What I learned on my latest trip to Lake Barkley

I was humbled to say the least. That's big water and without a QUALITY depth finder to locate brushpiles in the deeper water, you're swimming against the current. I've got a Humminbird 560 Sonar and it's a low end deal at best. I'm going to break down and shell out some bucks on a good, high end depth finder. I also learned that Barkley's main structure seems to be man made brush piles or stake beds...not a lot of stump fields? This was only my third trip down and I felt totally lost by Thursday morning. Did I say my depthfinder pissed me off?lol.

I was overwhelmed to say the least, hopefully I'll be able to buy a small place down there and put in the hours it takes to learn that lake. I went over to the Ky Dam and it's hard to believe how much bigger Ky Lake is versus Barkley...tried really hard for the redear first two or so days and they were no where to be found. I can really catch them up here this time of year. I guess there's so much natural food for them in Barkley that they won't bite much right now.

Your luck will get better , it can be tough sometime.

Even a low-end chartplotter with a good lake map will help you greatly. I catch myself pouring over maps of KY and Barkley regularly to try to locate new areas I may want to check out and I have fished Barkley since before it was filled and KY all my life. Don't sell Barkley short when it comes to natural cover, it's full of stumps, rockpiles, etc. Many times a person comes to a new lake and they look at the map and see 50,000 acres of water they want to explore. You will do so much better breaking down a small area, say a couple of coves, and try to learn all you can about the fish, where they might be located and why. If you don't find success in those, don't just move to the next couple nearby, move a few miles away and check out some areas there. I would much rather trailer a few minutes away from where I stay or live than to risk running an unfamiliar lake in bad weather or worse, at night.

BTW, my Dad caught the biggest redear that was brought into my boat this year Sat on a crankbait in 14 feet of water.

I saw that pig in your pictures Doug...those darn rascals eluded me the whole week. It's got me confused as to why or where redear are down there this time of year. We've got a fairly strong redear bite in the Louisville area in the fall and I would assume KY Lake and Barkley would have a strong fall bite too. That's interesting that you guys caught one on a crankbait and not on bottom either. I'm thinking the redear down there may be in deeper water than what I was fishing, we were in 10-12ft and probably should've tried 15-18ft of water.

I simply need practice on the crappie, I'm awful at crappie to be blunt about it. If I can find a relatively cheap place down there maybe I'll get lots of practice, lord knows I need it. I got one of your business cards at a tackle shop on HWY 62, looks like there's a motel above the place.