Fishing Report Archives

Good morning from the Excel Storm Cat 230.

The calendar says June 1st. My sweat glands say August 15th. A couple of days off the boat have had me catching up with Honey-Doos around the house. I did take time to clean my nasty boat. Those tasks have had me going thru multiple sets of clothing each day to replace the soaked with dry.

Now that the Storm Cat is much cleaner, I’ll be installing ergonomic matting in the floors for my clients’ and my benefit. Those of you who have fished with me know I stand almost the entirety of my trips.

I need to keep my head on a swivel while trolling plus it is just more comfortable for me to stand than to be constantly up and down. The mats should make my standing much more comfortable.

I had a pair of great client trips with some old friends and new friends before the holiday crowds drove us off the lake.

One noteworthy catch happened on Friday. We had just started pulling Pico cranks when it appeared one of them hung on the bottom. I helped the lady get the rod out of the holder then realized it was a fish! A BIG fish!!

She handled the ACC Crappie Stix 12-foot rod like a pro, laughing and screaming the whole time. When we finally got the fish to the much-too-small net, we saw it was a giant white drum. I was able to get it into the net then into the boat. High-fives all around then when time came for pictures, she didn’t want any part of it. I held it up while her husband took my picture. It was then released for some other lucky (or unlucky) fisherman to hook into.

Once Memorial Day was behind me, I took the chance to take my favorite cousin, Rickie, out for a fun trip so he could stock up for a family fish fry. The day started with the lake slick as glass. We both love to pull Off Shore Tackle planer boards, so we started out with the mini boards and ended up with the larger OR12s as the boat traffic and wind increased.

To say it was a multi-species day would be an understatement. We caught white crappie, black crappie, sauger, a Warmouth, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, blue catfish, channel catfish, drum, hooked a gar, white bass and yellow bass.

I’ve always said any fish in the lake that will eat a minnow will eat a crankbait and we proved it. Hooking a ten-pound catfish on a crank and watching an OR12 board disappear like a tiny bobber makes for fun times. We ended up with a large cooler full of catfish, crappie, and sauger for Rickie’s fish fry.

Lots of the crappie I had been catching on deeper flats are now relating to the channels and channel drops. The catfish are spawning so they use the same areas to go into, then back out of their preferred spawning habitat. We will have a full moon next week so the catfish, bluegills and redears will all be spawning. The white bass appear to have spawned out, as have the crappie on Kentucky Lake.

Check out the rocky banks and riprap areas for the catfish. Bluegills and redears will be in the creeks and bays where there is a sandy/pea gravel bottom.

I’ll be taking some much-needed time off this week and weekend. Vicki has now recovered from her neck surgery to a point where she feels like riding in the car for the trip to Lexington to the KHSAA 3A Track and Field Championship on Saturday.

Our Granddaughter, Georgia, is competing in the discus. She recently broke her own Marshall County HS record throw. She broke the 20-year record for the school last year. She makes us proud! She will be off to Northern Kentucky University in the fall to study Media Arts/Animation. Her art talent is unmatched.

Be careful out there!

Welcome to our slice of Heaven.