Looks like the levels are shooting up this week. Might try a day or two next week if I get free.
Looks like the levels are shooting up this week. Might try a day or two next week if I get free.
Was on North of KY and Barkley yesterday - lots of drift/debris/logs on Barkley - some but not as much on KY water was coming up fast - stain on both but more on Barkley (as usual). Fishing wasn't very good. 1K and 4NK.
Good luck.
-Jonathan
Jonathan Adkins
2022 Nitro Z21xl 250 ProXS4S
HDSLive12s/Ghost/AT2/G360
They are in the bushes now. Perfect timing to catch them. Friend of mine caught 17 yesterday with best five weighing 16.
We must have been fishing the wrong bushes! We could only catch them dragging jigs and wobble heads in small pockets off the main lake.
In the bushes for me too chasing crappie. Have caught several 2-3lb bass as well but had the best luck in the bushes concentrated around the drains.
We spent the week in LBL and bass fished every day from the evening of the 27th till they kicked us out on the evening of the 3rd. We only caught a few fish the first couple days on spinnerbaits and crankbaits fished around ditches and banks with a creek channel bend on them.
By Monday the bass started moving up into the buck brush and we were catching them with our long rods in the deeper isolated brush and trees in the backs of creeks and pockets. By Wednesday the bass had moved deeper into the flooded brush but seemed to stay close to the main feeder creek and on isolated cover within the buck brush (IE a floating limb tangled in some buck brush was a prime target). Between monday and Thursday morning we caught probably close to 50 bass many of which were between 15 and 17 inches.
On Friday morning they began dropping the water which started pulling the bass back out closer to the creek channel and made them school up in predictable areas. Between Thursday night and Friday morning we landed easily over 60 bass, 33 keepers, biggest 5 on Friday morning would've only went about 14lbs or so but we had a blast catching 'em. Most of our damage was done in the back of little bear and Sugar but we caught several in smiths and barret bay as well.
Great report. Thanks
Really good report Jimmy3. With a lot less tournament pressure this year and a couple spawn classes getting keeper size, the next few years down there might be ok.
Good to hear. Glad they dropped the hell out of the lake before they all started spawning
I couldn't agree more! The majority of the fish we were catching were extremely healthy, they're definitely finding a good food source somewhere.Originally Posted by jgorrell.tcp
Last June I was catching bass in close to the mouth of Duncan bay that were full of 1 1/2" asian carp. I think the smaller bass (under 3lbs) are taking advantage of the new abundant food source that is in the lake wile the older (over 3lbs) bass are still chasing the dwindling shad population. This is spreading the fish out making it more difficult to catch the numbers we are use to. I'm not gonna pretend that the numbers aren't down but I strongly disagree that the lake is dieing.
I remain optimistic, if they stop the inflow of carp, improve spawning habitat for game fish (artificiality transplant grass perhaps) and continue commercial fishing along with the modified unified technique we'll see a dramatic improvement over the next few years. I've fished the lake since the early 90s when my grandpaw would take me out and fish the grass mats catching 100s of bass a day on a lucky 13 till now. I've seen low points and high points good years and bad. It's definitely been at a low point the past couple years but if you put as much pressure on any lake, coupled with an introduction of an invasive species, couple years of poor spawns it'll hurt any lake.
Sorry, end of rant
Great insight...I too believe things will start to turn around soon.
I couldn't agree more! The majority of the fish we were catching were extremely healthy, they're definitely finding a good food source somewhere.
Last June I was catching bass in close to the mouth of Duncan bay that were full of 1 1/2" asian carp. I think the smaller bass (under 3lbs) are taking advantage of the new abundant food source that is in the lake wile the older (over 3lbs) bass are still chasing the dwindling shad population. This is spreading the fish out making it more difficult to catch the numbers we are use to. I'm not gonna pretend that the numbers aren't down but I strongly disagree that the lake is dieing.
I remain optimistic, if they stop the inflow of carp, improve spawning habitat for game fish (artificiality transplant grass perhaps) and continue commercial fishing along with the modified unified technique we'll see a dramatic improvement over the next few years. I've fished the lake since the early 90s when my grandpaw would take me out and fish the grass mats catching 100s of bass a day on a lucky 13 till now. I've seen low points and high points good years and bad. It's definitely been at a low point the past couple years but if you put as much pressure on any lake, coupled with an introduction of an invasive species, couple years of poor spawns it'll hurt any lake.
Sorry, end of rant
totally agree with this.
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