Printable View
Planning a 5 day trip in the middle of March to Ky Lake. We're heading down from Southeast In. We've been going to Wiess for the past few yrs., but it seems a little silly to drive an extra 2-3 hrs. when ya could be a fishin an extra 2-3 hrs. We have'nt decided on where to stay or even where to fish. Any help/advise would be greatly appreciated.
Kentucky Lake Resort
Great People & Great area to fish! Sits in Eagle Creek just off the Big Sandy. Don't know if you'll find a better area to fish for Big Crappie!! Been going there for the last 13 or 14 years. We've never found any reason to look elsewhere.
IMO, you may be a little early for KY. I like Moors Resort for the north end. On a good bay, and just a short run from Jonathan Creek.
Depends on what kind of technique he wants to use. Plenty of fish caught in the middle of March.Quote:
Originally Posted by CatFan
goldeneye, I used to fish Weis lake too but started fishing just Ky and Barkley because I catch better size fish. These fish have shoulders,since Billy Westmrland died I fished the crappie tr. once and it didn,t fill right without him. I now fish Ky about 100 or more days a year and love every min. of it. I do fish other lakes but Ky is the best for overall size IMO. Don,t let the size of the lakes overwhelm you just pick some bays and fish,there are plenty of fishermen on this board who help. The most important thing is pay attention to the wind. In march the water will be low and there are shallow bars in places that will ruin your day, but your used to weis so you now the danger. March should be the begining of the spawn, depending on the weather. Get some lake maps and study and watch your depth finder,I don,t know your style of fishing but you will get so good info on this forum. Dave
Yep! My pick time.Quote:
Originally Posted by Quackrstackr
We are heading down to Kentucky Lake around the 20th of March. We are staying at Shawnee Bay but agree that Big Bear, and Moors both are excellent. If you are smart pick Wiskers brain. We are all from Illinois and have been coming to Kentucky Lake for the last 4-5 years around this time and although we haven't had the pleasure of meeting Wiskers yet, he is a heckava guy on this board. From what I gather he catches a lot of fish and certainly has been more than hospitable to many on this board. I just hope sometime my group can meet up with him someday. Let me know if there is anything my group can add, just shoot me a PM and I'll be glad to share any limited knowledge I have. Good luck and maybe we can meet up.
March can be good. Last year I caught more fish in March then I did in April. What makes Kentucky Lake nice is the large concentration of black crappie. They spawn prior to whites so we get a longer season. Back 20 or more years ago whites dominated and March for me wasn't always as good. Lots of places for you to choose from. From Sledd and Big Bear, Jonathan, Blood, Sandy, and all the LBL bays in between there is a lot of water you can fish here. I work Blood and the associated TN LBL bays more than the others but I have favorite spots and memories from one end to the other. First thing I would do is start calling around, checking availablity of rooms, and comparing. Some places rent early or are rented year to year. Especially towards the crappie spawn.
Good luck!
Thanks for the comps. but there are a lot better crappie fishermen on this north end than me. They are just tight lipped! :D Ain't that right sixfin? :D I'm just hard headed & refuse to give up on finding them.Quote:
Originally Posted by lvtofish1
My schedual has me getting off the boat on Mar. 17. Hopefully I'll have my camper at Big Bear on my lot by then & anyone that want's to come visit is welcome. Heck we might even cook some fish & throw back a few.
I'm happy to help anyone, anyway I can but yall have to remember that my time off don't always go like I plan it. I have to cram 2 months worth of HONEYDO'S into 1 month. Sometime my wife wins out over my buddies. Well almost always! :D
Yall get down this way yall give me a holler and we'll see what we can get go'n.
Old Guide - Good to see you on here again!!! Hybernation for winter must be over! My cousin and I are coming back down again this year the week prior to Easter. The best tip I can give any first timer on KY Lake is hire a guide! There are many good ones and last year Old Guide taught us alot about what to look for and different ways to fish the lake. The best money you will spend because you won't spend your vacation time scratching you head trying to figure it out. As far as Wiskers goes, I have never actually met him (hope to fix that this year), but I feel like I have because he will ALWAYS help with anything you need to know. He is modest and one of the best sources of knowledge when it comes to fishing KY Lake. Especially the north end.
