There's not much I can add to what KC said, but I wonder how much the state killing the grass off in the lakes hurt fishing? Outside of a lillypad field in the back of Kuttawa Harbor, there's not much cover in Barkley that I'm aware of, unless you include docks in the cover definition. Didn't the lake used to have grass that they killed?

I know the redear fishing has gotten tougher since 2013. That's the first year I fished down here and it has gotten tougher to locate the big redear. I have caught some juveniles this year on North Barkley, that's encouraging. I must report that the crappie I caught last month were very healthy looking fish. The bluegill have never impressed me on Barkley...that's odd. The redear are very thick and usually weigh pretty darn well.

All of that said, there's many examples of lakes that have undergone adverse events and come out of it stronger than ever. I'm hoping the commercial fishermen will take care of these undesirable fish.