Fishing Report Archives

p>Hey Y'all from the Excel Bay Pro 230 "Fishful Thinking".

As I type this, the trees in my yard are bending almost to their breaking point. I'm sure I would have been at my breaking point long before now if I hadn't cancelled my scheduled guide trips yesterday and today. Sometimes, you must cut your losses and let discretion be your guide.

Occasionally I get some blow-back from those who have days off or vacation plans that included fishing with me a day or more and I cancel the trip because of 15 mph winds or above. Those same folks would probably be past upset after having puked up their breakfast from a week ago if they tried to ride out a day on Kentucky or Barkley Lakes in high winds.

I will always err on the side of caution. I've never seen a fish worth getting hurt or worse for.

The lakes have settled back to normal levels and the daytime surface temperatures have stayed above 80 degrees. Fishing is starting to settle into somewhat normal also. Weather is always a factor when you have lakes the size of ours.

Friday found Ken and I in pea-soup fog for a couple of hours. I'm always leary of other boaters, but more so in fog. I never assume that other boaters are as cautious as I am.

I was a non-boater in a friend's boat during a bass tournament on Lake Sinclair in central Georgia years ago.  We launched from a marina at the confluence of two rivers. We were going to head straight across the lake and up the Oconee River. We had no idea that just a mile or so to our left, another tournament launched at the same time.

Fog was horrible, vision was just a few yards. My partner was letting his Hydra Sports boat rip at full speed. All of a sudden, we got drenched! We ran thru the rooster tail of another bass boat we never saw!! The boat had passed from our left to right at high speed and we never saw anything but the wake and the torrent of water.

My buddy grabbed the throttle and began to stop. I yelled for his to keep going or we would surely get killed! I have had a healthy respect of fog ever since. GPS gear on our boats takes the guess work out of where we are but unless one's boat is equipped with marine radar, you have no idea where the other boats are.

Ken has just retired from 31 years of military service and his guided trip was his retirement present to himself. I thanked him profusely for his service to our country. He was a novice at my type of fishing, so it was a quick learning curve to get started but the lack of experience didn't dampen his enthusiasm.

Before the trip was over, he had his personal best crappie AND catfish. After having been intimidated by my 14 foot Southern Crappie Rods off the sides of the boat, he soon found how useful they become when you need to steer a flopping crappie away from other lines and to the net.

We found we had a bunch of similar likes and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the trip. Ken's gift to himself ended up netting him a new appreciation of what I do, a wealth of knowledge about how I do it, some BS thrown in, and a healthy bag of fillets to boot.

Sunday, I got to Sportsman's Marina early in anticipation of my scheduled trip. The appointed time came and went, an hour plus came and went, then I decided my clients had either forgotten or decided not to come. I messaged Vicki to see if she wanted to join me after church, but she already had her free day by herself planned.

I went out to try to find some spawning bluegills and redears but gave up on that quest about two hours later. I thought what the heck, we need some crappie fillets at home, so I broke out the trolling gear. Those clients have no idea what they missed by not showing up beside their forfeited deposit.

The crappie were feeding and ignored all the Sunday boat traffic. It was hard for me to ignore any of it as they whizzed by me on all sides. I made the best of it and caught one of the best stringers of crappie for the year. I don't do selfies, but the bag of fillets was all the proof I needed.

Monday, we began to see the start of the weather from the tropical depression. We began the trip in a stout east wind that never let up. My clients, Theresa, Coy, and Tyler were troopers as I struggled to control the boat and stay on fish. They too had never fished the way I do but we all eager learners.

We ended the short trip with a good meal worth of fillets. Coy was an experienced fisherman but he wanted to learn any and every bit I could explain to him about my tackle and electronics. He caught the largest crappie and a catfish on one of my custom cranks so I gave it to him as a gift for being such an eager learner.

Our crappie are coming off deep drops toward the main lake. They are all spawned out and thin but eager to engulf the baits. One extremely encouraging thing I'm seeing is clouds, schools I guess, of tiny minnows. They are apparently shad and a welcome sight. The future of our fishing is directly linked to amount of food they have and from this, the future looks bright. I'm hoping there are also clouds of game fish minnows from a productive spawn.

If you are into filling your freezer with fillets over the next week or so, the catfish bite, especially on Barkley, is on fire. Cut bait, shrimp, worms, processed baits, and probably the kitchen sink will draw strikes. Fish these baits under a bobber along gravel and rocky shores.

Most I'm seeing are channel cats but there are reports of some good catches of blue catfish in slightly deeper areas. Since there is no limit on catfish, catch what you need but don't be greedy and take more than you care to clean. I've never been successful in giving away fish that aren't cleaned and packaged when the call is made to friends late at night.

My Dad loved the catfish bite. He would drag out those red and white bobbers the size of a softball that sounded like a brick hitting the water when I wanted to be stealthy. I kidded him with no mercy about them, but they were easier for him to see when a fish bit.

We spent hours talking about his childhood escapades along the Cumberland River and tributaries now under Lake Barkley. I miss those times a lot. I made sure one of his softball-sized bobbers, a Jitterbug, and Hula Popper bass topwater baits were placed in his casket. Take time to enjoy time on the lakes with your family and friends while you still can.

We are now into the summer boating season and traffic is bad. Give a wide berth to those who are fishing. Wear your life jackets and leave the booze on the bank. Watch out for the KY Fish and Wildlife Patrol. They are out in force and their presence is much appreciated. All our Law Enforcement work hard to see that we have a great time on the water.

Welcome to our slice of Heaven.