Barkley

[joey heller]

Just got home from 8days on Barkley. The worst trip ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Only fish I caught were flippin', but had to flip a million bushes!!! Tough does not begin to describe our trip. Fished Dam to Donaldson and it sucked! Tried leading banks, secondary pts., main lake pts, and 6" of water. Scattered fish is being PC. Boats everywhere thurs-sun. and thurs-sat. Dragged, spinner baited, swim jigs, lizards, baby br hogs, c-rigs, lipless,topwater and buzz baited the flowers. TOUGH! TOUGH! TOUGH! When sunny flipping ruled, cloudy was shaky head on pts or swim jig around flower and brush. Not What I expected! Great weather and light boat pressure during week was great! Except little to no fish. Been home for 2 days and still tired from working so hard. The last 6 yrs keep getting worse and worse. We all ways blame weather or water levels but no reason this time!
Sorry for bad report I went last week of march and last week of april this year and both were AWEFUL!

I had the same exact weekend

[Nitrobird]

I had the same weekend Thursday to Saturday. I got really frustrated and wore out. Long days when you ain't landing fish

[Owskiwoski]

I've fished Barkley for 20 plus years and it's just different now. The last 6-7 times I've been the fishing has been awful. I fished 6 days in the last month and have not caught a bass under 12 inches. Not many over either. That is very concerning that there aren't many small bass. I usually catch them non stop. I think I'm going to start going elsewhere.

[riverrat12]

Big difference in the river to.We may be seeing the impact bighead and silvers are causing during spawn. Just a thought.

[Moveon]

Big difference in the river to.We may be seeing the impact bighead and silvers are causing during spawn. Just a thought.

Those bighead and other non native species are taking a big toll on your native species and it's showing.

I read that in Australia they want to try to eliminate the CARP down there with a virus. We need to find a disease that's specific to these big head carp and grass carp and infect these non natives in our water ways with these. But extreme caution should be taken to understand the entire effects on the ecosystem before we try something like this.

Do these fish have a predator in their native lands that preys on their eggs or anything else in their life cycle? Importing more non native species to control the ones we already have may not be too wise though. One can't always predict what will happen in the wild once something like a non native species is introduced into a new habitat or niche.

[bigwormy]

We cancelled the trip. My buddies down there are catching some on a-rig. Having tough time with other baits. Having tough trip. I too have been going for years myself. We caught a lot of fish last year but no big guns. A couple little over 4. They were all shallow last year. I do agree however, it seems to be slowing somewhat. Used to cat h 14 inch footballs every cast it seemed. Fish are definitely in different spots than we used to catch them though. I used to spend a whole day in demumbers without having to leave. That's been a while now.

[SteveM4A1]

So I shouldn't waste my time coming down this weekend? Barkley was tough for me earlier in the year, so it wouldn't be any different than then. I'll be going south on kentucky lake towards the end of the month...maybe I will have better luck then

[Dave Stewart]

I am not having any problems catching fish on North Barkley...just not getting very many over 3 lbs except we have taken a couple of nice smallies over 4lbs there this week. Best bite for us is on staging banks and points. Getting prespawn and post spawn. Jigs, lizards, creature baits and shaky heads. Getting a lot of bedding fish picking up the baits and moving them in 3-7 ft of water, bedding deep.

Dave

[kylakefan]

I am not having any problems catching fish on North Barkley...just not getting very many over 3 lbs except we have taken a couple of nice smallies over 4lbs there this week. Best bite for us is on staging banks and points. Getting prespawn and post spawn. Jigs, lizards, creature baits and shaky heads. Getting a lot of bedding fish picking up the baits and moving them in 3-7 ft of water, bedding deep.

Dave

Dave,

Are you sure your not trying to drum up more business for your guide service? We fished Nothern Barkley for 11 hours Tuesday and boated 10 fish total following that exact pattern. Really didn't even have many more bites than the ones we caught.

[kc]

I'll throw my .02 cents worth in as one who fishes the big lakes fairly often. Last spring and this spring have been tough for me. 2 years back I had a great spring on size and numbers. Fishing other seasons I am not sensing a decline in numbers or quality but for some reason these last 2 springs the fish have not come up in numbers like I am accustomed to. I can't say I understand why but I noticed Dave's comment that he is finding the bedding fish deeper than usual. Even the early pre-spawn bite this year was scattered and the fish were "further out" in the bays than usual. Makes me wonder about fishing pressure in general. Maybe the fish are responding to all of the attention they get while shallow. The other thought I have this spring is it was wet early but not wet enough for way high water like we can get in the spring. We had that cold dry spell late march to mid-April and the water greatly cleared as the current dropped off. I know in the past I would look forward to the water rising with the spring rains and more color in the bays but as we were approaching prime spawn time the water conditions were far from that. The crappie were weird this spring on the big lakes too. Same kind of thing - they didn't seem to come in on the banks in numbers like they normally do. Something is definitely different...

kc

[GeoFisher]

I'll throw my .02 cents worth in as one who fishes the big lakes fairly often. Last spring and this spring have been tough for me. 2 years back I had a great spring on size and numbers. Fishing other seasons I am not sensing a decline in numbers or quality but for some reason these last 2 springs the fish have not come up in numbers like I am accustomed to. I can't say I understand why but I noticed Dave's comment that he is finding the bedding fish deeper than usual. Even the early pre-spawn bite this year was scattered and the fish were "further out" in the bays than usual. Makes me wonder about fishing pressure in general. Maybe the fish are responding to all of the attention they get while shallow. The other thought I have this spring is it was wet early but not wet enough for way high water like we can get in the spring. We had that cold dry spell late march to mid-April and the water greatly cleared as the current dropped off. I know in the past I would look forward to the water rising with the spring rains and more color in the bays but as we were approaching prime spawn time the water conditions were far from that. The crappie were weird this spring on the big lakes too. Same kind of thing - they didn't seem to come in on the banks in numbers like they normally do. Something is definitely different...

kc

That is wild....I also fish the lakes quite a bit, and am down there for 20-30 days in the spring and 20-30 days in the fall.

Last spring was the best spring I've had in 20 years. on 8 trips, every single day we had a bag of solid keepers, and on a few days, we were up in the 20-25lb range. There were multiple days where we had a few over 5, and a few over 6.

I'm really looking forward to this fall, since I'm missing most of the spring this year with a remodel project from hell......

Later,

Geo

[kc]

That is wild....I also fish the lakes quite a bit, and am down there for 20-30 days in the spring and 20-30 days in the fall.

Last spring was the best spring I've had in 20 years. on 8 trips, every single day we had a bag of solid keepers, and on a few days, we were up in the 20-25lb range. There were multiple days where we had a few over 5, and a few over 6.

I'm really looking forward to this fall, since I'm missing most of the spring this year with a remodel project from hell......

Later,

Geo

I heard that on projects and to come clean that had much to do with last spring for me. We were migrating to new applications starting in May and I didn't make to the lakes from early April to June so I missed the prime shallow window completely last year. But the trips I had in March and early April last year weren't as productive and to me it is just a matter of "tuning" into where the fish are and what they want to bite. Most of my trips are weekend trips and having 2 days to tune into the fish can be kind of tight especially if they aren't where you expect them to be. It just seems to me the fish have been setting up differently - especially this spring. Or maybe I am just losing my touch. I just know I always look forward to the fish setting up shallow each spring and when they don't it is kind of a let down...


kc