Fishing Report Archives

Kentucky Lake’s fishing scene has experienced another pretty good week, especially for bluegill and catfishermen as the bite has held up well.

Still in active bedding phases are bluegill and a few scattered redear sunfish, better known as shellcracker. Good catches have been reported throughout the week as surface temperatures heat up. Coolers full of bluegill have been coming in on a consistent basis.

Surface temperatures have climbed to the 75 to 76 degree range this week in the aftermath of some hot and humid weather at times. Lake levels are hanging around the 359.4 range at Kentucky Dam this week. That’s still a few inches above the summer pool level of 359, which has helped inundate a lot of shoreline habitat for bass, bluegill and shellcracker fishermen.

Water color remains clear across the reservoir despite several days of rain mixed with a few thunderstorms.

Bluegill are holding on to an aggressive bite and fanning spawning beds in 3 to 6 foot depth ranges. The dark adult males are really protecting spawning crater beds, which means great action awaits anglers tossing a cricket or redworm in their locale.

Bobbers have been disappearing on a regular basis for legions of bluegill and shellcracker anglers. There are still some nice size shellcracker being taken---several of which are hitting the 1-pound plus mark---but big numbers of fish have not been the norm.

There’s another couple of weeks of bedding time left so hop to it and wet a hook while these feisty panfish are territorial.

The catfish bite has also held up well this week. Some dandy stringers are being caught from the typical rocky areas along the shorelines of Kentucky Lake. The spawning phases of catfish should keep a few fish shallow into early June when they start to pull away and head deeper.

Bass fishermen have been beating the shallow grass beds and scoring decent catches from the shallow aquatic vegetation. Texas rigged craws, lizards and worms have worked as have spinnerbaits and some topwater in the early morning and late afternoon hours.

Some boats are already backing off the banks and stalking humps and ledges with the summer pattern of big deep diving crankbaits, Texas rigged worms, Carolina rigs and some swim baits.

Scattered crappie have been taken by a few skilled anglers stalking structure. Scattered fish are lingering in the 9 to 14 foot depth range. It’s a typical post spawn pattern requiring fishermen to make a lot of stops in their attempts to accumulate numbers.