Kentucky Lake Question(Dave Stewart)

[Dave Stewart]

Just spent the weekend down there and the wind was crazy but still caught a lot of fish but most were just under 15". Seems the bigger fish were in deeper water, I believe most of the bigger fish have already spawned. Maybe Dave can confirm that?

I always thought they spawned mostly near a full moon but the water temps have been in the mid 60's long enough that they may have spawned already.

Dave which is more inportant to the spawn water temps or moon phases?

Thanks in advance!

Water temps then moon....don't have to have a full moon during the spawn but it will certainly put many of them on the beds around the full moon if it happens to fall within the right water temperatures.

Now, as far as the spawn goes...some have spawned and some haven't. I have taken some shallow girls down south on Ky Lake but on north ends of both lakes all the females I am taking are still on staging areas...we have the water temps for them to move shallow and the full moon is Thursday..if they don't move in now, they won't this year in my opinion....I believe many of the bass spawned deep (not good) with the water down last couple of weeks until it finally came up last weekend. I am catching a lot of females with eggs and rubbed tails on the lead in channel banks and secondary points...I believe these fish moved up and started fanning a couple of weeks ago but then the TVA dropped the bottomeout and drew the lakes down 2.5 ft and pulled them out. I had an 8lb on my second cast this morning sitting in 16 ft of water on a stump and she was full of eggs and had a rubbed tail. Like I said, if they don't move up with this full moon, don't look for any big numbers of big fish shallow on the north ends...just my opinion. Plenty of action shallow on small fish though and some of those bucks are keeper sized but mostly short fish.
Dave

[Bradd]

Dave knows what he is talking about...I fished 23-26 or at least as much as mother nature would let me...I caught crazy amounts of fish, but the keepers were not as plentiful shallow on the KenLake area of the lake. It was just facinating how many just under 15" we caught. These fish would give you a fight, but you can't take them to the scales in a tournament. I am still a little upset that I didn't get anytime with Dave this time down. You have to get your stuff together and book him early or it won't happen.

[bigwormy]

im heading down friday as well. i was excited, but now nervous. i am seeing a possible 3-5 inches of rain for the forecast over the weekend. do you think this will destroy the fishing or just move the fish up shallow, and i mean shallow, with the rising waters? please anyone with lake experience respond. thanks a lot!

[jdw174]

Fished out of Paris last Wed., caught 20 and only two measured. The rest were all short males, but they were hitting practically anything I tied on. Two best fish came off of a point leading into a creek on a Bomber Square A. I'm headed out this morning, but it's chilly and the water is up. I predict a rather slow day this time.

[Spider04]

I am intrigued by Dave's assumption that some bass spawned deeper. My brother and I fished the lakes a couple of weeks ago for a full week. I fished north, south, Barkley, Kentucky. Jeff and I commented that we thought they may be spawning deeper because of the water being pulled. He caught several bass with bloody tails in deeper water - 12 to 18 feet. And this was on north Kentucky. On South Kentucky I saw what is normally seen this time of year. I guess I am testifying to Dave's idea of a deeper spawn. Jeff and I really didn't say anything about it to other guys we fished with, but we thought that could be the case.

Aside from the safety aspects, my two cents on the rain. If it is raining and the water is rising pull out a 3/8 oz blue glimmer spinnerbait and make some memories. Three of my best days ever on Kentucky Lake were done in that fashion. If they pull a lot of water, the opposite can happen. A couple of springs ago I fished on a Saturday and had fairly good success fishing shallow. They pulled a ton of water that night and I couldn't find a bite shallow that Sunday.

Good luck!