How's the water at Barren

[gillman]

Hadn't seen the water at Barren in two weeks. Any help would be nice, water color, tem., has it come down any. I think the bass would be on bed. Think any of them old mother's have turned the beds over to their Man yet.

[slowjamcdub]

whats wrong with this lake???? Reading all the reports on it and about the guys fishing it for 3 days stright and not catching even 1 keeper its crazy! go and read some of the other posts like on page 3, guys are covering all the water and tossing everything out in the tackle box and not catching anything it crazy! I was just reading this other post where the guy on here is asking about where to fish on barren and one of the other guys said that he wouldnt even go! Ive been out about 4 time myself with no fish too and all the guys i talked to on the water said that they hadnt got anything,?"?? anyone know why there are not fish in this lake? Is it because they have so many turnys on this lake??? Or the lack of weeds and veg???

[ironhead70]

water looks great in main lake stained green in skaggs and beaver water temps at around 69 pulled of of lake a noon due to heavey rains hopefully it will muddy up the main part og lake and help the bite imo the bite is slow

[smashdn]

Is it because they have so many turnys on this lake??? Or the lack of weeds and veg???

IMO, Yes and yes. Glasgow is a fairly large city, Bowling Green is the third or fourth largest city in the state, scottsville is close, franklin is close. Guys aren't scared to come from Louisville to fish it either. Not just bass fishing, but hybrids, catfish, crappie, everything. The lake gets a lot of pressure. It is not a problem right now, but it gets churned by skiers and ski doos every weekend in the summer too.

Because the lake gets drawn down so far what cover is in the lake does not last as long as it would if it were always submerged. No veg to speak of except for if the water gets up in the willows.

It is a convenient lake to get to and gets its share of pressure and has been the unfortunate victim of some lost spawns.

[Bobby Headrick]

The draw downs hurt that lake, I used to remember when you could go to Barren and just slay them that was back in the late 70"s and early 80's, was stumps everywhere. It was one of the top rated lakes in Ky and the nation at one time. The floods and stuuf hurt some of the spawns a few years back, also like was said above it is tourneyed to death, and also there is a lot of catch and eat people that fish that lake, that hurts too, saw one guy a few years back he and his wife and father wnet out for a week staright and everyday they each caught limits of big and I mean huge smallies on live bait, manily skimmer minnows, and they keep everyone of them, I think they caught over 75 to 80 keepers in that short time span, I know for sure as I saw these fish, he lived across from me. Also the Amish are not ashamed to keep fish either. The spillway used to be awesome too but that too has died, Barren is quickly becoming Barren. That is sad.

[cra97]

I haven't been able to do "nothin" on Barren either (nor the guys last weekend in the WKU Event) but there was a REALLY decent bag in the the R&W (over 15 lbs) and a few respectable ones in the Legacy Event as well. I am just glad to hear there are others having problems (not that I wish anyone any ill will fishing Barren) on this Lake as well. I was starting to think I was alone having problems there. I guess we will see again in the morning as I have the FOM there and to be honest I don't have any dillusions of grander for it. Someone is catching them there, I am just "Fishing" there.

[slowjamcdub]

thats so sad to hear, I had high hopes for this lake and its close to BG I think I will give this good ol lake 1 more good try and if no good im going to have to say good bye to her. and try to learn nolin or cumberland

[gillman]

Boys this makes me feel better about what I'll doing, hearing others having trouble there to. but on the other hand I sure don't like hearing all these bad reports of Barren. Man I'll just started bassing lakes two years ago and I'll tell ya that 1st year I had a lot of empy trips. Than last year I'll have two or three fish every time I went out, mostly short fish. So far this year I'll been to Barren four times and caught one or two fish each time with one being a five, and another about a four two weeks ago ago with four short fish.Went yesterday and talked to three boats coming in as I was going out and they said it was slow. I fished about three hours and found a spot I was getting some good hits on plastic fishing real slow and had on one good fish that got of.Guys this board has helped me a lot but I need to try to learn a little about another lake. The boy and I took the old mustang up to somerset last Sat., that why I didn't get to go fishing last week, and we drove by and looked at Green. I need to get up there and check that job out.

[Don Smith]

The recent rains have things sort of messed up. They had been holding the water the past few weeks during the week, and pulling the plug on Firday. This changes things drastically. As far as I know, discharge yesterday was only around 500, and if its like that today you will see some better weights. Yesterday was no amazing day from the reports I got, but 5 keepers was not out of the question. FOM West KY division has an event there today, we will see what the results are around 4 PM. Hopefully, with all the rain they received, they did not pull the plug today...

Don

[mkmsports41]

Keep in mind, Barren gets this way this time every year. Mid to late April is terrible. It will re-bound. About three weeks ago it was on fire. Barren has a weird spawn transition, it about shuts the lake down as far as Bass Fishing.

[ironhead70]

water came up over niite about 6 8 inches the bite was great this morn but shut down when it quit raining

[raincheck]

I don't do very good at Barren because i have fished Nolin most of the time but if i was too put more time on it i know i'll get better.I'll be at Rough tomorrow hope its better than last week all we had was a slot.Be fishing ABA.Terry Adolph