Kentucky and Barkley stakebeds, angler input needed

As kdfwr begins another season of stakebed maintenance and creation, I would like to get some of your opinions about their style and locations. First, a little history: stakebeds have been a major part of the fish attractor work on ky lake and lake Barkley since the 80's. This work is done during the summer time as the water drops and consists of a couple of guys swimming or wading in the water and pushing in each stick by hand. Each stakebed is made up of about 50-100 hardwood stakes and is marked by a white pole. Each stakebed is refurbished with around 40 stakes every other year. New stakebeds are created in some instances, but in the case of ky lake we are almost to the point where we are unable to maintain the ones we already have. This year we are working on lake Barkley which has some room for more Stakebeds. Our goal is to make these more productive fishing locations. Although these do provide some habitat for fish, the primary function of stakebeds is to be a fish attractor. (We have other efforts designed to create habitat)

We have asked this in some formal surveys, but I have a few questions for you guys.

1. Do you like the locations we currently have? What is the ideal depth for you? (Our goal is a variety of depths, but I'm curious about which ones you guys prefer.)

2. Do you like the current size of our stakebeds? Would you prefer several small stakebeds or a few larger ones?

3. Do you wish the stakebeds were more dense, or less dense? (Sticks farther apart or closer).

4. Do you have any locations on Barkley that you wish had more stakebeds? Please be as specific as possible. (We don't currently use a deep water driver, but we could in the future)

5. Do you prefer short sticks or tall sticks? (Width is also optional, but we vastly prefer to drive narrow sticks)

Any other comments are welcome. I can't guarantee that we will take everyone's advice, but I can guarantee we are listening.

Thanks in advance for your replies,

-Adam Martin

Firstof all, thanks for what kdfwr does for us. I have caught numerous fish in summer on those things when I couldn't find a ledge bite. I'd like to see them a little bit deeper than they typically are although they work pretty well now. I think bigger areas with same amount of stakes at time could hold more fish. I like the short sticks.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

Be on the lookout for a private message with my recommendations. Keep up the communication!

Sent from my SM-G900V using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

As one who fishes the coves and bays, I prefer the ones that are a bit shallower than most. I have better luck in the ones that are not as dense as others (less stakes) as I believe it allows room for the fish to congregate. The ones off the fishing pier in Jonathon are very dense and all I have ever gotten out of those are smaller fish. Unlike the ones in Buckhorn which are a bit more spread out, where I usually get bigger fish (keepers).

And as others have said: Thanks for all you do.

I would like to see some of your efforts geared toward medium depth (4-10') areas in bluegill and redear spawning areas with sand/gravel bottoms. Redears seem to like to be able to get UNDER cover, not just around it. Beds with short stakes would work best for them. It would give them protection from the swarms of Asian carp.

Brian, I'm puzzled why you think your recommendations have to be kept private when the request for info was put out on a public forum?

I agree 100% with Mr. Dux on this. I actually know a guy that puts these short stakes in sandy, pea gravel areas that has really good luck with the red ear.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mrdux

I would like to see some of your efforts geared toward medium depth (4-10') areas in bluegill and redear spawning areas with sand/gravel bottoms. Redears seem to like to be able to get UNDER cover, not just around it. Beds with short stakes would work best for them. It would give them protection from the swarms of Asian carp.

Brian, I'm puzzled why you think your recommendations have to be kept private when the request for info was put out on a public forum?

---

When you say 4 - 10' deep, do you mean at summer pool 359' elevation? Some of the complaints I've heard over the years basically stated that most of our attractors were too shallow to fish until the water was up. From a biological standpoint it makes sense to have variety, but we are considering some deeper stuff. Part of the issue is marking the deeper sites. If they aren't deep enough to be unmarked we need a buoy or extremely tall white pole (these arent insurmountable problems, just giving a little background on our limitations). None of our sites are truly unmarked since the gps coordinates are provided on our website Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Lakes with Fish Attractors We also gave all of our fish attractor locations to the major mapping companies :navionics, lakemaster, lowrance, as well as garmin (not sure whether garmin will integrate them yet)

As for bottom type, mud bottoms are obviously easier to place stakes and they stakes tend to stay in place longer, so over the years many of the original sites have been moved to areas with softer bottoms. It's more difficult to place them in sand or pea gravel, but not impossible. We are also considering some prefabricated stake bed grids for areas with hard bottoms.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Clint

As one who fishes the coves and bays, I prefer the ones that are a bit shallower than most. I have better luck in the ones that are not as dense as others (less stakes) as I believe it allows room for the fish to congregate. The ones off the fishing pier in Jonathon are very dense and all I have ever gotten out of those are smaller fish. Unlike the ones in Buckhorn which are a bit more spread out, where I usually get bigger fish (keepers).

