Spent Tuesday and Wednesday fishing North Barkley and what a difference a day makes. My buddy and I were on a boat load of fish (as was everyone) a few weeks back and then I went back 2 weeks ago and had 80 fish in 2 days. Tuesday was a day that was better than any of those days and Wednesday was a struggle. Before my post, I want to publicly thank Dave Stewart for all his help in me learning not only KY and Barkley these past couple of years but how to fish for Largemouth in general. I am a Smallie guy, always have been and always will be, but these past few weeks has defineately put the Greenfish solidly in number 2 position. I have had 3 trips with Dave (Early Spring, Spring and Summer) and learned more in those trips than I have in years. We never hit the mother load of fish on any of the trips but I took them to learn and Dave is one hell of a teacher. I know he is booked to the gills, but if you ever want a trip on Ky and Barkley to learn how to fish, then try to get in Dave's schedule. Even though we never had the 50-100 fish days like some people expect with a guide, I truly know that I never would have personally landed approximately 225 fish in the past 10 days of fishing Ky and Barkley without his help. Thanks a bunch Dave and hope you killed them today.

Tuesday - Had intentions of leaving around 3am to launch around 5am but that all got changed when I was wide awake and pumped to leave at midnight so with 1 1/2 hours of sleep off to Barkley I go. I launch out of Poplar Creek around 2:30am and head to a "Bluff" close by with some manmade structure on it that is well lit. Hoping to land some on topwater, I start out with my favorite night topwater bait, Super Zara Spook that is Black with Gold Diamonds. Second Cast, literally second cast, as I drag it by the structure, 4-7 SMALLIE decides to eat. Nice struggle and my day is already made with this fish but it gets better. About 10 cast later, 5-12 fully spawned out Female Largemouth missing half her tail from fanning decides to eat. 10lbs in 2 fish within 10 minutes of hitting the water, "It is going to be a good day TATER". It gets quiet after that for about 15 minutes with nothing, UNTIL, I am down the Bluff and just get into the darkness away from the lights and I hear a bust down the bank that sounds like a Cumberland bust when they are hitting shad on topwater. As that thought is going thru my head, BOOM, my Zara takes a plunge and keeps on plunging. Mind you, I have 10lb test line and there is no chance of stopping the drag. At first I thought I had a HORSE Smallie but when she settled down about 40 feet to take a rest I knew it was a Striper. I get a little back, she takes even more down the bluff she goes with me on the trolling motor in chase. A good 10 minute struggle and my net has a 18-8 lb Striper resting inside. Heck of a fight and I am even more pumped than before. I would have loved to keep her for the frying pan, but no cooler big enough, my livewell is plenty big enough but with 75 degree water she would not have lived long. Gave her a smooch and let her go. Landed 4 more Largemouth with 2 of them keepers by 5:45am all on the Super Spook in the same area. Left there and went to the same Bay that I have fished for 3 weeks. Tried different things to find the fish and how deep they were. 3 weeks ago they were in 1-4 feet, 2 weeks ago it was 3-6 feet and Tuesday the magic depth was 9-12 feet deep. Hazy day, some cloud cover at times, with the wind out of the west gusting at times to put up some pretty good rollers even on Barkley. Tropical Shad Norman Deep Little N was the ticket to most of my good fish. Paralleling channel lead in or lead out (in this case) banks targeting the 8-13 feet area and just killed them on this crankbait. When I say killed them, I mean the entire crankbait was in their mouth, I never lost one single fish all day and a lot of times both sets of Trebles were securely burried. They were flat out eating this crankbait. When I hit shallower water, I used the same Tropical Shad pattern in Norman Little N, Deeper it was a DD14 or DD22. I did not have that exact pattern in the deeper but used Chartreuse and Blue combo. When the cloud cover took away the sun, it was a 3/8 oz Hook Some Bass Green Glimmer spinnerbait that did the trick. I even used soft plastics shallow, flipped buck brush, C rigged a Hook Some Bass Brush Hound Watermelon Seed main lake ledges and they all produced fish. By far the best producer was the 9-12 feet water column on the lead out banks and main and secondary points with the Deep Little N crankbait, Tropical Shad color. The points that were gently sloping that had 9-12 feet of water way off the point was the best producers wehn I ran the crankbait across the point. Totals for the day were 1 - 18-8 Striper, 1 - 5 lb Catfish, 1 - Monster Bluegill that killed my spinnerbait, 7 White Bass all caught on DD22 crankbait just outside Poplar Creek on the main lake, and 33 total largemouth and smallies with 18 keepers, 2 fish over 5lbs and best 5 were right around 20lbs. From a quality fish catching standpoint, BEST day of my life in regards to Greenfish. The 33 easily outweighed the 35 and 45 fish days I had 2 weeks ago by a lot. Even the fish that were not keepers were 13-14 inches long. I did not fish shallow long or flip the buck brush long but I don't think there are a lot of fish left shallow and the ones that are left are the small bucks anyways. I took out at 6:45 after 16 hours and 15 minutes of glorius water fish catching action with a nice SUNBURN.

