What is fishin like at KY and Barkley......I'm headed down there with the Wife Friday

[GeoFisher]

Man, it has been a LONG TIME.....about 6 months for those lakes.

I had to cut back due to college, and this will be my first trip in a while. I'm not looking for spots, just looking for ideas.

I like North KY, North Barkley and a few spots down around Devils Elbow on South Barkley. Since this is my first trip and I have 6 planned between now and thanksgiving I will be hitting quite a few spots to see "what" the are doing, to try to help with gameplans through october, and into november.

Any help would be greatly appreciated...........Anyone getting on a good early morn topwater bite yet??

Later,

Geo

[Owskiwoski]

Fishing on north Barkley has been awful lately. When cloudy its not bad but overall poor

[kc]

Geo,

Just got back from Barkley, been there since Saturday evening with the wife. Didn't fish hard but got out each day for 3 to 5 hours early or late. I did pretty well Sunday morning catching about 12 with 4 that would keep but beyond that they were really hard to pattern. Couldn't find them consistently anywhere hitting anything. Caught a couple on surface, a few on spinners, tubes, worms, and one or two on a jerk bait. I almost wiffed Monday evening but ended up catching a keeper smallie right at dark. Nearly the same this morning fished 3 hours and only boated one but I did shake a good smallie off at the boat that was 4 to 5. The best action I got was on main lake points but I wouldn't call that consistent either. Shad seemed really scattered too. I only saw one cut off of the main lake Sunday morning that I would say was stacked with shad as they do this time of year. I saw shad from the ends of the bays to the main lake and everywhere in between. Plus they weren't up on the surface much mostly seeing them on my graph and the occasional flick of the solos. The lakes came up a foot from rain south last week and they have been pulling both lakes since Friday or Saturday and I bet that is what has them werided out. I hope you find them better than I did. I kind of wished I had trailered over to the big pond one morning and checked out the top water bite there...

kc

[GeoFisher]

Geo,

Just got back from Barkley, been there since Saturday evening with the wife. Didn't fish hard but got out each day for 3 to 5 hours early or late. I did pretty well Sunday morning catching about 12 with 4 that would keep but beyond that they were really hard to pattern. Couldn't find them consistently anywhere hitting anything. Caught a couple on surface, a few on spinners, tubes, worms, and one or two on a jerk bait. I almost wiffed Monday evening but ended up catching a keeper smallie right at dark. Nearly the same this morning fished 3 hours and only boated one but I did shake a good smallie off at the boat that was 4 to 5. The best action I got was on main lake points but I wouldn't call that consistent either. Shad seemed really scattered too. I only saw one cut off of the main lake Sunday morning that I would say was stacked with shad as they do this time of year. I saw shad from the ends of the bays to the main lake and everywhere in between. Plus they weren't up on the surface much mostly seeing them on my graph and the occasional flick of the solos. The lakes came up a foot from rain south last week and they have been pulling both lakes since Friday or Saturday and I bet that is what has them werided out. I hope you find them better than I did. I kind of wished I had trailered over to the big pond one morning and checked out the top water bite there...

kc

Hey, THANKS.

I'm hoping to really fish a bunch of spots. May put in/take out 4 times or so friday......just to get a feel for what/where I want to fish. I have a smaller boat too, so I'm used to it when the wind gods prevail.

I'm really dying to get out........if I catch fish, GREAT, but I just want to get out, run the boat, spend some time on the water with my wife, and enjoy a few days without listening to my offshore folks on the phone.....

Later,

Geo

[kc]

I understand the "wife" trips as mine was one too. She likes going out in the boat in nice weather but doesn't have the patience to fish while I am trying to find them. If they are biting she's right there. I feel kind of bad in that Sunday morning I got up at first light and fished alone and never really tuned into them after that when she was in the boat so she didn't fish much. She did knock out her book though.

Another angle you might consider is south of the bridge on KY and fishing grass. I got a little taste of that a few weeks ago and kind of wish I would have pulled that off this trip. We almost went over and camped one night on KY but opted for power washing the siding at the trailer and other assorted honey dos -- big fun.

If you are in to bird watching the ospreys are gone on Barkley but the pelicans are back. I hadn't really thought about it but I believe as one is leaving the other is coming in that they flip flop about the same time in the spring. With the lake up a bit the pelicans were really comical to watch. Most of the mud humps that they hang out on mid lake were still covered except their favorite hump which is at the mouth of energy bay. Yesterday that hump was stacked and we watched two sizeable flocks that came in on top of many birds already there. They were beak to beak and standing-in-water room only! This morning the lake was rolling and I saw the last flock leaving that hump as I guess with those 3 footers rolling in from the south they were getting their tail feathers wet. I do enjoy the birds on Barkley -- well maybe not the cormorants...

