Need guide for KY and Taylorsville Lakes

[Wichita]

Can you suggest some good guides for crappie fishing these lakes?

[Old Guide]

Hi Wichita,

I am a KY and US Coast Guard licensed guide on Kentucky and Barkley. My site is http://www.kylakefishtales.com. I am getting booked up this spring but I might be able to help you and if not maybe I can suggest someone that can. Also I like your avatar. I am a fan of Red Skelton. I use to crack up at Gertrude and Heathcliff.

[CrappiePappy]

Can you suggest some good guides for crappie fishing these lakes?

You really don't "need" a guide on Taylorsville. And, you need not expect to catch a lot of "slabs" from there, either. It just doesn't produce fish of any great size, in any appreciable numbers. If you get your 15 fish/day limit of 9in-11in fish ... then you've "slayed em" !!
It's not a lake I'd travel from out of state to fish.

There are some guides that do Taylorsville Lake ... but, they're not specifically targeting Crappie. They also do Bass, Hybrid Striped Bass, and Bluegill. I've fished the lake since it opened ... and I've only seen one guide boat, in all those years. And the day I saw him - he wasn't "guiding", he was just fishing for Hybrids (Father/son).

Mid April to Mid May is about the best time to fish Taylorsville ... and casting weedless jigheads/plastic bodies to blowdown trees and shoreline brush is the method I've had the most success with. Of course, minnows under a float, around the shoreline standing trees & blowdowns, is always a good bet.
The one thing about Taylorsville, that you have to be aware of and take into consideration (when going there to fish, and especially if it's a long trip for you), is that the lake can rise several feet in one day, after a heavy rain (1" or more). Daily monitoring of the water level and area rainfall will go far in keeping you from wasting your trip/time. Here's a link to that info :
http://www.lrl.usace.army.mil/wc/reports/lkreport.html

Click on the blue numbers in the column under "Todays Pool Feet" (current lake level) and a chart will be shown that shows you the past year's rain & lake level effects.

The best I've ever done there, was a limit of 15 fish that weighed 10lbs. And that was several years ago, during the spawning period. I've yet to duplicate anything close to that stringer of fish :p ... but I hope to have more chances to fish there, this year. ........ luck2ya ... cp

[Wichita]

I live 15 min. from Taylorsville but was considering a guide there just for experience and to learn new techniques. A friend and I hit the spawn just right and we caught and released over 100 crappie that day casting jigs. 1st time I have ever been wore out but was addicted that day. Like you said they were all 8 to 11 inches. As for KY Lake I wanted to take my Dad and plan a weekend guys trip out and put him on some slabs.

[CrappiePappy]

I live 15 min. from Taylorsville but was considering a guide there just for experience and to learn new techniques. A friend and I hit the spawn just right and we caught and released over 100 crappie that day casting jigs. 1st time I have ever been wore out but was addicted that day. Like you said they were all 8 to 11 inches. As for KY Lake I wanted to take my Dad and plan a weekend guys trip out and put him on some slabs.

I may have to hire YOU as a Taylorsville guide :D

Seriously though ... pretty much all techniques would work there, given the right circumstances. Well, maybe with the exception of "shooting docks" :p But, casting jigs to the trees, jigging the trees, trolling jigs, using minnows/shad (about any way you'd want to), and Vertical Casting have all worked for me, at one time or another.

I'm hoping to be able to fish more, this year, and hit some of the lakes I haven't fished in awhile. Taylorsville is one of them. Maybe I'll see you there. ........ luck2ya ... cp

[Wichita]

What was weird that day we started out using minnows and never got a bite! When we switched to tossing jigs we scored. black/green chart. and black/pink chart. tipped with nibblets. We had a ball and I hope to hit it again like that.