Wednesday - A whole different story. Put in at 2am and headed to my topwater spot. I thought the rain was over but to my suprise at around 2:30am, I sat there hunkered down floating around in a monsoon for about 20 minutes. No need to cast for I could not see where I was casting it was raining so hard. Wind started howling from the North to North East direction and it got COLD. All I took was shorts and short sleeve shirt, no jacket. I was wishing for my Dale Hollow Winter gear after a while. Cold Rain and I was freezing with too much pride to go to the marina and sit it out or head back to the Explorer. Rain stopped and started until about 6am. My great topwater action the day before went away to 3 fish and only 2 keepers - Barely keepers. My mid depth cranking pattern produced 2 keepers and 5 fish total. I tried a lot of different things but it is hard for me to put down that Crankbait after the previous days success (This is why they are Pros and I am not). Tried shallow, tried deeper, tried C Rig, Finesse Jigs, Big Jigs, Soft Plastics, Different Color cranks and a bunch others. Not a lot of success, 13 total fish all day, exactly 5 keepers that could have been Pentuplets for they were all around 16-17 inches and about 2 1/2 lbs each. Day one massive fish and a good 20lb bag but day two about 12-13 lbs is all I could muster. I have no problem fishing in the wind but with my Deep V Aluminum boat, the wind really moves it around pretty good sitting that high out of the water. I had a hard time fishing today. After the rain stopped, High Blue Skies and I think the sparse clouds that were around were above the sun. Nothing worked for me today, what a day makes.

Water temps started each day around 75-76 and found several spots that exceeded 80 by the days end. Certainly fish are on Summer Patterns and those that are not are getting there REAL SOON. One thing Dave Stewart told me during one of my trips, "Do you want to fish were 90% of the fish are or 10% of the fish are" My answer was the 90% and I would bet the 90% are on the deeper banks, heading to the points, heading for the ledges and the 10% are still shallow. I hear about everyone fishing North Barkley when the North wind hits and that is certainly true. Tuesday, I saw VERY few boats but today they were everywhere.

Again, due to last years 3rd of 4 hernia surgeries, I was not able to fish from March until August and missed all of this action. This year my 4th hernia was luckily early enough to let me fish this spring season and I had a blast. Thanks again to Dave Stewart for all his help the past couple of years. This was my last trip to Ky and Barkley for quite some time and I left with a bang. Moving back to Central Kentucky in a couple of weeks, getting the hell out of Indiana for good and can't just jaunt down to Ky for a couple of days at the drop of the hat like I have done the past 2 years. Go get them Boys and Girls for the Fish Population at Ky and Barkley is ALIVE AND WELL. By the way, put 6.5 gallons of gas in my boat 2 weeks ago and 4.1 gallons today. 4 days of fishing, 1 Striper, 1 Monster Bluegill, 1 Catfish, 7 Whitebass, 136 total Smallies and Largemouth with 2 - 4lb Smallies and 4 - 5lb Largemouth and approximately 50 keepers in all with 10.6 gallons of gas but my trolling motor worked OVERTIME. If my GPS was on, it would be total RED out in Carmach Bay for I now know it VERY WELL after 3 weeks in the same place.