Ky lake crappie ?

I stopped crappie fishing about 3 years ago for personal reasons , before that i had fished ky and barkely lakes for 30 + years .
I have started fishing again and most of my waypoints from then are still there but no or few fish . All of the brushpiles are almost void of fish .
Have the fish changed there patterns so much ( because of carp ) that they do not use brush like before ?
Is the crappie population extremely low ?
I spend several hours today scanning brush piles
( 10 - 30 foot deep )and only found a hand full of small fish .
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I stopped fishing Ky Lake 3 or so years ago for the frustration you are reporting. It is about a 3 hour drive from home for me to Ky Lake. We used to go once in the early spring for the prespawn/spawn. Then again in late November or December. After 3 failed trips, a couple or 3 days hard fishing each I decided to spend my time fishing lakes closer to home.

I hope it was some bad spawns and maybe the fish have changed their habits now.
Been hearing that fishing has improved this winter. I’m sure others will have better info. But i fee like its gonna be on an upswing this year. May have to look some different places than in the past.



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Jimbo ... you might also want to read thru the F&W Info sticky at the top of this forum. There's good info on the current situation at KY & Barkley Lake in some of the latest posts.

Jimbo67

The crappie are still in the lakes....If you are a facebooker then check out this past weekend results from the local Twin Lake Crappie Club tourney. This tournament is a small sample size with less than 10 boats fishing it but the results speak for themselves with 6 boats weighing over 9# for their 7 best fish. I will also put a disclaimer on these results and tell you that several of the guys that fish this club are not only club tournament fishermen but also the bigger circuit tournament fishermen with numerous wins and top 10 showings on various circuits like CrappieUSA, CrappieMaster, and American Crappie Trail. I personally think certain parts of the lakes are fishing tougher than others right now so if the area you targeted on Saturday was "void" then I would recommend doing more recon. The lake is definitely not fishing as friendly as it did 4 years ago when we had lots of 9-11" fish in the lakes. I also think the water clarity has changed dramatically in the same amount of time. I'm sure if you fished both lakes for over 30 years then you'll have fish flying back into your boat before long.

Wife and I fished West Sandy this past Saturday and Sunday, we put 7 keepers total in the boat for both days, we spider rig but the guys we saw around us fishing with live scope weren't catching fish either. One of them who put in right before us also let out when we did, he gave us his 2 fish to add with our 4. He was showing fish on the brush and mats he was fishing they just were not biting. He also said it has been tough this year for him. We are going to hopefully get back there next weekend, going to see if long lining might work better covering more water. Spider rigging I had 3/4 oz. weights and was moving .6 mph with curly tails, I usually long line at .8 mph so maybe with the jigs away from the boat we might catch more.

Good luck,
Ray

I just recently moved back to KY/Barkley Lakes after being away for 7 yrs. Have fished Barkley Lake a few times in recent weeks with limited success. Fish were tough to find. Just one here and one there. Today I fished Kentucky Lake and from 11:30am till 3 pm caught a limit of really nice crappie. Most of them were white crappie. Had 1 fish that went 1 & 3/4 lbs, 5 that were 1 & 1/2 pounds and the rest all 11 to 12 inch fish. (Also caught 2 big drum, and a couple of nice bass.) I was spider-rigging 22 ft deep in 23 to 27 feet of water. All the fish but one came on minnows.

I might add that when I crossed Kentucky Dam this morning they had 9 gates open and spilling a lot of water. WHen I crossed it again this afternoon late, they had 2 gates open and everything else was shut. That may have contributed to the afternoon bite of crappie that I experienced today.

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Originally Posted by kytiteloc

Jimbo67

The crappie are still in the lakes....If you are a facebooker then check out this past weekend results from the local Twin Lake Crappie Club tourney. This tournament is a small sample size with less than 10 boats fishing it but the results speak for themselves with 6 boats weighing over 9# for their 7 best fish. I will also put a disclaimer on these results and tell you that several of the guys that fish this club are not only club tournament fishermen but also the bigger circuit tournament fishermen with numerous wins and top 10 showings on various circuits like CrappieUSA, CrappieMaster, and American Crappie Trail. I personally think certain parts of the lakes are fishing tougher than others right now so if the area you targeted on Saturday was "void" then I would recommend doing more recon. The lake is definitely not fishing as friendly as it did 4 years ago when we had lots of 9-11" fish in the lakes. I also think the water clarity has changed dramatically in the same amount of time. I'm sure if you fished both lakes for over 30 years then you'll have fish flying back into your boat before long.

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