Barkley report

[offdtop]

Well I finally found out what a "lead in bank" was, and I experience it and worked it rather extensively Saturday, and boated 8 keepers in a small club tourney out of Devils Elbow, didn't win but took 4th respectively. I caught fish all day, some shallow, some deep (deep to me is 12-14+) and some in between, I fished the back of the pockets and caught a few small ones when I remembered the "lead in creek theory" I pulled back off the bank into the channels about 10 yards and just plain wacked 'em. 8 may not seems like alot to some but it's when the money is on the line all the while tearing up your thought processes I was extremely proud of my partner and myself for "figuring out" what was going on, they had pulled from the backs of the coves out to the points next to the channel, I gathered that tidbit from reading on here and paying attention to others and for that THANKS GUYS! no we didn't win any money but we had a solid 5 bass limit @ 12.5lbs my biggest was a 3.1lb small mouth that came from the back of a cove! It took 16.5lbs to win our little tourney. Water color was great 18" or better, temperature was 62 in the morning and after the sun got up and bright 66 deg.

[swimjigboy]

Did you mean 10 yards from the backs or off points? I have fish Barkley for about 7 to 8 yrs now. This is still a hard thing for me to figure out. I'm am totally use to highland res. not low land res. Because down there everthing seems to be silted in. Leadin banks take some work and a ton of time to find. Creeks are like bowls they're not like barren,green, nolin or my stuff up in ohio. This is scaring me a little because my dad and I are headed down sat - sat and from what I hear the swallow stuff is mainly going to be over. And usually our 1st wk of may trip is swallow crazy!!! Looks like all that high water early and them sucking the life out of the place looks like it going to crush the spring trip we dream of all year. It always seems ya should've been here last week...same old same old.

[Dave Stewart]

Did you mean 10 yards from the backs or off points? I have fish Barkley for about 7 to 8 yrs now. This is still a hard thing for me to figure out. I'm am totally use to highland res. not low land res. Because down there everthing seems to be silted in. Leadin banks take some work and a ton of time to find. Creeks are like bowls they're not like barren,green, nolin or my stuff up in ohio. This is scaring me a little because my dad and I are headed down sat - sat and from what I hear the swallow stuff is mainly going to be over. And usually our 1st wk of may trip is swallow crazy!!! Looks like all that high water early and them sucking the life out of the place looks like it going to crush the spring trip we dream of all year. It always seems ya should've been here last week...same old same old.

Don't give up yet...buy yourself an Atlantic GPS map and you will see most of the channels are drawn in for you....kinda makes it easier to find...lol. Also, we had a big bag today on Barkley fishing lead in banks...biggest fish over 7lbs and not a mark on her yet.

[stoner]

Don't give up yet...buy yourself an Atlantic GPS map and you will see most of the channels are drawn in for you....kinda makes it easier to find...lol. Also, we had a big bag today on Barkley fishing lead in banks...biggest fish over 7lbs and not a mark on her yet.

Dave are those maps available in your area?
Stoner

[offdtop]

To be honest and I will be corrected if I'm wrong but this is what i gathered, Previously I had asked on this discussion board "what exactly is a lead in bank?" Dave responded to me saying it was the banks of the channel that leads to a spawning area (right?), Ok to find them I cheated...lol I found a couple little pockets/coves after going into a bigger bay and noticed on a couple different bays (little river, donelson etc.) there was marked channels leading into the bays for navigation well I searched where the channel got closest to the shallower coves and fished the channel bends, I admit I had to go into the coves and fish the sides and backs to determine a good spawing area (plus I am a bank beater at heart) I determined the rocky /silty areas and fished hard looking for spawners with no takers and any fish we caught seemed as if they aren't ready yet not all marked up yet. So right there it hit me what Dave told me so I pulled out to the points with the channel bend on them and fished -caught fish, I followed the channel and found the smaller tributary leading into the cove and fished where it dropped off into this smaller "creek" if you will - caught fish, but got on the flats even with the good temp and cloudy morning looking for cruisers or bed fish and didn't find the bigger fish except on the lead in banks. You see I was bank beating and when I backed off the bank with my Ranger into the deeper water of the channel I caught fish BUT I still casted to the bank because of the channels I was fishing were close to the bank. Hope it helps, so the fishing trip you want is very possible to still be here, I'll let ya know as much as I can before your trip.

[Dizzle]

Was down there this past weekend and had a couple of buddies do exactly what you did in Ford's Bay. They ended up with several nice fish with the biggest being 5.7.

[Dave Stewart]

Dave are those maps available in your area?
Stoner

You can get the Atlantic Maps at pretty much any tackle shop in the area..also I know Bass Pro in Nashville sells them.

[jwp]

What baits did you use on these "lead in" banks?

[swimjigboy]

Thanks for the info. I'm starting the map study hard this week, got hot spots, atlantic and the nav. off the internet from engineers. Hopefully the swallow bite will be great after the cold fronts this week but I'll study to be prepared to drop back etc. Dad and I will be in the white and red Z19 on North Barkley this sat -sat. Thanks again for your help. Dad's health isn't the greatest and trying hard to plan the best trips as we can. Thanks to all!..LOL

[Col Forbin]

What baits did you use on these "lead in" banks?

Check out Dave's report on this one. He was dead on this week, as usuall. I usually use his suggestions of lures as a starting point, but I never had anything on other than what was listed and had a great weekend. I did best on the lizzards.

[kylakenitro]

Check out Dave's report on this one. He was dead on this week. I did best on the lizzards.

Forbin is dead-on along with Daves report. They are SMASHING a lizard and a Zoom Trick worm!!!

[offdtop]

Plastics I used a Zoom finese in bullfrog because the chartruese in it, but mostly green stuff, and a roboworm pitchin kraw in midnight, crankin a red eye shad and bandit 300 in rootbeer chartruese