Kentucky lake report

[JHorn]

Whats the latest and greatest going on kentucky lake?? Plan on going monday but was wanting to know from someone that has been on the lake recently.

[BigBass]

Dave Stewart's Fishing Report
November 5th, 2009 - By Kentucky Lake/Lake Barkley Guide Dave Stewart
Kentucky Lake: Water Level at Ky Dam - 360.79 Surface Temperature - 60
Lake Barkley: Water Level at Barkley Dam - 360.80 Surface Temperature - 60

Both lakes are two (2) feet over summer pool. That is right, I said "over summer pool", not winter pool. Both lakes rose at a high rate this week as the flooding on the Mississippi River which is downstream from the lakes through the Ohio River caused the decision to be made to close off the flow on these lakes until the flooding subsides. This decision coupled with the fact that we here and upriver received heavy rains last week led to the rapid rise in the lake levels. The good news is, that the fall Largemouth Bass patterns have not really changed that much, the Largemouth just followed the shad farther back into the creeks and bays as the water levels went up. The only bad news is that there is a lot of wood debris on the lakes so one needs to be conscious of this and keep an eye out for it. The current forecast by the TVA on water levels shows the lakes with start drawing the water down this weekend, of course that is only a forecast and could change. The weather forecast for the weekend is for highs in the 70's and lows in the 40's with sunshine. Present forecasts show the wind to be from the south on Saturday at around 18 mph, if this holds true, small craft boaters need to take caution if venturing on the lakes on Saturday. The present forecast is calling for south wind at 7 mph on Sunday, if this forecast holds true, it should be a beautiful day for fishing.

Largemouth Bass: Largemouth Bass are being taken in the creeks and bays on shallow flats as they are feeding on schools of baitfish. These fall feeders can be taken on topwater lures, shallow running and lipless crankbaits and spinnerbaits. Largemouth are also being taken on secondary points and associated creek channel banks in the back halves of the creeks and bays. These fish are being taken on crankbaits, spinnerbaits, shaky head worms and finesse jigs. The Largemouth fishing is good for numbers and fair for keeper size fish.

Smallmouth Bass: Smallmouth Bass are being taken on main lakes points and secondary points in the front halves of the creeks and bays. These fish are being taken on crankbaits, finesse jigs and curly tail grubs. Some good fish are being taken but the numbers are being reported as low as the fish seem to be scattered.

Some of the productive lures reported this week are: Lucky Craft Sammy in ghost pearl lemon and aurora black, Chatterbuzz and Booyah buzzbaits in white, Hook Some Bass spinnerbaits in blue glimmer and white, Bandit crankbaits in rootbeer/chartreuse, Strike King crankbaits in sexy shad, Strike King red eye shad lipless crankbaits in sexy shad and blue/chrome, Lewis rattletraps on blue/chrome, Charmer shaky head worms in green pumpkin candy and Last Cast wooly bug jigs in green pumpkin with matching Net Baits trailer.

Crappie: Crappie are being taken mainly over brush piles in the creeks and bays in 10-15 ft of water by fishing vertically with small tube jigs, curly tail jigs and minnows. Some Crappie are also being taken around shallow wood by fishing with small jigs and minnows under bobbers as well as by casting curly tail jigs.

White Bass: White Bass are being taken in the creeks and bays as they are feeding on schools of baitfish. These fish are being taken shallow on inline spinners, small lipless crankbaits and small spoons. White Bass are also being taken in deeper water off the flats by vertically jigging small spoons and inline spinners under schools of baitfish.

Catfish: I have not had any reports on the Catfish this week but we are still catching some nice Channel Cats back on the shallow flats in the creeks and bays while bass fishing so my advice would be to set some jug lines out in the creeks and bays baited with yellowtail or minnows as was reported to be working last week.

Bluegill: Some nice Bluegills are being taken over brush piles in 10-15 ft of water by fishing with small jigs tipped with worms and also small curly tail jigs fished vertically.

FLASH: My incoming email server was out of service the past two days, it is now back online, but if you emailed me and did not get a response, you should resend your email or call me. I always answer my incoming emails within 24 hours or receipt.


