Thread: High Wind Fishing on Ky Lake

Unless you have a thing for fishing in 3+ foot rollers, I would advise staying off the main lake in winds over 15 and only then in a large boat to just get from one spot to another . You might be able to stay close to the west shore to try some other bays but be aware the lake is not at summer pool and there will be hazards in the shallow water.

You can't fight the wind, but you can fish around it. Putting the boat on the trailer and driving to someplace with shelter from the wind is often a much better idea than trying to run on the main lake.

Friday looks like wind from the west, which isn't the wind that makes the main lake scary like a NNW wind will, but it can still be rough running. If you have a smartphone, an app like windfinder will be a big help in figuring out when the wind will be best for you.

Don't panic. I find wind forecasts even more unreliable than general forecasts. I loaded up and headed down with an 8MPH forecast and got 28MPH winds on the lake.

What boat are you fishing out of? A bass boat is a lot easier to fish out of in the wind. A lot of people will use drift socks to help control speed too. KY Lake is a beautiful, fantastic place to fish.

It's a killer too, every year people die because they don't respect it. Years ago I fished a bass tournament out of KY Dam Marina, the lake was absolutely up side down. We took on a bunch of water and a couple of times and I didn't think my Yamaha was going to pull up but it did. By the time we finally made it to the canal water was almost knee deep and we didn't have much free board. Yes the bilge pump was on, but one of the rollers we hit had broke the tabs off the bottom of the pump. I laid on my belly and held the bottom on and finally got the water out. At weigh in we found out that five boats had sank, luckily no one was injured.

Just use your head, there are many things in life more important than fishing.

Thanks you for the replies. We were planning on avoiding the main lake for the most part before having to deal with the wind.

We we won't be able to pack up and move much because only one boat is our own and we are renting the other one. With the big bear bay being so big do you think we will be able to find some shelter from the wind?

This is is our first trip down so I am just looking to find some spots to go incase things get a little hairy.

Originally Posted by justinp61

What boat are you fishing out of? A bass boat is a lot easier to fish out of in the wind. A lot of people will use drift socks to help control speed too. KY Lake is a beautiful, fantastic place to fish.

It's a killer too, every year people die because they don't respect it. Years ago I fished a bass tournament, the lake was absolutely up side down. We took on a bunch of water and a couple of times and I didn't think my Yamaha was going to pull up but it did. By the time we finally made it to the canal water was almost knee deep and we didn't have much free board. Yes the bilge pump was on, but one of the rollers we hit had broke the tabs off the bottom of the pump. I laid on my belly and held the bottom on and finally got the water out. At weigh in we found out that five boats had sank, luckily no one was injured.

Just use your head, there are many things in life more important than fishing.

We are fishing out of a 16.5 foot tracker deep V and the rental we have is an 18.5 foot tracker.

We also have drift socks that we plan on using. We are not going to do anything extreme. My original post might have been a little misleading. I meant to say that we are not going to stay in if at all possible due to the wind. I am hoping we can still at least move around the bay a little and it not be miserable or dangerous. Being our first trip we are going into this all blind and looking for ways to avoid problems but still wet some lines

We got drowned yesterday cutting across the main channel in Barkley. I took a shower on that tiller style motor I got...I'm trailering today and going out of Boyd's Landing. The rollers scared me but I didn't let my wife know it, lol.

Met MrDux yesterday too, I rudely dropped into his shop while he was working and he graciously handled me and my gang. A big thank you Doug for your time!! If I can ever catch anything worthy of a mount it's all yours my friend.

It won't be dangerous in the bay itself but a west wind that high is really going to limit your options of where you'll be able to fish. Looks like you'll be in for a lot of deploying and pulling wind socks to run back for another drift if you're spider rigging.

The forecast of wind sucks. I canceled last Thurs - Sat because of the weather and was thinking this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning but with wind on Friday and front coming through I think I'm going to stay home again.