Help on Bluegill and Redear at KY and Barkley

[Moveon]

OK guys, I have a guy coming down in a couple weeks and he is from Wisconsin......he LOVES gills and redear, and has been reading about how KY lake grows monsters.

Problem is.......I've never not once targeted them. Heck I don't target them around here.

Now, I know they are on or going on the nest, and I'm assuming big males are quite fine taking that way.

Another problem.......how do I tell.........

Final problem.........where do I fish for them. I'm assuming shallow 4-6 feet, north The shores, out of the way, protected type pockets.....

Any help would be greatly appreciated guys.

Later,

Geo

Along with what you mentioned about check out the botto type. They need to make a nest that will not cave in on the eggs. And the soil has to be soft enough for the males to sweep out a depression for the eggs. So try to focus on the soil type along with the other factors.

Also under Willow trees along the shorelineis a good year round spot for bluegills. When the Mayflies hatch the Bluegills and other sunfish will be on them hard. There are a lot of bugs that fall off the Weeping Willow Trees.

The shape of panfish tells me that they like to swim around wood and objects. I was taught this in my Purdue Fish Class. Fish shapes determine their nitch in the Environment. Pike like open water and their long shape is designed for straight line speed but not turning. Bluegill and Crappie like the safety of wood as they can turn really fast in amount the branches. Where as larger fish can't turn as quickly. So the panfish feel safer around the wood stick ups. Panfish also feed on bottom dwellers that prefer certain types of soils or bottom.

Once you located the spawning beds you can fish them next year if the water levels are not drastically different. Live Crickets, works, bee moths are great baits for bluegills and crappie.

[kygorski]

ever think about dale? good gill and some shell crackers,and there is ery little boat travel.Right there in the launch area at the state dock, on the east shore there are a few good areas, the water drops off, there are some deep weeds,I've caught a lot of gills that are 7" inches and a few better. Across from the launch there is a channel that runs to the Tn side, Stay on the east side of the channel, there are weedbeds all over and some good deep water fishing for shell crackers and gills.Get a hold of rick hise maybe hell even lend you a few dozen alewives. He also can let you in some of good pan fish sites on dale, the spawning should almost be over,but that area near the state dock has some very good pan fish.but the boat traffic is a birch, Since I lived close to dale and cumberland and I liked to eat fish, I did a fair amount of gill fishing, Sometimes I'd go twice a day, once for eaters and then some bass or stripers, or even stay closer to home and go trout fishing.

[GeoFisher]

ever think about dale? good gill and some shell crackers,and there is ery little boat travel.Right there in the launch area at the state dock, on the east shore there are a few good areas, the water drops off, there are some deep weeds,I've caught a lot of gills that are 7" inches and a few better. Across from the launch there is a channel that runs to the Tn side, Stay on the east side of the channel, there are weedbeds all over and some good deep water fishing for shell crackers and gills.Get a hold of rick hise maybe hell even lend you a few dozen alewives. He also can let you in some of good pan fish sites on dale, the spawning should almost be over,but that area near the state dock has some very good pan fish.but the boat traffic is a birch, Since I lived close to dale and cumberland and I liked to eat fish, I did a fair amount of gill fishing, Sometimes I'd go twice a day, once for eaters and then some bass or stripers, or even stay closer to home and go trout fishing.

I fish dale a whole lot in the winter and spring.......I've never fished for gills or crappie there though. Maybe......

Thanks.

[crappiepappy]

Geo .... as I understand it, Redear spawn in slightly deeper water than Bluegill, and sometimes may even be just outside of a Bluegill nesting site in that deeper water.

You might also watch this video & take notice of how they're fishing, and what with : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzgk8tmkF9g (the little 4legged black bug w/yellow stripes & legs with a piece of worm on the hook)

And I've also heard from a reliable source that some Redear are still on the nest at Barkley, and some near 2lb fish have been caught (just outside of the buck bushes (Button Bushes).

***********************

Now, me personally ... I've only targeted Redear a few times at Cedar Creek Lake, and the best luck I've had was with a black jighead & the brown (head) end of a nightcrawler threaded on the hook. They musta thought it was a snail of some kind ... ????? And it seemed like every time I used the white (tail) end of the nightcrawler, I'd catch Bluegill more often than not. I was doing that long before the KY Afield episode was shown, and it only affirmed that I was using the right stuff (or close to it).

Your next "Good" spawning period should be towards the end of the month, since the next Full Moon comes on the 29th.

[kygorski]

Since I can't fish anymore or anyl less anymore. Dale is little reported crappie hole, thats almost a local secret, I've caught bunch of them over 15 inches trolling small cranks.the secret is using smaller shiners, abiut3 inches long or small alewives, sulpher creek on the west shore in the flooed timber can be dynomite.The size limit of 10 inches is almost ignored because many of slabs are over a ft long.

[redearhoosier]

I think Dale Hollow is a redear gem but it flies under the radar. I've never fished it but I have cruised the internet looking for information and it seems like a good bluegill/redear lake.

Lake Cumberland is another lake that they finally stocked with redear. I would imagine that Cumberland could be a redear trophy fishery in the future. It was stocked about 7 years ago, they should be fully grown. Anyone ever catch redear on Cumberland? It's the Cumberland River just like Lake Barkley.

[NitroZ8]

Here are some bluegills me and the kids caught Monday at Cumberland in fishing creek. Caught them on night crawlers and honestly could have caught more.

[kygorski]

In all the years I fished lake cumberland I never found a natural weed bed, the drw down levels are too drastic for vegatation habitation[imo]. And while I fished for blue gills, Ican't ever recall catching a redear.Cumberland is a true high land resevor, barkely isn't. There are many who claim that cumberald is a good crappie lake, but furtest east I went was a few mile east of a major creek[forgot the name but its the longest one on the south side of the lake.]