Kentucky Lake Water Clarity

[Scott17b]

I was wondering what the average water clarity of Kentucky Lake usually is...

Anyone thats been out fishing, whats the clarity now???

Thanks for the information in advance!

[buffalo13]

Muddy to Stained. Depending on what bay and where you are in that bay..

[Old Guide]

Same thing towards the south end in Kentucky also. I would hope it would clear up soon but more rain is forecast for mid week. I guess as long as it keeps warming I can handle the stained water. I think we think of the fishes eyesight as we think of our own. Even though they are suppose to see much better through stained and even muddy water then we give them credit for.

Lyndon

[CrappiePappy]

I think the "average" water clarity of Ky Lake is probably considered "mildly stained" ... as in not being able to see bottom, or a chartreuse jig, more than a foot or so deep. Right now, however, runoff & inflow has the water muddied up (as evidenced by our Ky Lake angler's replies).

Many years ago, my friends & I fished KY & Barkley .... usually around the 3rd weekend of April ... minnows/slip floats in the buckbrush, stumps, & logjams of the shallows. One year, when we arrived, the lake was flooded & murky to muddy. Many people were turning around in the parking lots & heading back home. Not wanting to waste our 5hr drive down, we decided to give it a try, anyway. Couldn't really get on any of our buckbrush spots, as they were submerged under the murky waters (though I did manage one good fish from one). One of my friends saw a couple of guys coming to the cleaning station, carrying a stringer load of Slabs. He talked to them, and found out that they were fishing the flooded live trees, along the banks, in about 2-4fow. We decided to stay, and give that a try. We caught quite a few Slabs ... putting the minnow/float right next to the flooded live trees, and placing it on all four "sides", before moving on to the next tree. If your minnow/float was more than a foot away from the tree ... no bites !! Seems the fish were nosed up to the trees, probably for a reference point, and wouldn't move away from them ... even to hit a bait. I even got back into a thicket of trees, along a bank in Barkley Lake (around the dam area) ... and while trying to back the boat out of a spot, and prop washing the tree in front of me ... had a Slab hit my minnow/float, right in the prop wash !!
Now, whether or not the Black Crappie would do the same, under similar conditions ... can't say. This particular experience happened back in the mid 1970's Doh ... when White Crappie were kings & queens of those lakes. BUT ... if you're ever faced with those conditions ... don't turn around & go back home, at least not until you've tried this. You may be pleasantly surprised. We certainly were ... Thumbs Up :D

... cp

[Old Guide]

You are right Pappy! I have fished extremely shallow in high stained to muddy water. I believe the crappie are less intimidated in skinny water when it is muddy. Of course the next element is warmer water. But for the blacks that are now coming in 50's to around 60 is fine. In three to four weeks it will take water a little warmer to bring in the majority of the whites. But again I have hauled 2 to 3 pound blacks and whites out of 2 feet of water as long as it was stained to muddy and warming.

Lyndon

[kyfishman]

Years ago we used to expect high, muddy water for early springtime fishing around the Big Sandy area of Kentucky Lake.....and I mean "muddy." Water quality, in general, has improved greatly on Ky Lake over the last 30 years or so, due in part to better soil conservation practices by area farmers..and better water/land/polution management in general by a number of agencies around the lake, both government, industrial, and private-related. Better, clearer water in general has attributed to much of the vegetation growth in the lake which has in return helped the lake hold its clarity...which has in turn promoted the rise of the black crappie population. Back in the days before most people had ever heard of jig-fishing, we used to use cane poles, big floats, and heavy-weight nylon fishing line to dunk minnows in the flooded willow trees and buck brush of Big Sandy and catch literally "tons" of fish out of the muddy, springtime water. Of course, in those days there were no such things as size limits or numbers limits and in the springtime people descended on Ky Lake in droves and caught.....and kept....nearly every size crappie. Growing up as a kid in those days I was "turned on" to crappie fishing...but...I have no desire to go back to days like that whatsoever. I'd much rather see the crappie management we have now and the improved lake conditions and water management that are in place. I enjoy catching both white and black crappie, but especially favor the black crappie because they are just scrappier and offer more fight. And I'm glad to see that crappie fishing has changed from a "meat" industry to more of a real "sport" where the fisherman has to use his/her mind and fishing talents and techniques to catch the quality fish of KY Lake. I, for one, will do everything I can to promote better water quality in the lake and further the sport of crappie fishing.

[Scott17b]

Thanks for the information! I appreciate it! Sounds pretty close to my home lakes.