Fishing Report Archives

In my last couple reports I talked about the bass spawn and a little about what some of the other game fish were doing here at Kentucky and Barkley Lakes. I have been on both lakes equally this year spending more time on Kentucky Lake the last few weeks.

This year there has been a significant difference in morning water temperatures with Barkley being cooler than Kentucky Lake first thing in the morning. On Barkley Lake the largemouth bass just started to spawn probably Tuesday of this past week while on Kentucky it was the third time they moved back up to spawn.

There are some areas on Barkley that warm up sooner and retain the warmer temperatures so the bass will spawn earlier in those locations.

In the last couple days red ears have moved up shallow to spawn and anglers are catching them now in about 2 to 4 feet. Crappies are still being caught shallow and in deeper water. Smallmouth bass should be about done spawning.

We have had a few significant cold fronts and one period of water that rose two feet then slowly dropped a few inches a day putting the brakes on spawning activity and causing fish to back out.

I have continued using one of my favorite bass catching techniques for the spawning season using a weightless trick worm in six inches to three feet of water. On Wednesday the bass started really taking the trick worm again and have continued all week. While they were hitting the trick worm well all week each was different then the day before due to water rising a few inches each day and yesterday I caught many of them in one foot of water.

Those super shallow fish won’t be caught on bigger, louder, flashy baits and basically go untouched by fisherman. I checked some deeper areas a long way from spawning flats and caught quite a few keepers and a few hawgs some of these deeper fish have not spawned at all.

I just posted an article about the bass spawn on my Shelldivers Guide Service Facebook Page. It is a really good and informative article so check it out!

This is a great time to get out and fish Kentucky and Barkley Lakes so I hope you all can get out here soon and enjoy the beautiful scenery and catch some fish!