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ANNOUNCEMENT:

I will be teaching the class on "How to Eliminate Water" again this winter since it was so popular last winter and the feedback from the folks that took the class has been so good. Also I have had a lot of requests to offer this class again so I am now taking bookings for the classes. I will be offering the classes during November, January and February.

Here are the timeframes for class availability:

November: 1 thru 30 (I will also be guiding in November so the number of days available for classes is dependent upon how many guide trip bookings I have for that month, if you want a date in November you should book asap)

January: 4 thru 31

February: 1 thru 24

I teach this class as a "one on one" so I do not do large groups. Classes are limited to one or two people. The price for the class is the same as last year: 100.00 for one person or 150.00 for two people. This class is taught in my home here at the lakes. This class is a 5 hour class. The class normally starts at 8:00 a.m. but times can be adjusted and even taught during the evening hours to accommodate your work or travel schedule.

What you will learn in the class:
How to Eliminate 80% or more of the water before you ever leave the house (trip preplanning) using a topographical map **
How to locate the highest percentage spots to be holding bass anytime of the year.**
How to make adjustments on the water when the weather/water conditions change **
Tips on lures, techniques, alternate patterns **
Questions and Answers: A chance to go one on one with me to answer your questions about these lakes, bass etc....
** This information can be applied to any lake with a shad forage base.
If you would like to book a date for this class, you can do so by calling me at 270-354-5039 or drop me an email. If you have any questions about the class, please feel free to call me. The best time to call me between now and the end of November is between 5:30 and 7:00 p.m. central time as I am on the water every day this month and also will be guiding when not teaching classes in November. If you call and no one answers, leave a message on my answering machine with your name and number and I will call you as soon as I return.
If the response to this class is anywhere near as it was last winter, you should make your reservation asap to ensure you can get the date you want.
FLASH: All persons attending one of the classes mentioned above will have their name entered into a drawing which will be held on February 28th, 2010. The lucky winner of the drawing will receive five (5) custom painted lures from MOAB Custom Baits (www.moabcustonbaits.com). Also, anyone attending these classes will also receive a tackle pack which will have some of my favorite lures from Charmer Baits (www.charmerbaits.com) , Hook Some Bass Lures, and D&L Tackle (www.dandltackle.com (http://www.dandltackle.com/)).
************************************************** *******************
If you are in need of a bass guide for some fun catch and release bass fishing, tournament preparation or technique instruction, don't hesitate to give me a call or drop me an email to book one of my open dates:
I have the following dates available in November:
17, 18, 19, 21 (these dates are available for either a guided trip or the class mentioned above)
I am taking reservations for next year, if you have not made your reservation for next spring you should do so very soon to insure you can get the date(s) you want.
Capt Dave Stewart
Bass Buster Guide Service
dave@kentuckylakeguide.com (dave@kentuckylakeguide.com)
www.kentuckylakeguide.com (http://www.kentuckylakeguide.com/)
"Fish With a Professional"

[OutdoorFrontiers]

I live less than 1/2 mile as the crow flies from Kentucky Lake, six minutes from the Paris Landing State Park boat ramp and was just out on it a couple days ago. The water temps are still near 65 degrees and the water levels are up over summer pool!

I've been finding largemouth up shallow and still orienting to weeds more than wood or rock as would be usual for this time of year.

When the levels had fallen, the weeds were easy to find but a couple of fall storms combined with wind/wave action, many of the weeds were uprooted and beds that were thick and lush a couple months ago are now gone or greatly reduced. The problem now is with the increased water levels is that the weeds can be hard to find.

But if you can get into areas that were protected from the wind and waves and you can find weeds, you're probably going to be getting into some pretty good fishing.

Spinnerbaits have done pretty well as have buzzbaits. White skirts with some red have seemed to produce the best for both lures. I know some guys have been doing pretty well with Zara Spooks too, but I haven't been throwing them a lot. I have still been seeing bass caught on Horny Toads, with black, watermelon green and junebug being the top producing colors.

