Anybody fished in the New Johnsonville area of the lake? I usually fish from Harmon Creek to Birdsong, but have not been down there in last couple years. Thanks much, will be down there next week.
Anybody fished in the New Johnsonville area of the lake? I usually fish from Harmon Creek to Birdsong, but have not been down there in last couple years. Thanks much, will be down there next week.
I would go father north if I were you. Paris Landing and up seems to be doing much much better.
Its looking up there also, but given the choice I'd fish from Paris Landing north as stated above. Not sure why but the lake seems to be improving from the north end southward. Further North you go the better it seems to be. My experience anyway.
Spot on. I have no idea why either. I don't know how to really explain that one. Little deeper water up north may be all the differenceOriginally Posted by Bobby Gray
I think there is just better spawning habitat farther north. South of Danville, its dirtier water and not as much hard bottom. If the water doesn't get in the bushes down south, there isn't much to spawn on. Up North, with the clearer water and more rock they can spawn deeper which opens up a lot more spawning habitat. That's my opinion haha Probably doesn't hurt the north side that all the big tournaments go out from Paris north either.Spot on. I have no idea why either. I don't know how to really explain that one. Little deeper water up north may be all the difference
The south end needs the grass.
I fished a club derby on June 2 out of New Johnsonville, and it was very tough for us! The lake looked good with the water up 1.5 ft, but the shallow bite was just not there. Water was in the bushes, willow weeds had plenty of water around them and lots of wood had good depth around them. We caught dinks off current breaks in the River but few keepers. Shaky head, Ned northrig, and Neko rig. I fished from Richland Creek to Birdsong, including Beaverdam creek. Water was heavy stain in the River, but decent in the creeks. Current was good(80-90,000) but couldn’t take advantage of that. Our club winner fished north of Paris.
I'll see how the south end is Saturday. Ky Lake Open out of Eva. I will be stubborn and not go North. Not able to prefish any, and I ain't burning the gas to run way up North not knowing where any are at.
Just going to grind it out around Jville and see what I can come up with.
I'm sure it will be won by someone going North though.
Isn't the strike king tournament this weekend or is that what you are calling the KY Lake Open? Strike King is usually out of Pebble Isle
Yea thats it it's just called the Ky Lake Open now. Its at Eva this year. I think Pebble Isle doesn't want tournaments there anymore. That's what I was told anyways.
Can confirm...New Johnsonville area still sucks
I did catch a 4lb smallmouth on a magnum spoon though, so that was pretty cool at least.
What ended up winning the tournament?
Gary Singleton won with 21.28lbs
To cut a check at 15th was 15.06.
Several zeros or most likely people that just did what I did and threw their fish back. Some hammers as well.
I think I was about the only person that did not go NorthBlast off that's where everyone went and kept going till they were out of sight. I fished from Jville to Sulfur Creek and never hardly ran into anyone fishing. Did see a guy in a wrap boat pull up on the spot I had just caught the 4lber on and cull twice with two small fish right before weigh-in. He needed the one I caught and lost off that spot would have probably put him in 2nd. Smallmouth I lost was at least 5lbs. Lost a 3rd big one too, but it pulled off before I ever got to see it. That happened in 3 consecutive casts. Lost, caught, lost. Thought I was really about to do something, but then it died never got bit again.
He was throwing something little on a spinning rod though, so I don't know if he would have triggered those bites like I did with the magnum spoon, but he did catch the smaller fish that I couldn't get to bite.
Last edited by west_tn; 06-12-2024 at 03:22 PM.
We fished that Saturday out of Paris, headed south, because of the wind... never got south of Danville.. (forgot about the Eva deal) We had a pretty good day. Got on a good mayfly hatch early and ended up with 3 over 3lbs and a bunch of just keepers in about a 100 yard stretch. Kind of surprised us. Moved out mid morning and struggled rest of the day.. only got 2 bites offshore, but both were real good ones. Both 4.5 lbs or so.. I scanned for probably 2 hours and never really saw a school with more than 5-6 fish on it, except in one place. Watched a pair of kids.. looked like maybe college kids in a wrapped boat pull up on medium depth flat close to a place we were fishing and wreck them.. probably 6-8 fish in 5 mins or so, saw at least one good one - they left it pretty quick I thought? We came back by there several hours later, they weren't there and I scanned it and it was seriously loaded with them. Biggest school I've seen in years. Like pre-asian carp years. I didn't fish it, never intended to.. but was curious what they could be on there? The place they were at was way up on a flat far from an edge. I wouldn't have scanned there in a hundred years and wonder how they ended up there? Makes me realize how much I need to change my attitude about where they get and also realizing ain't no way a weekender could do enough scanning to find some of the places these fish get.
I was banking on the early morning mayfly hatch bite myself. Massive mayfly hatch at eva and I went to my normal mayfly honey hole and never got a bite. I couldn't believe it.
You know there make be something to that way up on the flat not near the edge thing. The ones I caught/lost were way up on it literally as far as I could cast. Even moved up on top of it myself to get my cast farther up there. After reading what you said it and putting 2 and 2 together makes me wonder if I should have moved quite a bit farther up?
We fished a tournament out of jville this past weekend. Took 20.5 to win. We caught a 15-20 before 7:30 with only two keepers and the bite been cold on us after that. Sure is a bunch of short fish right now. In a couple years, we are gonna be in high cotton.
Sure do hope you are correct!
Fishing up and away is how we use to catch a lot of our fish years ago and still do SOMETIMES! Lots of folk's fish to deep and i am as guilty as anyone sometimes especially in late July and early August. We caught a lot of fish slow rolling a spinner bait 20-30 yards up on the flats, sometimes almost dragging like you would a big worm. Some of our best spots were from Blood down to Richland area, sometimes we went all the way to N J area or just north of it.
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