KY this weekend

[sflam123]

Geo

The fish seem to be really scattered and moving around A LOT on Ky. Lake right now. Didn't fish Friday or Sunday, but went Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and this evening. Hammered them on Wednesday (25 fish with 4 keepers in 3 hours) went back to the same spot Thursday and zeroed. Found them Saturday (18 fish and 3 keepers from 4 PM to 5:30 PM) and went back this afternoon and nothing. Just got to keep moving and looking at your graph, watching for baitfish.

[Dave Stewart]

Your experience here this past weekend is indicative of what many folks experience here and elsewhere when the fish are transitioning from deep summer patterns to shallow fall patterns (fall transition). Typically here on Ky/Barkley most tournaments multiple day tournaments are won here with an average over all weight of 14-16 lbs a day. These weights of course are much lower than during the rest of the season here. The fish do get spread out as the shad will transition in spurts as the base water temperature fluctuates up and down with heat waves and cold fronts during the transition.

Here is the way I approach this myself. There are fish deep, shallow and in between. The fish are only moving in one direction and that is eventually most of them will be shallow. Now the fish still on ledges are not going anywhere until the shad that hang around that ledge leave to move shallow....the fish that have already moved shallow are not leaving until the fall feed is over, which is signaled by the shad moving back deep in late fall/early winter timeframe. The fish that are in-between these deep and shallow areas are moving...thus it means being on the right spot at the right time to catch them.

I would rather put my money on the fish that have not left the ledges yet or the shallow fish that are already there. The key here is to find a ledge that still has good fish on it...or find a bay that has a good number of fish already transitioned shallow. Once found, you gotta have patience and wait them out. They will feed when they are ready, just like anytime of the year. You have to expect to catch a lot of short fish if you are shallow and wade thru them to get the keepers...don't expect to catch a lot of keepers....but if you are in a tournament, you only need 5 good bites.

Some folks prefer to run and gun and take their chances on getting one fish here and one fish there....if it works for you then go for it. I will say I have had clients win a lot on tournaments here in the fall transition, I have never had one win by running and gunning. To me it makes no sense to leave fish to find fish.

Since there are less fish on ledges now as there was a month ago...but more shallow than a month ago...I am aiming my clients to go shallow on most days and try to get their limit...then go sit on a ledge for the rest of the day to try to get that big fish or two that will put them out of sight at the weigh in. On post frontal days, it is tough to get the shallow keepers after the early morning feed..in that case...I would hit the early morning shallow bite and then lock down on a good ledge where I know there are still fish.

Of course, this is all just my opinion about fishing the fall transition...one has to realize that the numbers of keepers goes down during this period....the good thing is that eventually the numbers will go back up toward the end of the the transition around the end of October and into November...when the real fall feed is on.