The top producing lure for me lately has been a pearl colored Zoom SuperFluke. I've been Texas rigging them unweighted with a 5/0 EWG Gamakatsu hook. The way that seems to produce the best has been fishing them with a 7' medium, extra-fast action spinning rod and 10 lb. test PowerPro. This fine diameter, super limp line allows the lure to swing very widely when worked with a twitch...............pause........................ ..........................................twitch.. ............pause................................. ..............twitch retrieve. When I say I'm fishing it slow, I mean SLOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW! The strikes haven't been jarring, it's like they're following the lure down on the pause, grabbing it and simply holding it. When I go to pick up the slack and twitch again is when I feel there's a fish on. AND, the water clarity is pretty good, most of the strikes have occured when I've made a LONG cast and worked the lure past a weed clump.

Does this help?

Steve

[JHorn]

oh yeah any extra info helps. doesnt hurt. still gonna give it a shot monday if the weather doesnt get bad on me between now and then. thinkin about fishing between paris and danville.

[OutdoorFrontiers]

I was out today with Lil Mule. The water temps are 58 - 60 degrees and the water is falling pretty fast.

Caught some on a Super Fluke, but nothing on a C-Rig, nothing on a buzzbait or spinnerbait and surprisingly only one or two hits on a wacky rigged stick bait.

We were marking fish like crazy on the edges of the humps, but couldn't get any to eat. The fish that we could get to bite were up shallow and only one or two fish came off wood.

It was difficult to put together any kind of discernable pattern. Places that should have produced fish didn't, and other areas that didn't look like it was all that hot got us bit a little.

Steve

[lilmule]

Yup,and a keeper did come in the boat,out of about 1 -1 1/2 of water on the super fluke.
Danville is but a short hop from paris landing,south uplake to the rr bridge.
In this water clarity and shallowness steves light spinning outfit with 10 pd power pro frar out fishes my outfits,it takes long casts with the fish hitting at the end of the cast where or when it enters the water almost.

[JHorn]

thanks hopefully we wont get wet

[JHorn]

went monday and launched out of danville. pretty slow fished the grass to the right of the ramp with not much luck. fished the long stretch of grass that most of it had been washed away. no luck. caught a few short fish inbetween the islands on spinnerbaits, jigs, and a bubblegum super fluke. fished in the rain for about a hour and picked up some more scrub fish. after the last all day rain fishing i was pretty tired of the rain so called it a day. couldnt make anything happen around boat docks or in the coves.

[OutdoorFrontiers]

Yeah, I thought about you on Monday. I was also glad I wasn't out on the water, it was a miserable day....

Believe it or not, Kentucky Lake does have nice fish, you just picked a lousy time to be on it.

Steve

[JHorn]

oh yeah had a great season i know what it can produce. but now i know what it cant produce ha! i was out about 2 weeks ago when it rained all day and fished hard but it humbled me pretty good with only 1 dink fish around the outside of new johnsonville steam plant

[lilmule]

Most of our fish have come on a white super fluke lately,better luck next time
The steam plant seems to produce a lot of small fish,ever get a keeper off it?

[RedAllison]

Most of our fish have come on a white super fluke lately,better luck next time
The steam plant seems to produce a lot of small fish,ever get a keeper off it?

If you're talkin about the "intake", until this summer all I'd ever caught in there were "keeper" Kentucky's. In fact that was the only time I'd go in there was towards the end of a day when nothing much else was happening I'd go in there in hopes of a quick limit of dink KYs. But back in Sept (club tourney out of Pebble Isle) I pulled in there mid morning and started on that flat there on the left about halfway in. There are several crappie mats visible. I never got bit around crappie mats that day but there was one stump/stick visible near some of those mats. I pitched a brush hog in there and it never made it too the bottom. A 4-8 eat it and I ended up getting big fish with him. There were TONS of boats out that day as well including a couple already in there fishing. (I REALLY peeved a Ranger off that had just gone by that same stump without a bite! :D ) Everyone was washing white spinnerbaits and the better fish just seemed to want slow plastics (I had caught a 6-12 the day before while pre-fishing).

I was surprised how "feature less" those rip-rap banks are back there by the intake. I scanned them out methodically with my Side Imager and there's nothing down there that "stands out". I would've thought SOMETHING would wash up back there and being a current break it should hold fish. :confused:
RA

[andy]

It seems as though you guys have a great lake to fish at.
Continued success to you all.

Andy