Recreational fisherman visiting Barkley/KY Lake next week. Any advice?

[mcmd8700]

Just visting late next week, and have heard there are a ton of tourneys. Any advice on places to fish and lures to use for LMB, Smallies, or Whites away from the tournament guys? Not looking for anyones secret spot, just some general advice. Also not too concerned about keeper size, but numbers would be nice. Just something to keep the average fisherman happy!

[jdw174]

You didn't say where on the lake you were going to be fishing. The ABA Nationals will be held out of Paris Landing all this week. 3 days practice and 3 days competition. Not sure how many, but estimates have been printed for anywhere from 400 to 600 boats (I want to see that many boats in the Paris Landing Marina...;))

I haven't been out for just over a week, but the fish were up shallow in grass. Had a 5+ on buzzbait, plus a lot of short fish. Another 3+ on a Bagley's Honey B. Hope this helps.

[mcmd8700]

We will be in North Barkley (Kuttawa area), but can obviously trailer to the fish if we need to. I know the grass is further south, so we may head down LBL for a day. Thanks for the tips...I know fishing around those tourney gets tough. I've been cut off and nearly run over a few times. But then there are others who will share some knowledge when they find out we are not in a tourney.