Kentucky Lake over the 4th.

Making my first trip to Kentucky lake the weekend of the 4th. I know it is not going to be the best for fishing with all the boat traffic but we plan to fish early until about 10 and then probably give up and boat ride and swim.



I am thinking of putting in at the Kentucky Dam village marina and would like to troll cranks. I have done this on truman lake and Mark twain lake in missouri and caught a lot of fish around the thermocline fishing timber on deep bluffs. That was going to be my plan but reading that Kentucky lake doesnt have much of a thermocline has me worried this approach wont be as good.


Any tips for a first time trip to Kentucky Lake?



Thanks in advance

Bring a bottle of Prozac, Xanax, Valium, or whatever you can get your hands on & knock yourself out! After Memorial Day weekend this yr., you couldn't hold a gun to my head & make me fish Ky Lake that week! Just say'n!

Troll the creeks & edges of the main river channel. The flats can also be good at times.

Little more advice. LEAVE YOUR PISTOL IN THE TRUCK. YOU'LL BE TEMPTED TO USE IT! :biggrin

You would be hard pressed to find any thermocline in KY or Barkley, just too much current drawn thru them. KY Lake has a defined main and secondary channel that are both marked by buoys. Get a map or use a GPS map like a Navionics to run the deep edges of either of these channels. Just be prepared to lose a bunch of baits since most all the channel drops are crooked , have several depth changes,and have lots of stumps and man-made structure along them. You might find some crappie along the deepest flats in front of the dam.

My lakemaster map card should be here this week.

It is not my preference to fish this weekend but it is the only time my parents could get the time to come down.

Do you try to straddle the ledges or stay all the way up on the flat on the edge?

The tops of the ledges will be much too shallow unless you runs 100s. I stay off the break and run 200s on the shallow side and 300s on the deep side. I would key on the 15 foot depth on the drop for shallow. The fish are going to be suspended off the drops.

I would stay away from KY Dam Marina around the fourth, there is a very good ramp at Double creek at Barkley Dam. Get there early and you should have no issues getting in or out.

All i have are 300's so i guess i will just have to run them shorter or throw some roadrunners or something out.

If you have good electronics, I would do a bit of driving around and looking for the schools of fish before deploying the gear. There are tons of drops but the current being drawn or lack thereof will really be a deciding factor on which ones they will be on and where they will be positioned.

We have an 898 on the boat so we should be able to find them. I would think as high as the lake is now they would still be running a good bit of generation by then.

really appreciate all the replies so far.

Any thoughts if the bloodriver area would be a better choice for both fishing and less boaters?