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Anyone fishing Yatesville, Paintsville, Grayson or other eastern KY lakes on here? My husband and I live in Louisa but have had no luck on the local lakes. We frquent Dale Hollow, some on Cave Run but mostly in South Carolina and Georgia. The 7 and 8 inch ones on our local lakes dont compare with the slabs out of town. Any pointers or suggestions on local slabs?
Welcome neighbor. You will find there are some good post on here concerning Cave Run but not so much on the other lakes in our area.
Those lakes have fish, but are not easy lakes to stay on them. Most beautiful lakes in the state, but 100' of water is hard fishing.
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There seems to be a few crappie fishermen in the area. Everyone unfortunately tends to travel such as we do to crappie fish. Are there other lakes nearby that you suggest? You said that you mostly fish Yatesville and Grayson. I see in your bio that you live at Fallsburg, so do you put in on 1185? We live outside Fallsburg as well and put in there.
I think "LittleJohn" fishes Grayson & Cave Run ... and seems to do OK on them. You might PM him & see if he has any helpful info to share.
No. I put In at the marina when I fish Yatesville. I have never had a lot of success on Yatesville crappie fishing. The man that runs the bait store on the road to the marina told me there is an older man from Paintsville that does really good there. The bait shop owner was a little skeptical until the man stopped and showed him his catch one day. I have a friend that lives in Prestonsburg who claims they catch some nice crappie there. I think they mostly fish from Daniels Branch and on up toward the head of the lake. I wish I could be more helpful.
The man I fish with likes to fish Grayson. We fish mostly from the dam to just above Cliffty Creek. We catch a lot of crappie but very few of them are over 11inches. Brad Taylor at Borders Sporting Goods told me a man showed him a picture of one that supposedly came from Grayson this fall that was over 17 inches and I have a good friend who caught one 16 inches this summer but those are very rare as I am sure you well know.
Over the last couple of years, we have only fished Grayson and Yatesville a couple of times. Caught more crappie on Grayson but they were just babies. We are spoiled. Where we fish in South Carolina, the average are probably 12 inches. Several in the 15 to 16 range. Some larger slabs. We have found a nice campground down there. We have a fifth wheel that we take and stay a month. Right on the water. Put the boat in and leave it for a whole month. There are times though when we are at home that we would really like to just go locally for a day or even a few hours.
Bmccorm, Yep, I know about being spoiled about SC crappie. My best catch there was 25 crappie at Santee, 52.5 lbs/25 fish. Moved back to KY about 3 years ago. Nothing like this opportunity here as I know, but, you can catch some 1lb crappies if you work at it. I would guess KY/Barkley would your best chance to catch 2lb crappie if the Asian Carp have not decimated the fishery. Don't think any other lakes in KY. have the potential for this size. Most fishermen go South to catch nice size crappie that live in KY.
Uhhh .... you're forgetting Cumberland Lake, aren't you ?? :biggrinQuote:
Originally Posted by perchjerker108
CrappiePappy, Your are correct, forgot about Cumberland.
Have never fished Cumberland for crappie. Any certain areas?
Open up Google Earth & use the history bar to go back 10 or 12 years .... then zoom down onto the creeks in the area where you intend to launch. Work the history bar backwards/forwards and watch where the "dry creek areas" had tree growth coming up along the banks (during the years when the water was down for dam repairs). Keep moving the history bar forward until it's "now" and you'll have a good idea of where those Crappie are apt to be thru the year.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bmccorm
I use this site ( Lake Cumberland Water Level ) to tell me what the water levels are. FWIW
Grayson is the lake I fish the most. Usually Around Bruin or Clifty. I have most success pulling jigs, but I have several spots near twin bays and “the waterfall” where I do good casting jigs or drowning minnows. My biggest on Grayson is 14.5 inch. Most crappie are less than 8 inch from my experiences.
I’ve fished yatesville a fair bit and have most luck jigging standing timber. Bigger crappie, but catch less.
I’m far to inexperienced to give a report on cave run, but I have tried it a few times.
Good luck and feel free to message me if you ever wana go or swap tips/reports
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Bmccorm, the only area I have fished at Cumberland is the Pitman Creek area. Fished it for 3 or 4 years a while back in the spring. Caught a lot of crappie, mostly 11-12 inchers around the banks on blowdowns or structure I was able to find(around about 1lb). Did catch a few 15 inchers, but not many. Fished out of a place called 'lost lodge cottages'. Don't know for sure if it still exists. It had the 'Hillavator' to get you down to the dock( or you could walk down about 200 steps or more to get down there. When you could stay there, you can dock your boat at their dock which was about 100 feet straight down the bank from the place. Now, the general size of the crappie may be better now. Haven't been there for a while. CrappiePappy would be your best bet on the 'normal' size expected there.
Went to Grayson today. Only managed one crappie. Turns out the bait store close to the lake doesn’t sell minnows during winter anymore. The one I caught came on a slabhammer jig coated with slab sauce.
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Jman, like your post. Nice picture of the fish. Wish you would have gotten more!
That's a hog!! [emoji23]Quote:
Originally Posted by Jman5626
Thanks for sharing. Glad you got out!
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Jman you ever catch any crappie off the bridge pilings in the back ground of the picture. Be a good place to put some cover in the lake. I would say that's at Bruin's creek.
LittleJohn
I have tried, but never caught fish off any of the pilings. That’s actually the entrance to cliffty creek
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