Thread: CRAPPIE ON NORTH END OF KY LAKE

Originally Posted by Crappie Mate

IT SEEMS TO ME IN THE LAST FEW YEARS SINCE THE ASIAN CARP POPULATION EXPLODED THAT THE POPULATION OF CRAPPIE HAS DECREASED GREATLY ON THE NORTH END OF KNTUCKY LAKE AND THE FARTHER SOUTH ON THE LAKE YOU FISH THE FEWER ASIAN CARP YOU FIND AND THE MORE CRAPPIE THERE ARE. HAS ANYONE ELSE NOTICED THIS?

I FISHED THE NORTH END SATURDAY AND FOUND HUGE SCHOOLS OF CARP NO BAITFISH AND NO CRAPPIE!

Bottom line is... You can only put so many minners in a bucket! An ecosystem will only support so much and then Mother Nature steps in.

I'm a towboat pilot and run the TN river system all the way to Knoxville. Trust me when I say the problem is NOT just on the north end of KY Lake! They are in the entire system.

I have fished North Kentucky Lake for years and I have never seen the crappie fishing this bad. According to KDFW there has been some bad spawn years and I think that is playing the biggest role in not catching any bigger fish. I am seeing a lot of year 1 & 2 class fish and have been catching a lot of small fish. We fished a fruit jar tournament 11/22 and my team never caught a crappie. We checked over 40 stake beds and it looked like a dessert on the beds. One team did catch a lot of schooler fish so it goes to show there are some fish somewhere. The teams that fished south seemed to do pretty good. In the last few weeks I have scanned over 200 stake beds and it has been the same thing over and over again. Nothing holding on the beds. I talked to some guides that fish the north end and they are seeing the same thing. They are fishing for yellow bass if that tells you anything. I think it will be a couple of years before the populations cycle up. I fished Barkley in the 70's and 80's and watched the same thing there. Major cycle changes with hardly any fish anywhere. I do think the carp are making a big change in how the fish are behaving and it has to hurt the food chain. You can't introduce that kind of huge fish populations with out changing something. I look for some changes in the regulations also which is always very controversial.

Fishing has been sporatic on the north end but Saturday Cajun fryer and I marked MANY huge schools of bait fish. They were not relating to anything but top to bottom in 25 feet was covered with bait . I mean huge schools! The Asian carp will chase fish out of an area by just showing up. If there is some type of plan to rid/exterminate/kill the Asian carp it would be nice if whoever is doing the research,ie, feds, kdfwr or MSU would let us in on whats going on where they are at research wise. Maybe Paul Rister can let us know.

I live on the north end and I quit fishing north kentucky last year. I now fish Barkley or go south on Kentucky it's just gotten too difficult to find fish on the North end. Hope you are right and it's a cycle as sledd creek is a stones throw from the house.

I thought it was fine

I dislike Asian carp.

You don't have to rub too hard Dean.

Just pickin. Haha.