Kentucky and Barkley stakebeds, angler input needed

As kdfwr begins another season of stakebed maintenance and creation, I would like to get some of your opinions about their style and locations. First, a little history: stakebeds have been a major part of the fish attractor work on ky lake and lake Barkley since the 80's. This work is done during the summer time as the water drops and consists of a couple of guys swimming or wading in the water and pushing in each stick by hand. Each stakebed is made up of about 50-100 hardwood stakes and is marked by a white pole. Each stakebed is refurbished with around 40 stakes every other year. New stakebeds are created in some instances, but in the case of ky lake we are almost to the point where we are unable to maintain the ones we already have. This year we are working on lake Barkley which has some room for more Stakebeds. Our goal is to make these more productive fishing locations. Although these do provide some habitat for fish, the primary function of stakebeds is to be a fish attractor. (We have other efforts designed to create habitat)

We have asked this in some formal surveys, but I have a few questions for you guys.

1. Do you like the locations we currently have? What is the ideal depth for you? (Our goal is a variety of depths, but I'm curious about which ones you guys prefer.)

2. Do you like the current size of our stakebeds? Would you prefer several small stakebeds or a few larger ones?

3. Do you wish the stakebeds were more dense, or less dense? (Sticks farther apart or closer).

4. Do you have any locations on Barkley that you wish had more stakebeds? Please be as specific as possible. (We don't currently use a deep water driver, but we could in the future)

5. Do you prefer short sticks or tall sticks? (Width is also optional, but we vastly prefer to drive narrow sticks)

Any other comments are welcome. I can't guarantee that we will take everyone's advice, but I can guarantee we are listening.

Thanks in advance for your replies,

-Adam Martin

Firstof all, thanks for what kdfwr does for us. I have caught numerous fish in summer on those things when I couldn't find a ledge bite. I'd like to see them a little bit deeper than they typically are although they work pretty well now. I think bigger areas with same amount of stakes at time could hold more fish. I like the short sticks.

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Be on the lookout for a private message with my recommendations. Keep up the communication!

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As one who fishes the coves and bays, I prefer the ones that are a bit shallower than most. I have better luck in the ones that are not as dense as others (less stakes) as I believe it allows room for the fish to congregate. The ones off the fishing pier in Jonathon are very dense and all I have ever gotten out of those are smaller fish. Unlike the ones in Buckhorn which are a bit more spread out, where I usually get bigger fish (keepers).

And as others have said: Thanks for all you do.

I would like to see some of your efforts geared toward medium depth (4-10') areas in bluegill and redear spawning areas with sand/gravel bottoms. Redears seem to like to be able to get UNDER cover, not just around it. Beds with short stakes would work best for them. It would give them protection from the swarms of Asian carp.

Brian, I'm puzzled why you think your recommendations have to be kept private when the request for info was put out on a public forum?

I agree 100% with Mr. Dux on this. I actually know a guy that puts these short stakes in sandy, pea gravel areas that has really good luck with the red ear.

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Originally Posted by mrdux

I would like to see some of your efforts geared toward medium depth (4-10') areas in bluegill and redear spawning areas with sand/gravel bottoms. Redears seem to like to be able to get UNDER cover, not just around it. Beds with short stakes would work best for them. It would give them protection from the swarms of Asian carp.

Brian, I'm puzzled why you think your recommendations have to be kept private when the request for info was put out on a public forum?

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When you say 4 - 10' deep, do you mean at summer pool 359' elevation? Some of the complaints I've heard over the years basically stated that most of our attractors were too shallow to fish until the water was up. From a biological standpoint it makes sense to have variety, but we are considering some deeper stuff. Part of the issue is marking the deeper sites. If they aren't deep enough to be unmarked we need a buoy or extremely tall white pole (these arent insurmountable problems, just giving a little background on our limitations). None of our sites are truly unmarked since the gps coordinates are provided on our website Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Lakes with Fish Attractors We also gave all of our fish attractor locations to the major mapping companies :navionics, lakemaster, lowrance, as well as garmin (not sure whether garmin will integrate them yet)

As for bottom type, mud bottoms are obviously easier to place stakes and they stakes tend to stay in place longer, so over the years many of the original sites have been moved to areas with softer bottoms. It's more difficult to place them in sand or pea gravel, but not impossible. We are also considering some prefabricated stake bed grids for areas with hard bottoms.

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Originally Posted by Clint

As one who fishes the coves and bays, I prefer the ones that are a bit shallower than most. I have better luck in the ones that are not as dense as others (less stakes) as I believe it allows room for the fish to congregate. The ones off the fishing pier in Jonathon are very dense and all I have ever gotten out of those are smaller fish. Unlike the ones in Buckhorn which are a bit more spread out, where I usually get bigger fish (keepers).

And as others have said: Thanks for all you do.

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Thanks Clint, the stake beds at that particular spot are much closer than normal. Thats interesting that youve only caught smaller fish there.

IMO, you are wasting materials and labor putting anything for gills and redears on any bottom but sand or pea gravel. If the attractors for gills/redears are placed in a minimum of 4-5' at summer pool and out of any navigation areas, they should be fine. The short stakes in that water depth are probably not going to attract crappie or bass in any great numbers but should be a mecca for panfish. Pour a white PVC stake in a small bucket of sacrete and drop it right in the middle of the series of beds and that should be all that's going to be needed as long as the bed locations are documented. A series of no less than 4 beds at each location a few yards apart should be considered.The grid beds would work great for redears. Some of the most effective redear spots I've seen over the years were short stakes driven into sandy bottom at 4 corners then limbs of willow or oak tied horizontally to the corners forming a grid about a foot off the bottom that was high and dry at winter pool..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mrdux

I would like to see some of your efforts geared toward medium depth (4-10') areas in bluegill and redear spawning areas with sand/gravel bottoms. Redears seem to like to be able to get UNDER cover, not just around it. Beds with short stakes would work best for them. It would give them protection from the swarms of Asian carp.

Brian, I'm puzzled why you think your recommendations have to be kept private when the request for info was put out on a public forum?

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Don't be puzzled, if they do parts of my ideas and ramblings it will benefit us all. Just too much water time to just spill the beans everywhere. I am not trying to offend anyone, or portray that I am better than anyone, so please don't take it that way. He didn't specify how to respond, so I responded how I wanted to just as everyone else is doing it how they feel they want to.

But, I will say this. Alot of my recommendations did focus on depths that we consider mid-range depths. Also, having a mix of brush and stakebeds.