Barren river 4/16,4/17 report

Me and my 11 yo son went to barren this weekend for thefishers of men legacy bass tourney. Fished that saturday and didnt do so well. Caught maybe 7 with only 3 keepers for a little less than 5 lbs. we had alot of fun though and did catch 2 nice crappie on a jerkbait and a big spinnerbait. After the weigh in and a lte lunch, Jackson wanted to drown some minnows so we went back out and crappie fished for a few hours. Glad we did. We caught maybe 25 with most if not all keepers. I only keep them if they are over 10" and we kept 14 that night.

Decided to give it another go the next morning and fished from 8-1. Ended up bringing home 35 more with a total of 49. Average size was 11" but did carch several 12 and a few 14" fish. Caught vast majority on minnow but a few on cranks and shad bodied jigs. Fish were in basically any shallow cover we tried. Some were unbelievably shallow. We probably caught arounf 75-90 total with 90% being 9"+ keepers.

We had a lot of fun. It was crazy how many crappie we caught out of some of these little off the wall places.

Doing this on my phone. Will add pics later

Sorry for the sideways pics. I have no idea how to fix that when posting from my phone

Thanks, for a great report, may give a go Tuesday. Great photos.

Uggh work. I may have to make an after work trip.

No matter what I decide to do this time of year, crappie fishing or turkey hunting, while doing one I always think I should be doing the other.

Well all I can hope for is they are still up shallow on Saturday since it's the only say I can make it out this week then heading to Florida on Sunday for a week. Looking for a crappie guide near the Orlando area if anyone knows of one let me know.

Some of those real dark blacks' tails are tore up pretty good. They been making a bed somewhere.

What area of the lake were you fishing?

I'm not real familiar with the lake. Only been there bass fishing a few times before. This was my first crappie trip. I put in at the state park and just blind fished in that general area. When I found a cove that had the kind of cover I was looking for, it typically produced. I would think I could have ran the pattern throughout the lake. We just hit it perfectly with the timing I think.

I'd pick one of the creek arms with standing timber and fish them. If you have one of those old folding wax paper feeling lake maps they label the standing timber. Typically people will attach cedars and other limbs and brush to the those trees with wire or rope. Watch your sonar for when you go over one that has brush on it.

There are two creek arms around the state ramp area that have standing timber, one that I know of above the bridge and one in Skaggs creek not far from the Narrows ramp.

Right now at this lake level there are still a bunch half out of the water so finding them should be easy.

Which bridge are you talking about?

After looking at this I think we are going to drop the kayaks in at the end of S. Lucas Rd just east of the state park.

Go left and fish the 100 yard long drop that has brush all along it. May be tricky if the wind gets up but otherwise that would be a good spot to try. Watch for boats, Peter Creek gets beat up pretty good.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MattRagle

Which bridge are you talking about?

---

31E