All you have to do is fish outside of normal tournament hours. The fishing seems to be better then too, almost like the fish are conditioned to it. Seriously, on a Saturday just sleep in, then hit the lake around 3 or 4 and fish until dark, usually have everything to yourself then. Ask Roddy, he keeps posting pictures of early evening fish.
Ranger Forever
From Dave Stewart's latest fishing report...and I couldn't agree more..." If someone is fishing a ledge spot you wanted to fish when you get there, find another ledge, do not pull up beside another boat and start fishing just because you wanted to fish there. If you don't know any other places to fish other than that spot, come see me and I will teach you how to find other good spots. The lake is 184 miles long and 2 miles wide...there is no excuse for showing disrespect for your fellow boaters and anglers."
Well put Mr. Stewart.
Good Luck.
-Jonathan
Jonathan Adkins
2022 Nitro Z21xl 250 ProXS4S
HDSLive12s/Ghost/AT2/G360
I couldn't agree more with what everyone is saying, especially Mr. Dave Stewart. The lake is huge and full of ledges. The bass are aplenty, so there's no need to be hanging up on another anglers line.
With that said, unrealistic spot hoarding is also a thing. Many ledges are very long, so just because you are fishing a section of it doesn't mean the entire ledge belongs to you. Last weekend a guy gave me and my buddy the evil eye like we were taking his spot. It was an area where a secondary channel emptied into the main channel. He is set up about 100 yard north of the intersection with his boat pointing north and a south wind blowing him away from it. We pull up and I give him the benefit of the doubt that he initially set up on the north corner of the intersection and is letting the wind blow him along, but that maybe he wants to double back and fish back up to it. So we start scanning the south corner of the intersection and eventually locate a small school about 100 yards farther south where we drop the trolling motor, boat facing south into the wind. So just to clarify, we are roughly 300 yards apart at this point with our boats facing opposite directions, and I'm a good 200 yards from where I assume he started. We catch a small 2 lber and about that time he whips the boat around and starts heading our way. Probably took him 20+ minutes with his trolling motor on 100% to fight through the wind, cross the secondary channel, and then get up close enough for us to know he was trying to get a point across. Either he felt we moved in on his spot, or he saw us catch one and was trying to ease in on our spot. Either way, in my mind he was the one that was out of line.
I pretty much stayed off ledges all day. I like to ledge fish but I was catching fish pretty good on points and secondary points. I have always read on here about the issues with ledge fishing crowds so I always kept an eye out from time to time to watch how many folks were ledge fishing the day I was there. They loaded up pretty good but only one spot I noticed folks really on top of each other. Probably they knew each other because they were almost rub rail to rub rail! I couldn't help myself I had to watch. I figured any second someone was going to shot! haha One guy just fired his motor and left full throttle in the middle of those boats. I thought geez I get upset if that happened to me so I stayed off ledges pretty much all day. The other time was when I was waiting for my wife to return to the dock to get in the boat after parking the truck with me launching the boat. A guy picked his buddy up at the same dock that did the same thing as my wife. Now it's pretty early morning and a lot of folks are launching their boats. That guy dropped the hammer right beside the dock and was on plane and full throttle in seconds! I thought what a douche bag! He could have hit someone, etc. But there were a lot of nice folks on the lake and plenty that showed as much courtesy as we did! I don't get fish KY Lake or Barkley very often if at all but I always have a great time when I do!
After reading this thread I thought place Like Lake Fork or Toledo bend was bad until now. I had a buddy up y'all's way for the Triton owner Tournament and said the prefish days were crowded but never said a fowl word about the ethics of anyone. In fact he said he met some of the nicest people he has ever met and looking forward to going back next year.
99% of people are great and will never give you any problems whatsoever. This thread makes it sound worse than it is, but it highlights the 1% that has no hesitation pulling up right alongside you without permission (or in my example thinks that "their spot" is a quarter-mile radius around where their boat is sitting).
People everywhere are behaving like many do at Kentucky Lake. When I go down there, its in the spring. Not always, but usually, I can find fish back up in the creeks in the brush, or on secondary points. I always fish during the week, so I don't have much trouble, but it still happens. On my home lake, lowly Brookville Reservoir in SE Indiana, I have people come right up and pull in front of me almost within a cast distance. Of course on that lake you do have to deal with the walleye fisherman who will troll within 10 feet of your boat if you're sitting on a dropoff at the edge of a flat.
Bill Gard
Richmond, Indiana
2015 BassCat Caracal/225ProXs
TEAM SHERM'S MARINE
Of course I talk to myself...sometimes I need expert advice.