And as others have said: Thanks for all you do.

---

Thanks Clint, the stake beds at that particular spot are much closer than normal. Thats interesting that youve only caught smaller fish there.

IMO, you are wasting materials and labor putting anything for gills and redears on any bottom but sand or pea gravel. If the attractors for gills/redears are placed in a minimum of 4-5' at summer pool and out of any navigation areas, they should be fine. The short stakes in that water depth are probably not going to attract crappie or bass in any great numbers but should be a mecca for panfish. Pour a white PVC stake in a small bucket of sacrete and drop it right in the middle of the series of beds and that should be all that's going to be needed as long as the bed locations are documented. A series of no less than 4 beds at each location a few yards apart should be considered.The grid beds would work great for redears. Some of the most effective redear spots I've seen over the years were short stakes driven into sandy bottom at 4 corners then limbs of willow or oak tied horizontally to the corners forming a grid about a foot off the bottom that was high and dry at winter pool..

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mrdux

I would like to see some of your efforts geared toward medium depth (4-10') areas in bluegill and redear spawning areas with sand/gravel bottoms. Redears seem to like to be able to get UNDER cover, not just around it. Beds with short stakes would work best for them. It would give them protection from the swarms of Asian carp.

Brian, I'm puzzled why you think your recommendations have to be kept private when the request for info was put out on a public forum?

---

Don't be puzzled, if they do parts of my ideas and ramblings it will benefit us all. Just too much water time to just spill the beans everywhere. I am not trying to offend anyone, or portray that I am better than anyone, so please don't take it that way. He didn't specify how to respond, so I responded how I wanted to just as everyone else is doing it how they feel they want to.

But, I will say this. Alot of my recommendations did focus on depths that we consider mid-range depths. Also, having a mix of brush and stakebeds.

Adam, 1st want to say our KY DFWR is one of the best for fish attractors. Spend past 12 years in SC, and they DO NOT put much or any effort in fish attractors. You have 30X times the fish attractors in KY lake versus the attractors in the entire Santee Cooper lake system(Marion and Moultrie). Now, I agree with MRDUX, 4-10' MINIMUM depth even at draw down projections would be the best. I know this would put some in 15-16' feet at full pull, but these could be used year round.

Now, something 'Outside the box' for Bluegill and Redear attractors. I fished Santee for several years for Bluegill. Had a hard time finding consistent locations for the bluegill except for about 5 or 6 personal docks on the lake. I fished under these docks and absolutely killed the Bluegill and Shell Crackers, but never hug up in any brush. So, We had a major drought a few years at Santee, lake was 8 feet down, which for this system, reduced the lake water area about 35%. I went out and checked my 'Special' docks. Since the lake was down 8', I wanted to see why these fish were under these specific docks. What I found was the dock owner had bought these Blue plastic swimming pools, about 6' in diameter (kind you see at Walmart) and had placed them under their dock. Also, looked like they had put about a 3"layer Pea Gravel inside these swimming pools. Now, I then knew why ALL of these dock were hot spots for me. I would STOP fishing after 10 fish per dock, but I assure you I could have caught 4 times this at each dock if I kept fishing what I eventually referred to the 'Swimming pool' pattern. Looks like this works well for drawdowns on the lake. The lip on the pool edges keep sand/dirt from silting over the Pea Gravel. One dock owner had a 150ft dock (bank to end)ranging from 0-15 ft of water and had 20 of these pools under the various sections of his dock.

So, Please consider something like this as an attractor for the Bluegill, Redear people. Man, I know it was a sure bet for me at Santee when I found these little blue swimming pools with pea gravel in them.

:Rofl

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bandchaser

Don't be puzzled, if they do parts of my ideas and ramblings it will benefit us all. Just too much water time to just spill the beans everywhere. I am not trying to offend anyone, or portray that I am better than anyone, so please don't take it that way. He didn't specify how to respond, so I responded how I wanted to just as everyone else is doing it how they feel they want to.