Have a great trip to the big lakes. Even when the fishing is slow it is always great to be on the lakes. I am looking forward to the water temps getting down into the low 60s and 50s. That's when it gets interesting...

kc

[Dave Stewart]

George:

We are in the fall transtion period here just like my last report indicates. The bite gets tougher anywhere when you get into this phase of fish movement between summer and fall patterns. The shad are moving a lot right now and thus so are the bass. Here are some tournament results from last weekend:

Angler's Dream Classic: 94 boats 2 days Winning weight was 30 lbs over the 2 days (5 fish limit per day)

The Bass Federation State Championship: Not sure on number of boats...2 days Winning weight 25 lbs over the two days (5 fish limit per day)

Basically during the fall transition, you can catch numbers but numbers of keeper plus fish are harder to come by. Now, just like my last report said...you can catch them on a lot of different patterns from the main lake ledges to the backs of the creeks and bays. Now having said that, the fish are eventually headed into the creeks and bays....there are some there already and more are coming....and I am already there waiting on them....lol. You know the pattern...I taught it to you a long time ago....hope to see you and the wife on the water this weekend.

Dave

[Bass_King2007]

I fished the hopkins county bass club tournament out of kdv last weekend, and it took 25 pound sack to win that was a 5 fish limit... looked like those fish came off of a ledge somewhere.. and second was 20 pound sack with 3 of them smallies. with this bipolar weather that we are having to forget about the deep fish as well.. cuz they might still be there

[GeoFisher]

I fished the hopkins county bass club tournament out of kdv last weekend, and it took 25 pound sack to win that was a 5 fish limit... looked like those fish came off of a ledge somewhere.. and second was 20 pound sack with 3 of them smallies. with this bipolar weather that we are having to forget about the deep fish as well.. cuz they might still be there

Hey all. THANKS for the info.

I will be sure to share back when I get back from my first trip. I'm really chomping at the bit to get out and try some spots.

I really want to get my wife on some fish. The last trip she made with me, she didn't catch very much.

On another note........she's been on 50% of my trips so far........of source I've only had 2 trips to KY this year, so man oh man.

Hopefully I change that STAT.

Later,


Geo

[Dave Stewart]

I fished the hopkins county bass club tournament out of kdv last weekend, and it took 25 pound sack to win that was a 5 fish limit... looked like those fish came off of a ledge somewhere.. and second was 20 pound sack with 3 of them smallies. with this bipolar weather that we are having to forget about the deep fish as well.. cuz they might still be there

Those were definitely two good sacks and it does happen sometimes this time of year, but it is not the norm. If you are on the right ledge at the right time or even shallow it can be done. I have done it, clients have done it, but if you look at the tournament history here this time of year, it normally only takes an average of 16 lbs a day over two days to win most of the two day classics here or the pro am regiionals. Have seen plenty of times that someone busts a bag over 20lbs the first day here and zero the next because the fish have moved and are not where they found them the day before. It only took 17lbs to win the Hopkins County Classic the past two years. In the BFL Super Tournament two weeks ago it took 41 lbs over the two days to win...but second place was 30 lbs over the two days with a number of the local FLW Tour Pro's with much less than that....bottom line during this transition time, the bite is scattered and inconsistant with the fish moving around a lot. I certainly applaud those guys for such nice sacks this past weekend....but again, it is not the norm for this time of year.

[clintcone]

I fished the hopkins county bass club tournament out of kdv last weekend, and it took 25 pound sack to win that was a 5 fish limit... looked like those fish came off of a ledge somewhere.. and second was 20 pound sack with 3 of them smallies. with this bipolar weather that we are having to forget about the deep fish as well.. cuz they might still be there

Bruce and I fished that tournament as well. I think there were 60-65 boats in it. We came in 8th with 14.63 pounds. All the fish we weighed in came off of drops. We caught 3 keepers that we culled on top-water and flukes early. We caught 7 more keepers all day fishing two drops (one on north barkley, the other on north kentucky) after that ended. I don't remember what it took to get a check (they payed 10 places), but I suspect it was 13 and change.

All our ledge fish were caught on texas rigged creature baits. watermellon with red glitter.


Clint Cone
USA Bassin Green River Lake division director

[Tim_T]

I got experience that transition last year for two days. It was frustrating to say the least. Dave, how long do you expect this to last? I am going to be in Paris in a couple of weeks doing photos with some pro's. The photos may not be very good if we cannot catch any fish.

[offdtop]

Tim they are catching them in Paris in the grass and should make for some good pics.