Barren River Lake

Well gub deer season is over and it a couple of weeks to muzzleloader. Guess it's time to crappie fish between bow hunts.

They have the lake at 531.6 as of this AM. hey are still pulling the heack out of it. I can see the stumps in the bend from the Walnut Creek bridge.They should start hitting pretty good when it stabilizes a little.

I got the tackle box and rods and reels out and ready to go...well at least I made a list of the stuff need and charged the trolling motor battery. I need to re-deck the front of my jon boat but it may have to wait a little while. I DO have to get some JB Weld and fix the little hole in the back end. I need a new paddle and have to check the fire extinguisher. I really shouldn't have left it uncovered all summer but I did


Anyone been catching any? Heard of anyone catching any?

On what? where? when?

Only report I've had is some decent hybrids still being caught. Had a buddy troll behind the islands this past Saturday. They caught 6 hybrids and one pretty good largemouth. Biggest Hybrid was 10lb 4oz! all the others were over 5lbs. He was trolling a rapala crankbait with his main motor and was the only boat trolling at all that day.

I'm anxious for the lake to get to winter pool. My best crappie fishing happens then.

I talked to a couple of guys early this afternoon. They were loading their boat at Walnut Creek. They had 14 nice crappie and said they had 30 something throwbacks. They said they had to go quite a ways up the lake toward Brown's Ford to get into fish.

I got my boat ready today and am going to try it in the AM.

Hope they co operate.

just got home from a good day on the river.

I put in at Walnut Creek and ran 2/3rds of the way up to Brown's Ford. Man was it cold this morning on the water. Just before the power lines I stopped and started fishing back towards Walnut Creek. The current is pretty swift and the wind was against me. {out of the South East} I went a few hundred yards to the first 90 degree bend. It has bunches and bunches of stumps running out into the water. I found them in an eddy there. I caught 5-6 just under 10 and called my bro in law to make sure the size limit was 10"..... It is 9"! After that I started keeping the 9"fish.. Think I ended up woth 5 and 3 nice Kentucky bass. I bet I caught 40 dinks. I tried to fish deeper to get down to the bigger fish, which as a rule works for me. Not this time. If I got down over 4' they would stop. The keepers I caught were the same depth.

ANyway. Was a good day for me. To me any day that I don't get skunked is a good day. I hate getting skunked! I stayed there for a long time. They quit bout noon and I tried everything I knew to get them to bite but no luck. Different colors, minnows, depths, different presentations, etc.

I decided to get back down the river before I was the last one up there in case I had trouble in the riffles. I had the motor bounce up and down a couple of times coming out but made it.{When it gets real shallow I swithc to trolling motor power.} Was going to fish back to the ramp after I got clear of the dangerous stuff....But being a diabetic and not having eaten all day I decided to call it and head in.

As usual loading the boat from the gravel bluff was interesting but I got it done without tearing anything up or getting wet. So all in all it was a good day.
Unfortunately I have things I have to do the next two days so I won't make it back till the end of the week.

Hope to see some of you folks out there.

Mush have you been doing any fishing?

Thanks for the report, I'd love to get on the water but doesn't look like it will happen till later part of next week. You gotta be carefull navigating in the part of the lake this time of year. Do you know if they are still pulling it very much, and how much more they need to lower to his winter pool? I used to have a website bookmarked that told me, but computer crashed and can't remember what it was.

Louisville District Daily Lake Report

Well the rain has ruined it for a while.

Rained 2.2" lake rose 4.4' and it is 7.5' over winter pool. IT is MUDDY!! The water is up out of the channels and is covering the flats up in the Walnut Creek area. Won't be good for anything except maybe cats for several days. Is a shame. the lake was just right for crappie! They had shut the dam back and the water was beginning to stabilize. If it hadn't rained like it did we could have loaded the freezer.

This weekend is late muzzleloader season. I guess it doesn't matter that much to me as I will be in the woods looking for a couple of does to go in the freezer.

If I get lucky enough to tage out this weekend maybe I'll go try and catch a few cold water cats. They are good this time of year. Well better than summer fish anyway. To me they are better long about Feb. after they have been in the cold clean water for several weeks. The meat is so nice and white.

Is REALLY dangerous out there right now. Just deep enough to hide the boat sinker stumps. The water is only a few inches deep in some of the flats too.

If you go good luck!

ANyone been on Barren?

Water looks clear as tap water. A little more color would be nice..

They are gettig in back down to where it needs to be.

Might be able to start back crappie fisihng in a few days.

Haven't been, but here the weather man say they are expecting another couple of inches of rain this week. Looks like it will be muddy and screwed up again for a while.

I went this morning.

Took my daughter and she got cold so I didn't stay very long.

I gished the first bend upriver from Walnut Creek ramp. We caught a few. and several dinks. If I had stayed I would have run up the river to the power lines. I think I could have done some good up there. Not sure but think I would have.

The water was perfect. The water was stained but not bad. I was afraid it would be too clear but wasnt. They are still pulling it so there was some current but again not too bad.

Was over cast and very little wind.

I enjoy fishing with my kids but winter fishing and kids are not for one another....

The wind is supposed to be BAD tomorrow. Don't know when I will make it back. Soo I hope!

I went the 31st from 6:30 to 10:30. I had to get home before 11 to help babysit my grand daughter.

I put in at Walnut Creek as usual and ran up as far as the end of the second set of bluffs. Trolled back toward the ramp. Stopping to throw a jig every now and then at some places I had caught a couple of fish on the 30th. To try and find them. Notta...

I was going to leave and decided to try one more thing. I started throwing the jig on the inside of the last bend before the ramp. The water was just going up onto the flat right there. I FOUND them. They were going up into the shallow water feeding and going right back out to the deeper water. I sat there in a foot of water and threw back out into the channel. The fish were congregating right on the edge of the shallow water. I caught a crappie on about every cast. Most of them were dinks but non the less they were there. I was using a black tube with a chartreuse tail.

Hope to get back there this week sometime...

While you are fishing at walnut creek do you ever catch any walleye? This is the 3 rd year they stocked them in the river and they should be close to keeper size!
Rowdy

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Originally Posted by Rowdy

While you are fishing at walnut creek do you ever catch any walleye? This is the 3 rd year they stocked them in the river and they should be close to keeper size!
Rowdy

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nope...never have caught any.

didn't know they were stocking them.

Where are they stocking them?

I went there today to go fishing but the lake still had to much ice. Need's a few more day's.

I made an attempt to fish there today as well. I thought sure there would be some open water around the main channel. Ended up just turning around and coming back home. Spent the day working on the boat, packed the wheel bearings and cleaned it up real good. Managed to do something productive.

I drove from one end to the other and the only place there wasn't ice was walnut creek and the hill going to the ramp was ice and didn't wan't to wreck the truck or boat. Wound up going to weldon pete park and putting in on the river. Didn't get a hit.

They stocked them 3 years ago up in the river, thats how they do it at Nolin also, the fish will migrate to the lake and in the early spring go back to the river! The hybirds may have had a feast the first year! I think they stocked 250,000 3 inchers!
Rowdy

that's interesting..

I love to eat them. Had no clue they were stocking them.

I squirrel hunter this am and was going to fish this afternoon. I stopped by the ramp to take a look on the way home and decided against it. The water is clear and I DO mean CLEAR. I guess I should have went anyway..Didn't tho. There were several trucks there and a few vehicles by the bridge. I am regretting it now. I just don't really like to fish water that is that clear. My rods have 6# on them and in my opinion that is too heavy for the water color we have now.

Maybe it waill rain ronite like they are saying and get a little color in the waater and I will go tomorrow.