Hi J.T.,
Yea, I need to and plan on being on here more often. I use to run the forums on Kentuckylake.com and then they had issues. They have been down for months. I really hate it because we use to have good discussions on there. But I don't run the site and have no control over it. I do keep an eye out on explorekentuckylake.com. Shawn who runs that site is a great guy. I believe activity there is building but for crappie this is the place.
I like helping first timers coming to the lake. I had a guy call me Friday that simply wanted advise. We were on the phone for almost an hour. Now he is probably going to hire me. And truthfully, if he doesn't thats fine too. I hate it when people come to the lake for the first time and have a lousy time. Then they tell everyone how terrible Kentucky lake is which is furtherst from the truth. But we have all been first-timers to lakes and had lousy times. Then we develop the idea the lake is simply no good. While fishing the tournament trail my partner always compared the lakes we fished to Kentucky Lake and he then didn't like most lakes we fished. I told him time and again that knowing where and when to fish on the other lakes makes the difference. Locals swear by those lakes because they know those lakes, just like we know Kentucky Lake.
So I do my best to see peopke don't come down blind. I can't make them bite and I can't assure the people always fish at the right depth or speed but I can at least get them started off on the right foot. Are you staying at the Moors again? I will likely be on the water alot during the time prior to your trip. I don't know if I will be up around the Moors much but feel free to call me and I will update you on my success. Some of my biggest fish came from Bear last year so I may fish it more this spring.
I look forward to talking to you on here this spring!
Old Guide (Lyndon)
I second the good guys , Wiskers and Lyndon (old guide ) I have fished with Lyndon , he is a great guy and gives out good advise . Wiskers has answered every question I have ask on the site , and if you stay on here for any length of time you will see how well he does . He's the man . very knowledgeable and will share good info , very few will share ,
I'm planning to be fishing the Big Sandy area starting March 20th myself. I also have been going to Weiss the last 4 years and have really enjoyed it but my wife
and I decided to visit our friends that live in New Concord, KY. I always enjoy fishing the area and I'm looking forward to the trip already. I figure this time of year I'll
try some longlining like we usually do at Weiss in march. Maybe I'll get a chance to meet some of you folks while I'm down there. JOE
Hi Joe,
Good luck at Sandy. Since your going to be in New Concord and if you get a chance try Blood River. There is a state ramp east of New Concord near Hamlin that puts you just south of Blood on the main lake. There is also a spot where you can launch from shore right in Blood if you have a small boat. You would also need a KY license to fish Blood. If your friends however live down towards Cypress which some of that area also has New Concord addresses Sandy might be the closest for you.
Old Guide
Watch the lake around Hamlin if you decide to launch there and go exploring. It gets shallow in a hurry out on the main lake.
Old Guide, My friends live south of New Concord in the Cypress Creek area just off hwy 121 near the Mt. Carmel Baptist Church. I'm sure my friend Paul has fished
Blood River but I haven't been north of Patterson Landing, who knows that could change this year. I normally buy a Tennessee license because it is valid a good ways
north of where I have always fished but I guess it is not good in the Blood River area?
Blood River is not part of reciprocal agreement,have to have a Kentucky license. It is a good bay/area.
Hi Rider,
Pab1981 is correct. Blood isn't included in the KY/TN reciprocal agreement. If you could draw a line from the north point entering Blood to the south point, everything west of that line is Blood and is off limits for TN anglers unless they have an out-of state license. Good news is if you fish here much its worth getting the KY license.
And yes Quackstakr, the area of the main lake from Patterson north to Blood is treacherous. I use to own a home in the Keniana subdivision of New Concord and routinely had to do the slolum course to get across the main lake to Byrd Bay. Actually mid lake from just south of the dam all the way to the Pickwick Dam can be dangerous. Until the advent of GPS system a decade ago I lost some metal off more than one skeg crossing the main lake. Best advise in any area you are unsure of is to take it slow. A good map and good GPS with a navionics chip is great as well!
