Pulling Bandits on KY Lake

I've played with this for a couple of years but lately I've acquired the correct (for me) equipment and took the leap. I locked my studio door yesterday after a tough week and headed to KY Lake. I trolled a couple of major creeks and did pretty well for starts. I started out trying to find concentrations of suspended fish but ended up looking for cover at 15-20 feet. My fears were I would end up tangled up all day and lose a few dozen new Bandits. I finally decided I bought them to use and if I lost some, so be it. The early fish I caught were mostly dinks and small keepers plus the usual yellow stripes that will worry the hair off you. I ended up with 6 keepers from the 1st creek and decided to trailer down the lake to a creek that the wind wouldn't affect so much. At the 2nd creek I found larger fish but was terrorized by the lake lice with their 30 foot speed boats and pontoons who thought it was OK to run within 20 yards of all 6 of my lines when the creek is a 2/3 of a mile wide! I ended up with 6 more keepers, some of them up to 13 inches. One sauger (12") and a 8-10 pound drum rounded out the catch. It is amazing to see crappie barely larger than a 300 Bandit jump all over the bait. I made the whole day and only lost one Bandit. This day gave me the confidence to be back out there after them (not like I needed an excuse). I think KY and Barkley are different than the lakes in Mississippi in that we don't seem to get a good defined thermocline. My auto pilot/co-pilot MinnKota proved to be the trick but I am going to have to get my trolling plate on my 75 Yamaha. There were times where I had to go against the wind with the big motor but I needed the extra control the plate will give to control my speed. If these stormy/windy days clear out, watch out!

i troll bandits too in the summer too,great way to catch fish.i use 30 lb powerpro braid ,that way u loose less cranks when u do get hung up.i usually pull 6 poles off the sides and every now and then i will add 4 poles pushing out the front with 2-4 oz. weights .i have a trolling plate and minnkota PD with ipilot installed.in windy conditions i run big motor and trolling motor,l run big motor headed straight and use trolling motor to steer.heres a few more tips,speed up when making turns and u get less tangles,always keep good hooks on ur cranks(i bought most of my cranks used when i started and was missing alot of fish),if pulling out the sides i will set the rods at 10ft incriments for less tangles also (example-14fter-57ft line out,12fter-47ft line out,7fter-37ft line out)whats ur setup,u have line counters,

I'm using the Okuma 15 model reels with 10 pound mono. I've replaced many of the hooks on even new Bandits with red Eagle Claw trebles. I wanted to get my current set-up on the water to see how it was going to need to be tweaked. I'm using four 4-rod Hi Tek rod holders and have an extra set of bases that I'm going to install just in front of my console so I can separate my 4 poles per side. I'm sure it's going to take several trips to get all the bugs worked out.

What depth and structure seems to work best on the south end of KY? Do you run a combo of Bandits in 100,200, and 300 or just one style? Thanks for the tips.

BTW, I failed to mention I caught a bunch of bass with 2 keepers--one about 3 pounds.

i pulled cranks in westsandy(bigsandy)two weeks ago and had 15 keepers by 10am,last saturday i had 6 keepers by 8am and was blown off the lake.the fish i`ve been catching seem to come trolling drops in 8-12ft of water and have been using bandit 200series,run some 100 and oddball cranks on my push rods usually.last year when i started i would pull bandit300series next to the drops on the river channel and wear the bass out ,but i would rather catch crappie.most fish that ive been catching have been with 37 to 57 ft of line out in the 8-12ft range and the best two colors for me are the mistake and crown clown,what colors been good for u so far

I caught some on a Mistake and Salad Bar but most were on a Pineapple. I don't know the color names very well, I just open the package and toss them in the tackle box. I did catch my largest black crappie on a Black Bubblegum that was on a very short line, no more than 20 feet. That fish was suspended in 30 feet of water. That should have told me to go to the 200s or even 100s on a down rig. It was late in the day and I was tired of dealing with the ski boats so I left things alone.

Don't know if you have one or not, but a good locator that has GPS and a detailed lake map (like navionics premium east that has 1 foot increments) will increase your trolling catch rate. Look for the humps, underwater points/ sandbars near deep water, or follow creek/river channel edges, and any of the local brush piles you know about. Surprisingly, with B&M trollers and running minn-kota, I have found I lose very few baits. We get hung up, but by backing up over the bait , are usually able to yank it free. I mostly run 300's and seem to do OK. And trust me, there is something to the red hook thing on the bandits, and wisely that is why their crappie line of cranks all have red hooks. This process seems to work well in the middle of the day if you can stand the heat. Hands down, my favorite way to fish down there post spawn. Sounds like you are getting all the right equipment. You will have a lot of fun doing this.

HHD

I'm running a HB 788 on the front and an 898 on the console. Both are loaded with Navionics Premium cards. I sure am glad I mounted both on heavy RAM mounts where I can set them up to be seen while I move around in the boat. Seems like it is hard to stay comfortable when running 6 rods by ones self.

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Originally Posted by mrdux

I'm running a HB 788 on the front and an 898 on the console. Both are loaded with Navionics Premium cards. I sure am glad I mounted both on heavy RAM mounts where I can set them up to be seen while I move around in the boat. Seems like it is hard to stay comfortable when running 6 rods by ones self.

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Then you must need a buddy to help you watch those lines! (Hint Hint)

with the ipilot i will run 10 rods at a time by myself,the more cranking u do u can adjust ur setup where ur comfy,u mentioned black bubble gum,i also have good luck with that color.mapping and a good depth finder makes it easier,i follow contour lines most of the time and mark brush and stuff as i troll

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mrdux

I'm running a HB 788 on the front and an 898 on the console. Both are loaded with Navionics Premium cards. I sure am glad I mounted both on heavy RAM mounts where I can set them up to be seen while I move around in the boat. Seems like it is hard to stay comfortable when running 6 rods by ones self.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by BIGBADDAD

Then you must need a buddy to help you watch those lines! (Hint Hint)

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Take a number... lol