But, I will say this. Alot of my recommendations did focus on depths that we consider mid-range depths. Also, having a mix of brush and stakebeds.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Amartinbio

When you say 4 - 10' deep, do you mean at summer pool 359' elevation? Some of the complaints I've heard over the years basically stated that most of our attractors were too shallow to fish until the water was up. From a biological standpoint it makes sense to have variety, but we are considering some deeper stuff. Part of the issue is marking the deeper sites. If they aren't deep enough to be unmarked we need a buoy or extremely tall white pole (these arent insurmountable problems, just giving a little background on our limitations). None of our sites are truly unmarked since the gps coordinates are provided on our website Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Lakes with Fish Attractors We also gave all of our fish attractor locations to the major mapping companies :navionics, lakemaster, lowrance, as well as garmin (not sure whether garmin will integrate them yet)

As for bottom type, mud bottoms are obviously easier to place stakes and they stakes tend to stay in place longer, so over the years many of the original sites have been moved to areas with softer bottoms. It's more difficult to place them in sand or pea gravel, but not impossible. We are also considering some prefabricated stake bed grids for areas with hard bottoms.

---

When will you all be doing this?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by perchjerker108

Adam, 1st want to say our KY DFWR is one of the best for fish attractors. Spend past 12 years in SC, and they DO NOT put much or any effort in fish attractors. You have 30X times the fish attractors in KY lake versus the attractors in the entire Santee Cooper lake system(Marion and Moultrie). Now, I agree with MRDUX, 4-10' MINIMUM depth even at draw down projections would be the best. I know this would put some in 15-16' feet at full pull, but these could be used year round.

Now, something 'Outside the box' for Bluegill and Redear attractors. I fished Santee for several years for Bluegill. Had a hard time finding consistent locations for the bluegill except for about 5 or 6 personal docks on the lake. I fished under these docks and absolutely killed the Bluegill and Shell Crackers, but never hug up in any brush. So, We had a major drought a few years at Santee, lake was 8 feet down, which for this system, reduced the lake water area about 35%. I went out and checked my 'Special' docks. Since the lake was down 8', I wanted to see why these fish were under these specific docks. What I found was the dock owner had bought these Blue plastic swimming pools, about 6' in diameter (kind you see at Walmart) and had placed them under their dock. Also, looked like they had put about a 3"layer Pea Gravel inside these swimming pools. Now, I then knew why ALL of these dock were hot spots for me. I would STOP fishing after 10 fish per dock, but I assure you I could have caught 4 times this at each dock if I kept fishing what I eventually referred to the 'Swimming pool' pattern. Looks like this works well for drawdowns on the lake. The lip on the pool edges keep sand/dirt from silting over the Pea Gravel. One dock owner had a 150ft dock (bank to end)ranging from 0-15 ft of water and had 20 of these pools under the various sections of his dock.

So, Please consider something like this as an attractor for the Bluegill, Redear people. Man, I know it was a sure bet for me at Santee when I found these little blue swimming pools with pea gravel in them.

---

That's very interesting. I spent a year working for SCDNR in florence and I definitely agree with your opinion of SC's habitat and fish attractor work. I have considered something like the attractors you're talking about in the past. Those types of gravel beds are typically used in small lakes and ponds to increase recruitment by providing a suitable spawning habitat for sunfish. My feeling on our big lakes is that those types of attractors might not be as useful as they are on marion and moultrie due to our current areas with pea gravel and other hard substrate. I am formulating a small scale study which could look at the effects on sportfish recruitment by using that type of habitat in certain coves and then evaluating any changes in recruitment with larval fish sampling, but its still in the very very early phases.

There are a few reasons that we and other managers throughout the state install fish attractors. (1.) to make it easier for anglers to enjoy the resource (2.) to increase the harvest of sportfish to maintain higher growth rates. improving growth rates is the major reason in our state's smaller impoundments where fish often overpopulate and stunt. Fish habitat on the other hand is typically used to increase recruitment or survival of sportfish. I honestly dont know which category those gravel beds would fall under, but its something we are looking at.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ccollins

When will you all be doing this?

---

Which part? Our typical schedule is to place stake beds from about july 15th -august 30. This varies from year to year. We use the wintertime to place our deepwater brush. Spring and fall are designated for fish sampling and other activities.

10'-12' fow @winter pool would be great also.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

I've had good luck catching the big shellcrackers around bamboo that's been put out by people. I'm planning on saturating several areas on Barkley this winter with bamboo. I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to devise these attractors but I've got several ideas in mind.

In 2013 and 2014, we caught some big redear out in front of several of the state stake beds. Everyone thinks May is redear prime time, and it is, but April is a great redear month too.

Adam, thanks, Yep the Gravel beds would be what I hope you guys/gals look at for the Bluegill/Shellcraker attractors. I know the stake beds are mostly for the Crappie people,. Example,Man, if you guys could just dump a bunch of Pea Gravel on the road bed that runs across the bay at Devil's Elbow(East side) Barkley, I bet there would be pile of fish bedding there from spring to fall. Fished there several years ago, fish were all over each side of the road bed. Now, on the SCNR, I felt sorry for all the employees. Very much underpaid and worked to death.