Thread: summer pool/winter pool

Originally Posted by ronnbo

Does kentucky lake change from winter pool to summer pool at the same time evey year.And how much does it effect the lake fishin.

Yep. And depending on how it happens it can make fishing good or bad. Just depends on what the fish are doing when they make the change in water levels.

when do they do it?

Originally Posted by ronnbo

when do they do it?

April 1, but she's going up right now.

I cant get down till april 8th do you think Ill be alrigrt?

Originally Posted by ronnbo

I cant get down till april 8th do you think Ill be alrigrt?

Sure. These cold fronts are gonna hold the temps down. You'll be fine. Fish'n might be get'n good about then.

We Fished Jonathan And Sugar Bay.. All Day Tuesday And Until About Noon Wednesday... Man We Struggled And The Bite Wasnt There... Fished With A Local Guy We Know Wednesday And Tried Everything... Slow... Slow ...slow... Spider Rigged Most Of Tuesday And Then Went To The Shallows When It Started Warming Up... Vertical Jigged Brush And Ledges Wedn... Even Went Out On The Big Water And Tried A Good Spot That Local Knew Of... Ended Up With 5 Keepers Each Day... We Did Have A Couple Fish Right At 15 Inches... Caught Probably 10 Shorts On Tues And Only A Couple On Wed.. We Talked To Few And Saw No One Catching Anything At Least Where We Were... We'll Be Down There April 8th,9th,10,11th To Give It Another Shot... I Like It Down There The Last Couple Weeks Of March Instead Of April But Due To The Family And Work Couldnt Do A Long Trip This Year In March..

the water is at 357.4 right now thats almost summer pool right?If they change to summer pool will that make the lake to high and hurt the fishin?.Thanks again fellas for the info maybe Ill see some of you guys on the water and thank you in person.Hope we can catch some fish looks like its gonna be the only fisin vac this year.

Originally Posted by ronnbo

the water is at 357.4 right now thats almost summer pool right?If they change to summer pool will that make the lake to high and hurt the fishin?.Thanks again fellas for the info maybe Ill see some of you guys on the water and thank you in person.Hope we can catch some fish looks like its gonna be the only fisin vac this year.

OK, here's how I look at it. The lake is at 357.4 which is 1.6' below summer pool. It's gonna continue to rise alittle until the Ohio crests. If it is at summer pool (359') when the ohio crests, they will probably try ro hold that. With all this rain I doubt that's gonna happen. More than likely the lake is gonna go above summer pool. If that happens then TVA will draw the lake back down to summer pool when the Ohio crests. If that draw down is a small one, say a foot or so it won't hurt the fish'n much. If it's 3' or 4' like we had the last couple of years... Yep, its gonna hurt the fish'n and the spawn.

Look at fishing rising water like an easter egg hunt. It's easier to find 20 easter eggis in a small yard than in a 10 acre cow pasture. As the water comes up the lake gets bigger. More living space for the crappie. You gotta learn to eliminate unproductive water. If you go on that easter egg hunt and they tell you that they hid all the eggs in the cow pasture around the edge, near the fence then that cuts down the area you have to search.

This time of year when the water comes up and warms up, the crappie have spawning on their minds and will be on the edges in the shallows while the water is rising or holding. Now If I tell you we put all the eggs on the outer edge of the pasture close to the fence posts, that narrows your search even more. Key on chunk rock banks, steak beds, flooded shoreline trees, and bushes (the fence posts). Try to fish about where the old summer pool level would be. Typically that's where they'll stage for the lovefest.

Rising water ain't bad if you stack the card/eggs in your favor. :D