Ky. Lake 11/24/17

Finaly got a chance to get back on the water this morning, i am very concerned about what im seeing on Ky. Lake for this time of year. I caught a 20 limit of fish and when i got them home and dressed them i checked there stomachs and out of the 20 i dressed i did not see any shad or minnows or anything in the stomach of any of these fish. All 20 of them was flat as a pancake and extremely poor. I know it wasnt from old age as i had to measure 19 of them. Is anyone seeing different results in other parts of the lake? Would like to have someones input on what is going on in this lake. In the past years im use to seeing them busting with shad this time of year, but this year im not seeing this at all.

You aren't the first person I've heard that from the past few weeks. I'm interested to hear what people's opinions are on this.

Sent from my XT1650 using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Slab Slayer

Finaly got a chance to get back on the water this morning, i am very concerned about what im seeing on Ky. Lake for this time of year. I caught a 20 limit of fish and when i got them home and dressed them i checked there stomachs and out of the 20 i dressed i did not see any shad or minnows or anything in the stomach of any of these fish. All 20 of them was flat as a pancake and extremely poor. I know it wasnt from old age as i had to measure 19 of them. Is anyone seeing different results in other parts of the lake? Would like to have someones input on what is going on in this lake. In the past years im use to seeing them busting with shad this time of year, but this year im not seeing this at all.

---

I have cleaned fish SEVERAL times this year where they had NOTHING in their stomachs. NOTHING! There is definitely a lack of baitfish. This may explain why the Yellow Belly Stripes have been so aggressive. I caught 2 White Bass the other day and both of them had 3 each 2 inch long crappie in them though.

This is NOT good!

I’ve been asking for months why we haven’t been seeing “baitballs” like we would in the past?

Anybody else think this might be the reason?Attachment 281023


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

im not an expert, and will gladly accept the data the biologist collect/have, but to me a lot of the bigger fish at the weigh in at the shindig event should have been heavier. But, I'm not a regular tournament angular and have nothing to use as a base line.

Yep, where i was at yesterday it looked like some of the videos ive seen on the illinois river. At times they was jumping behind the boat 10 to 15 at a time. Matter of time until some young kid get hurt bad on a jet ski. I had several yesterday that tried to come in the boat with me but thankfully it never happened. Very sad to see this happening to these beautiful lakes!

I had one a week or so ago that was at least as thick as a dollar bill. We have a problem!

I was down for the shin dig a couple weekends ago and didn’t notice the weight difference in the crappies I caught. I didn’t pay much attention to see if they had shads in them either but they were fat fillets. I noticed there were bait balls in the area I was fishing. Didn’t take a screen shot tho. I really hope they find a solution to this issue real soon before it covers the whole lake.

This is very, very scary. I talked with a fella who works for the Corp of Engineers just last week and I asked him about the Asian Carp problem. His response wasn't what I wanted to hear. He told me they're still trying to replicate the carp die off of 2014, without much success. They don't know what to do is what he told me.

i witnessed someone at the shindig a few weeks ago check the stomach contents of several of the fish, and they had shad in them. I don't recall if it was Adam the Biologist or someone else. As far as the Asian carp go, they did say the mass was thicker in Barkley than in Kentucky. He also suggested that the carp needed a strong current to spawn. Made a lot of since to me because i see a lot of silvers jumping into the boat on the ohio river and wabash river. People still jet ski, and water ski on the Ohio up here but it can be dangerous if you hit a spot with a lot of jumpers. Tried duck hunting a few years ago at the Hovey Lake refuge and within 4 minutes i had 8 large silvers flopping in the bottom of the boat

My thought, is the Asian carp and threadfin shad compete for the same food. The bait balls that I have been seeing, I believe, are Asian carp fry. I haven’t seen nearly the balls of shad that we used to have. Last year most of the fish I dressed had bluegill fry in their belly. This year I’m finding that they are empty and poor. I asked the biologist at the shindig and they said that the population of threadfin and gizzard shad were still good. I don’t see them though. Fish have definitely changed their habits compared to what I have seen in the past. I think they are feeding on carp fry now instead of the lacking threadfins. Just my opinion though.


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com