Barren 4/24

Ended up sleeping later than I had meant and got to the ramp about 7:30. There must have been multiple basscar events going out of the state park. Parking lot was pretty full.

I fished Charlie Brewer Slider grubs on a black 1/8 oz Weedless Slider Head exclusively.

First spot I tried was a pvc stake bed in about 12 fow. No dice. Moved a touch shallower were a cut empties into the bigger creek in 8 fow and fished a brushpile for a long while with no bites. Got around on the shallow side of it and casted in but had an issue with line on my reel that caused me to have to stop and mess with it. When I got everything fixed I reeled up and got hit. Nice keeper white. Bingo. I started fishing right in the piles and painfully slow. That resulted in a jet black male black crappie and 14" white all off the same pile.

The lesson for the day was fish right through the middle of the brush and fish as slow as possible. I ran up above walnut creek to try and get away from the basscar guys and fished stumps and treetops along the river channel in 17fow. Caught fish but they were all small. Promises for the coming years I guess.

All in all caught around 30 fish, seven keeper crappie, one keeper bluegill.

Productive colors were bubble gum/chartreuse tail, baby bass/chartreuse tail, black/chartreuse tail.

Water temp was 65 in the morning and found 69* water later and farther up the lake. Lake level was 544.6. Water was clear by Barren standards, probably 4'+ visibility. We could use a rain (little rain not a downpour) to bring the lake up slightly and color the water some too.

I am thinking the clear water, small front we had, and the bright sun pretty well caused the fish to bury themselves in cover. Plus I would say we are nearing the end of the spawn on Barren.


Additionally, if you are a bowfisherman, take your bow and some old tennis shoes and head up the upper end of the lake and pick a flat that the water is just getting on to. The carp are going crazy in the grass right now. It literally sounded like ocean waves crashing up where I was due to the constant splashing from the carp in the shallows.