Thread: Heads up on Ky and Barkley Lakes Levels.

Me and my son fished Barkley this afternoon. We caught 6 in 12' of water. All but one was on black and chartreuse jigs, the other on minnows. Man the surface temps have jumped! my depth finders had it at 50!! Its fixin to get right!!

Originally Posted by jdrowl67

Me and my son fished Barkley this afternoon. We caught 6 in 12' of water. All but one was on black and chartreuse jigs, the other on minnows. Man the surface temps have jumped! my depth finders had it at 50!! Its fixin to get right!!

Is Barkley clearing a little or still very muddy?

Originally Posted by Wiskers

I like the following. I like a dark body (but have had great luck with yellow and chartreuse tubes) and light Roadrunners on a rattle bobber. I like to toss it close to cover, twitch it a few times and slow roll it back. Tipping with a minnow helps sometimes too. Once you find fish in dirty water there'll usually be several.

Use anything you can to draw attention to the location of your bait. Big baits, scents, minnows, spinners, movement, vibration, (dark colors show up better in dirty water), glow jigs. Stack the deck in your favor.

If you start catch'n yellow belly stripes the Black crappie are close!!!

Wiskers, you should write a book! If you ever do, let me know cause I'm buying. Again, I'm saving this one to remind myself every time it gets muddy what I need to do. Thanks!

Originally Posted by Bronson

Wiskers, you should write a book! If you ever do, let me know cause I'm buying. Again, I'm saving this one to remind myself every time it gets muddy what I need to do. Thanks!

Thanks buddy, but there's a lot better fishermen than me out there.

Terry you are a wealth of knowledge! Thanks brother!! Hope to go out with you this spring or summer...I've got so much to learn! BTW, Drake's a big dog now and spoiled!

Bronson, She's still muddy! We fished again yesterday afternoon, caught 5. The temp out in the main lake jumped up to 53 with the sun out yesterday. We found fish in brush but they weren't biting.

If there's water up in the living trees along the banks of Barkley ... say, 3-5ft deep ... and the water is "dirty" but not muddy ... someone needs to fish right against those live trees with a minner/cork about 1.5ft deep. Bonus scenario would be to find a old dead tree that was flooded. Fish that minner all the way around the trees, or at least on all four "sides" ... and don't drop the minner/cork farther than a foot from the tree.

Worked for me, many moons ago !! Crappie were nosed right up against those flooded trees, and even prop wash wouldn't push them away !! Now, this was in April, when it happened to me ... and we did only catch White Crappie ... but, it's still worth a try (providing you can get your boat back into the inundated tree line). Oh, and it worked on KY Lake, too !!

... cp

I agree with CrappiePappy. See Whiskers original post!