Barren 3/13/2016

[smashdn]

Temp 56.8
Color - Clear green on main lake, cloudy green at mouth of Peters back almost to the bridge, increasingly chocolatey about 1/4 mile below the bridge.

Spider riggers all over. Had to weed through lots of small fish. We were casting jigs to nothing in particular, fish were suspended about 5-10 foot in 12-16 fow.

I used baby bass with a chartreuse tail and bubble gum pink with a chartreuse tail on a black slider head. Dad used solid pearl on a black head. Out of ten fish two measured. We chunked them back. One black and one white. Both thin fish.

Rain chased us about 1:45.

[MonkeyMilk]

Thanks for the report, Smash. Knew lake would be crowded Sunday so decided to leave big boat in barn and took the jon boat and my wife to river after lunch. We fished Barren 4-5 miles below dam, only 4 keepers and about 60 short fish (avg. 4"!!). Not sure when they will start holding lake, but all this up and down has made it tough on us river rats the last few weeks. Big fish bite should improve this week now that I have more time to fish in the evenings after work....thanks to time change.

[smashdn]

I hear you on the river issues. I had intentions of trying for sauger below L&D 5 since close of duck season. Seemed the river was always a mess every weekend.

The short fish we caught were very short as well. 4-6" tops. In about three years the lake should be loaded though.

I can't really tell if they are holding it not but the graph is showing it coming up slightly. It had dropped about a foot and a half the last week as of Sunday when I was out.

I realized pretty quick that I need to get back into the habit of putting out brush piles, specifically ones that will be in decent water with the lake down.

[MattRagle]

They haven't started holding water yet should start in the next couple of days depending on the amount of rain. They are trying to keep it so that the lake isn't above summer pool for panfish spawns that would result in a lot of numbers of eggs lost in receding waters.