Back from KYL/Barkley- not much happening

[Dave Stewart]

I know what you mean on the guns...last year on opening day I had two rounds hit the water near my boat....got our attention for sure....that is scary.

[UKFisherman29]

I fished Barkley for the first time ever Thursday and Friday. We boated about 40 bass largemouth smallmouth and white bass all on bandit crankbait. We only caught one sm and lm about 3 1/2 lbs but the majority of the fish were 12"-15". I was thrilled with the trip. The only thing I regret was not getting on the water until 7 each day. I will come back in the spring for a few days.

[Dave Stewart]

Congratulations, you had a good trip depending on how many of those fish were keeper sized with the bite the way it has been lately. Normally this time of year you would have had that many LM on the first day, if not the first morning on topwater lures on just an average day bite. My clients yesterday would have had around 14-15 lbs on the best 5 but they had to work hard for them and the numbers was low. I saw a report that one of my friends had 19lbs on his best 5 yesterday so the bite may be starting to pick up...let's hope so...though I had a lot of reports from Thursday and Friday of folks still struggling to put numbers and keepers in the boat.

[Embrey]

Congratulations, you had a good trip depending on how many of those fish were keeper sized with the bite the way it has been lately. Normally this time of year you would have had that many LM on the first day, if not the first morning on topwater lures on just an average day bite. My clients yesterday would have had around 14-15 lbs on the best 5 but they had to work hard for them and the numbers was low. I saw a report that one of my friends had 19lbs on his best 5 yesterday so the bite may be starting to pick up...let's hope so...though I had a lot of reports from Thursday and Friday of folks still struggling to put numbers and keepers in the boat.

we worked hard all weekend, but scratched out some pretty good stuff. it got better each day, but that is due to more focus on the previous day and dialing stuff in. also landed almost every species in the lake as well. cats,large and smallies,whites,yellows,drum,stripers,gizzard shad,and ...musky.

[GeoFisher]

we worked hard all weekend, but scratched out some pretty good stuff. it got better each day, but that is due to more focus on the previous day and dialing stuff in. also landed almost every species in the lake as well. cats,large and smallies,whites,yellows,drum,stripers,gizzard shad,and ...musky.

Yea.......those two muskie were pretty cool. I've never caught one on KY and to have 2 caught on a trip was pretty neat.

It was a tough trip........we did manage keepers every day, but none of the normal stuff I do this time of year worked out. I did catch a few on a sammy, which was pretty cool.

Later,

Geo

[davidsa]

I had my first musky last fall. I wonder if the musky population is growing at KYL or if it is just a fall thing?

[Dave Stewart]

Very doubtful you guys were catching muskies....more likely chain pickeral...the population of them here has been increasing quite a bit over the past few years.

[GeoFisher]

The one I caught was prob 15-18 inches........and silvery, so I thought it was a muskie, but I bet it was a chain pickerel.........

Thanks,

Geo

[Dave Stewart]

Well, they do have teeth, they do fight good and they will take your lure so they are only bad if you are fishing in a tournament or they take your 15.00 Sammy...LOL

[kc]

They love pointers too and they spook me in that I often fish the smaller pointers on spinning rods with 6 or 8 lb line. I haven't lost a pointer to one yet but I have a feeling it will happen before long. I caught one last fall that was 25" or 26" long and felt lucky that it didn't break me off. Losing a $15 lure can bring a tear!

kc

[davidsa]

I'm not a fish biologist and Dave will know KYL species better then I. That said, whatever I caught did not look like a Pickeral I catch in Florida nor did it look anything like a Northern Pike I catch in ontario.

Looking as some pictures I googled, I looks most like the Musky they pull out of Dale and Cave run and did not look anything like a Tiger Musky either.

The fish was absent of any dark blotches or dark back like I normally find on Pike and florida pickeral.

Certainly feels more enjoyable to believe it was a musky even if it was only 24 inches long.

[mkmsports41]

I caught one 2 years ago by the 68-80 bridge on Ky. That darn thing was close to 3 ft long. You talk about a fight! I was just glad to get my rattle trap back and still have all my fingers!