Old Guide
If you come over to the Big Bear campground bring some hip boots.Quote:
Originally Posted by JTMavs
Whiskers is a great guy. I met him 4-5 years ago at the camp ground and he ask me to go fishing the next day. He got me back into fishing and I made a great friend. Thru him I have met several super great people on the north end of Kentucky Lake.
I will be down in late march and I will help him with his hunny do's so we can go fishing. Come on over and we will fry some fish.
Thanks to everyone for all the great advise. It is all truely helpful , and I am thankful to you all. Now ... I know where to go,.... but now I need to figure out how to hit all these places in four days! Whiskers, if I we get close to Big Bear I'll try to look ya up, if your around when we're there that is. As far as the guide thing , as long as I got pole, an a hook, with enough line on it to get it in the water, thats all I need. ( a cooler full of slabs is a bonus ) And it would'nt be the first time I had to explain to the wife how I could fish for four days and didn'nt have any fish to bring home to prove it ! Thanks again fellows. Good Fishin'
Howdy Lyndon. I'd been meaning to ask you about the forum there. IMO it's a great marketing tool for the area, and you did a good job keeping things on track. It's a shame it's not in operation.Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Guide
I agree Cat Fan. It was going good when it crashed. Dave told me they would have it up and running soon. That was eight months ago! Now is the time to have the forums running. Guys have time on their hand and cabin fever. If they wait until March, crappie fishing will be kicking in and it won't get the hits like it would during January and February. Oh well, I ain't the man in charge. That is why I am going to check back in here more often and see if I can help anyone.
Lyndon
March is my favorite time to fish for big crappie,especially at Ky. lake.The black crappie will move up in the shallows first and while every one else is fishing out deep, I'll be right up on the bank. I usually fish the eastern side of Ky. lake because the water is clearer than the western side in the month of March.My favorite areas are Sugar Bay,Smith Bay and Higgins Bay.I have caught limits of 2 lb. crappie in Sugar Bay in the month of March.Most of these were Black crappie.I usually look for fallen trees that extend into 15 to 25 foot of water. The main key is structure and deep water. You need both!I use a 1/16 or 1/32 oz. feather pop eye jig in chartreuse or pink feathers. I never use fish attractants.Some times the bite will be in 5 foot of water and sometimes in 15 foot.Once the water temp hits 60 degrees I start fishing gravel banks with sunny banks usually in blood river and jonathan creek.I usually use a 1/16 oz. tube jig in chartreuse color. you will usually catch black and white crappie doing this.Sometimes in April most of my fish come within 30 minutes of last light of the day.
Hope this helps you!
Kentucky Lake is 160,000 acres of water.
Barkley Lake is 58,000 acres of water.
The two lakes combined cover 220,000 acres of water.
To put that into perspective, KY lake, and Barkley lake combined have more water, than every lake in Indiana combined. Ky Lake/ Barkley lakes combined also have more water than every lake in Ohio combined. With the exeption of lake Erie of course.
What kinda technique do you feel most comfortable with. Do you like to vertical jig, cast & count, Spider rig, etc...? Typically that is a good time to spider rig the flats & creeks in 14' to 10' of water, depending on the water temp.Quote:
Originally Posted by Goldeneye
Tube Man is right also. Those Blacks will move up early. I've caught them in 5' of water in late Feb. & early Mar. when the water was 42 degrees. They seek out that warmer water and run to the banks when the lake is rising. They'll also sit high in the water colume over brush in deeper water.
Give us a yell when yall come down & maybe we'll have a handle on the fish.
We'll do what ever it takes, casting, jiggin', riggin', ect... I have a new toy, ( HDS 10 w/ stucture scan ) I'll proably be trying to figure out how the thing works, while everybody else is fishin. I have everything to setup for spider rig , I just haven't done much of it. Usually end up finding some brushpiles, and use a slip bobber w/ a minnow. I'll check in before we head out.
That is a great area of the lake to fish.I live about 12 miles from that area.Quote:
Originally Posted by lowe rider