weather in the forecast for next week, hopefully it will pick up.

If you will look at your last year's record, you will also see the same week last year the lake was over summer pool from heavy rains from a hurricane. The water had come up and was in the bushes, this put water over the grass that had grown on the flats earlier with the water down and it was a feeding frenzy out there for sure.

Dave. I was being overly optimistic that the cold front would bring the water temps down and turn the fish on immediately:) I'd certainly been reading your report leading up to the visit and felt the fish have to bite sometime.

Last year I visited the week prior to Thanksgiving and the fish were active. Only problem I found was gun season in bloom. This year I was trying to get out before gun season. I recall gun shots too near my boat last fall for comfort. I don't know which way the gun was pointed but I'm not sure all the hunters cared if they pointed toward water.

I know what you mean on the guns...last year on opening day I had two rounds hit the water near my boat....got our attention for sure....that is scary.

I fished Barkley for the first time ever Thursday and Friday. We boated about 40 bass largemouth smallmouth and white bass all on bandit crankbait. We only caught one sm and lm about 3 1/2 lbs but the majority of the fish were 12"-15". I was thrilled with the trip. The only thing I regret was not getting on the water until 7 each day. I will come back in the spring for a few days.

Congratulations, you had a good trip depending on how many of those fish were keeper sized with the bite the way it has been lately. Normally this time of year you would have had that many LM on the first day, if not the first morning on topwater lures on just an average day bite. My clients yesterday would have had around 14-15 lbs on the best 5 but they had to work hard for them and the numbers was low. I saw a report that one of my friends had 19lbs on his best 5 yesterday so the bite may be starting to pick up...let's hope so...though I had a lot of reports from Thursday and Friday of folks still struggling to put numbers and keepers in the boat.

[QUOTE=DaveStewart;432728]Congratulations, you had a good trip depending on how many of those fish were keeper sized with the bite the way it has been lately. Normally this time of year you would have had that many LM on the first day, if not the first morning on topwater lures on just an average day bite. My clients yesterday would have had around 14-15 lbs on the best 5 but they had to work hard for them and the numbers was low. I saw a report that one of my friends had 19lbs on his best 5 yesterday so the bite may be starting to pick up...let's hope so...though I had a lot of reports from Thursday and Friday of folks still struggling to put numbers and keepers in the boat.[/QUOTE]
we worked hard all weekend, but scratched out some pretty good stuff. it got better each day, but that is due to more focus on the previous day and dialing stuff in. also landed almost every species in the lake as well. cats,large and smallies,whites,yellows,drum,stripers,gizzard shad,and ...musky.

[QUOTE=Embrey;432788]we worked hard all weekend, but scratched out some pretty good stuff. it got better each day, but that is due to more focus on the previous day and dialing stuff in. also landed almost every species in the lake as well. cats,large and smallies,whites,yellows,drum,stripers,gizzard shad,and ...musky.[/QUOTE]

Yea.......those two muskie were pretty cool. I've never caught one on KY and to have 2 caught on a trip was pretty neat.

It was a tough trip........we did manage keepers every day, but none of the normal stuff I do this time of year worked out. I did catch a few on a sammy, which was pretty cool.

Later,

Geo

I had my first musky last fall. I wonder if the musky population is growing at KYL or if it is just a fall thing?

Very doubtful you guys were catching muskies....more likely chain pickeral...the population of them here has been increasing quite a bit over the past few years.

The one I caught was prob 15-18 inches........and silvery, so I thought it was a muskie, but I bet it was a chain pickerel.........

Thanks,

Geo

Well, they do have teeth, they do fight good and they will take your lure so they are only bad if you are fishing in a tournament or they take your 15.00 Sammy...LOL