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I am going to be fishing Kentucky Lake the week beginning May 16th and plan on fishing for bluegill. Does anyone have any recommendations on what part of the lake would be good and where to stay? I have a small boat so I cannot really make long runs especially if there is much wind. Thanks for any input.
Doesn't matter what part of the lake you fish at that time. Just look to the back of the bay's and fish the stake beds. There's some in every bay there.
I am not going to give you specific places, but I will tell you this much. They will be on the beds then,some may be done. The beds constitute a very small area of the Lake. They bed where the bottom is the right slope,has some protection from the waves,gets the right amount of sunlight,and the bottom is a clay,gravel,or sand mixture. They will bed on the main lake bank,around an island,the first coves in,along a main cove bank or further back. Small cove or big. You can also catch some pretty good ones inside the marinas sometimes. They are looking for an area ON BOTTOM that suits their needs,so don't let the surface fool you. Sometimes in order to find several beds holding fish I would have to visit several of the KNOWN beds I had found over the years. So I could sometimes run miles and fish 5 or 6 different coves or more in a day. In a small boat you can run along the bank and go cove to cove if its not too rough. If you just fish along you may catch a lot of smaller ones and a few good ones....but the best ones,and the good redear,and the big numbers will be in choice spots,typically from three to ten ft deep or so. They also like underwater gravel bars,and places around them. These are not pansy fish that have to have a small bait held quietly in front of them. They will hit a jig swam through their beds with authority and pull like a freight train on light tackle. Best to run and gun hitting suspected places....a 1/32 roadrunner head in chartreuse with a chartreuse and something color tube or a small curly tail minnow bait on a 16th or 1/32 oz head will work. Use 1/16 oz to probe the deeper areas. YOU WILL KNOW IF THEY ARE THERE in just a few cast.You want the bait to invade the bed area getting a reaction strike. I use crappie nibbles. You may still catch some crappie too. All depends on how fast the water warms. Also some bass and maybe some other stuff. Some beds may only yield a few fish. If you get lucky and find one not fished to death may have 75 fish on it. On a few rare occasions I have caught more than that from a big bed in a single place but its' rare.
Stay at Hillman's. You can catch anything in either one of the bays that their ramps are in. Keeps you out of the wind too.
Thanks for the information guys that gets me going in the right direction. Doggone, that is some excellent information!!!!!!!!!
Check into learning how to use a drop-shot rig. Put a small jig or bare hook about 18 inches above a large split shot weight and fan cast the backs of coves and creeks with creeks running into it. 90% of the time you will have to find a sand/pea gravel bottom. Sometimes they will bed on a hard clay bottom. Bait it with wax worm or red worm. Pieces of crawler will work also.Berkley maggots work well.
My man Chaunc got me into using a popeye jig under a tiny bobber a few years ago when he wore my butt out from the back seat of my boat. I am smart enough to know when what I'm doing is being out-produced several times over, it is time to change.
Last year a buddy of mine and I pulled into a protected cove that neither of us had ever fished but it looked good. We were both using the popeye jig/bobber with a wax worm. There was barely enough room for us to maneuver my boat into the back of this tiny cove with about 4 feet of water where the beds were. We started catch huge gills and I caught my largest ever redear out of a very small area. Several other boats watched us and some decided they were going to push past us. None did after I put a block move on them. Never had to say a word.
We had 2 older guys come close to us but behind us. They sat there for several minutes. Finally one of them asked what we were using to catch those. He then told us they had fished that same bed the day before and had not caught ANY gills as big as the ones we were throwing back. I asked if he had ever used popeye jigs. He said he didn't know what they were. I told him to come closer to my boat and I would give him a pack of them. I threw a pack of 3 on his deck and you would have thought I had thrown a $100 bill to him. We could hear the 2 guys talking as they idled out of the cove that they would be back as soon as we left. We left soon after that with all the 9"+ gills we wanted to clean. No telling how many channel cats we had caught and thrown back.
Word of advice; spool your gill reel with clear or dark mono. I got worn out one day by a buddy using clear line and I was using hi-viz mono. Same everything but he was catching 5-1 over me. made a believer out of me. Clear mono now for gills.
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...psnaueou8s.jpg
Next time I am going to remind you to bring your fillet knife with you before I ever leave the house. :biggrinQuote:
Originally Posted by mrdux
And yes, hiviz yellow line is no bueno when the water is gin clear as it is apt to be that time of year. Dux set a speed record for respooling rods that one afternoon. I thought that I was going to have to catch all of them by myself.
Thank you for the great information! Sounds like I need clear line and have to figure out what a popeye jig is:cheers2
Pop-eye or popeye jig is simply a feather jig. Cabin Creek Bait Company makes most of the ones used around these parts, but other companies make a similar product.Quote:
Originally Posted by paulmh66
Pop-Eye Feather Jig - 2 Pack - cabincreekretail
Get someone from the jig tying group here to make you some 1/32 oz black marabou jigs too. Some days they work better than the popeyes. Put a little fle-fly bubblegum juice on it and you wont need bait.Quote:
Originally Posted by paulmh66
I'm going to have to tie mono leaders on my poles then. I've got yellow braid, 5lb type, on lots of my rigs. I'm thinking the mono clear leader will increase my numbers. My numbers weren't good last year, size was but not numbers. The redear are around the corner...some whispers of some really big ones being caught on jigs...
If you are real worried/convinced the fish are seeing your line run a fairly long fluorocarbon leader. I run about ten foot on my crappie rod. It has chartreuse braid on it otherwise.
The fluoro does not have the stretch that mono does and I feel like I feel the light bites better.
What's a Popeyes jig look like?
Pepper
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Originally Posted by Hotpepper
placing order now!Quote:
Originally Posted by CrappiePappy
I just checked this out. The place looks perfect. Thanks!Quote:
Originally Posted by smashdn
It is where we went most every year as kids to camp. Iirc there is a fish cleaning station near one of the ramps as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by paulmh66