Originally Posted by GeoFisher
Man, I've been there 2 times in 3 years.....It's amazing that I used to spend 12 weekends in the spring and 8-10 weekend in the fall there. I did that for probably 15 years, and gave it up in 2018, because the fishing just got horrible.
Well, I convinced myself to put a 5 day trip together.........
I have the following gameplan:
Start out Early with Topwater, transition to lipless and shallow cranks. I will be on South Barkley to start off, so I plan on hitting all my favorite channel swings for smallies, and schooling fish.
After that, Maybe move to some wood in some "magic" creeks south of 68/80.
I will definitely be trying my standard blade baits in a few CONSISTENT deep water creek bends. I want some of those awesome white bass for dinner.
Plan on hitting Northern KY LBL side after that, for the evening bite first day. Hopefully I can find some top water or spoon action there.
After the first day, all that crap won't work so I will be HAMMERING the bank , doing what my good friend Dave Stewart would say NOT to do
I'm hearing the Smallies are much better now down there, and I have a few good spots......
If you guys were going for 3-4 days, what would YOU do.
Later,
Geo
Geo,
I have had a place on Barkley since '99 and no lie on bass fishing dropping off - especially on Barkley. These last few years I have caught more smallmouth on Barkley than largemouth which is kind of bizarre but KY still fishes pretty good for both. But I haven't been down bass fishing since May until last weekend as health and other issues have had me down. I didn't get a real good feel for the bite but the bites I found were shallow around flats. Spinnerbait was best for me but the few fish I caught some also came on surface, cranks, plus a couple on jigs. Didn't cover much water Saturday as I didn't get down until mid day and the winds were high Sunday making it tough to run the lake. I wanted to fish KY Saturday but not having run the boat since May I had battery issues and ended up staying local. The water color on Barkley main lake was pretty stained but the bays were a good color. KY was not stained on main lake. Your game plan is how I would play it too but if down for 4 days at least half would be on KY. Those gravel banks on KY early should be prime for surface. South Barkley is special too and those channel swings should be interesting for smallies but a lot of fish will still be in the bays. It gets really interesting a few weeks out when the bays cool down and the fish start stacking on their progression out to the main lake. I am hoping to spend several days down thanksgiving week myself chasing them. Good fishing! Nothing like a stout brownfish or two to brighten your day...
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