Kentucky Fishing » Kentucky Lake

This time of year in Kentucky, fish deep points for success

admin — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 03:57:10 +0000

The meeting of the land and the water often points out the fish for us.
This was, it seems to say, its earthen or rocky digit extended from shore outward, “Out here.”
Rodney Hairgrove knows that straight bank is never quite as attractive to bass as one with a wrinkle on it. The irregular shape of a point, a protrusion of the shore toward the deeper recesses of the water, is a double dose of fishing fortune: On one hand, it attracts and congregates the bass; on the other, it constitutes an often glaring feature that should flag the attention of the angler and usher him to where the fish wait.
Hairgrove, 37, spends much of his time probing the waters of Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. A transplanted Texan and now for years a Marshall Countian, he operates Big Bear Guide Service out of Big Bear resort on Kentucky Lake’s western shore. When he’s not guiding other fisherman for black bass, white bass or crappie, he’s often bass fishing just for pleasure or in competition. A frequent tournament angler, Hairgrove is a regular in the check-collecting lines of area events.
Much of the fishing year, Hairgrove looks for and finds bass around points in the bays of the two canal-linked reservoirs.
“It starts early in the spring when bass start moving in during the pre-spawn, and it goes on after the spawn when fish are moving back out,” Hairgrove said. “Some of the bass never leave the bays, though. Some of the points that have a good food source and deep enough water nearby will hold fish all through the summer. They’ve got everything bass need, so there’s no reason for them to leave.”
To understand the attraction of bass to points, fishermen must remember that what you see is not necessarily what you get. While points are obvious to the eye, the portions of them that are above the water line for anglers to see are not really what counts. Bass only care about the stuff below the surface.
“What’s important is what’s under the water – what’s on the point and what it’s close to,” Hairgrove said.
“Some good points will have only maybe five feet of water up on top, and others will have 10 or 12 feet up there,” he said. “Even if it gets pretty shallow on top, I think you have to have up to 15 feet or more close by to make it a good spot as the weather gets warmer.”
With deep-water access close by, a point is more likely to be used by bass that can scoot in and out on feeding forays, Hairgrove said. When those fish are on a point, a sharp drop along one side of it will be most likely to hold them when they are there, he added.
Features on a feature – extra elements on a basic structure – are usually what make one point better than another, he said.
“It always helps to have some cover on a point – stumps, brush, stake beds or big rocks,” he said. “Especially if you’ve got cover along the edge of a sharp drop on one side of the point that’s where the fish are going to locate.”
An error that some fishermen make is to relate a point to the place where water and land meet. They sometimes tend to fish right where a point slopes into the lake and where the water is too shallow.
“Early in the morning, fish might get right up on the bank, but most of the time they’re going to be back out a way,” Hairgrove said. “Some of these points run 200 to 300 yards out into the lake from what you see up on shore.
The places that hold fish might be way off the bank.”
That’s where topographic maps and electronic depth-finders come into play.
Information not available upon first glance on the water is what is critical in deciding which points really are worth fishing.
“Probably 60 or 70 percent of the good points show up on a good topo map,” Hairgrove said. “You can see features on the map that make them good. The rest, though, aren’t legible on a map. You have to find them with a depth-finder. The points that aren’t obvious and don’t really show up on a map probably are a little better because they don’t get fished as much.”
Each productive point is different and has its own features to which bass relate. A point that is as long as a football field may boil down to a single location the size of a living room sofa where bass regularly congregate. Learn the spots one at a time and remember them to accumulate a series that can be fished in hops, Hairgrove suggested.
“There are hundreds of points on Kentucky and Barkley,” he said. “You just have to put in some time to learn the good ones and where the best spot is on each one.”
Fishing tactics on points can vary with the season of the year, the time of day and the depth and cover of the sweet spot on each. The biggest variance is depth.
“Even in the summer, early in the morning you can catch fish up and feeding on the shallow ends of points,” Hairgrove said. “You can catch them on topwater lures if they’re up on the surface.
“A lot of it, though, will be off in deeper water. You can throw plastic worms, Carolina rigs, jigs or crankbaits and get down to where the fish are.
“I like a big worm, a Texas-rigged 10-inch (Harville) Baby Huey, or later in the summer, a smaller, 6-inch worm,” Hairgrove said. “A Carolina rig with a one-ounce weight and a lizard is also good because you can cover a lot of water so quickly.
“Crankbaits are awfully good, too,” he said. “You can use Poe’s 400s, (Norman) DD22s or Luhr-Jensen Hot Lips crankbaits and get down as deep as you need to for summer bass.”
Bass naturally adapt to points as routes between deep and shallow water.
Just as they focus the attention of fish, points are a logical draw for fishermen; at least most points are glaringly obvious where they curl off the land into the water.
Knowing which points are the most generous and finding the high-odds spots on each one takes a little experimentation and study. That’s the fine-tuning. But the basics are clear: If a fisherman doesn’t recognize the bass-attracting characteristics of points, he’s missing one.

—Steve Vantreese

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Mayfield’s Williams wins FLW Outdoors Tour tournament with 9-pounder

admin — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:40:26 +0000

Keith Williams' 9-pounder on Kentucky Lake sealed his first FLW Tour win. (Photo by Rob Newell)

MURRAY, Ky. – Even though the Walmart FLW Tour event took off from Kentucky Lake’s north end, pro Keith Williams committed to the New Johnsonville, Tenn., area from the start. In fact, he never made a single cast into Kentucky waters during the four days of practice or the four days of competition.

What drew the Land O’Lakes pro to the lake’s south end was its plentiful hydrilla. On Williams’ first day of practice, he pulled up to a grass flat and within 10 casts had caught a 7-pounder. He explored the area some more and discovered there was a road bed in front of the flat. Furthermore, a small ditch came off the flat and into the road bed. Best of all, the grass in the area was submerged, meaning most of Williams’ fellow competitors overlooked it.

“All of a sudden, I saw (BASS Elite Series pro) Skeet Reese coming right at me,” he said. “That was the final day of their tournament, so, of course, I immediately left. And with him were about 40 other boats, so I kind of wrote the area off.”

But as practice continued, the area continued to replenish. The top of the road bed was approximately 10 feet deep, and it contained the perfect mix of shell beds and hydrilla. Williams estimated this spot was 75 miles south of the Kentucky Lake Dam Marina, the takeoff location the first two days of the tournament. Within this general area, he had three 100-yard stretches of ledges among which he rotated.

For most of the week, his primary bait was a big 3/4-ounce football-head jig that he tipped with a Zoom Brush Hog. But after seeing his co-angler partner from day three catch 19-11 on a big worm, he made the switch. His worm of choice on day four was a 10 ½-inch Zoom Ole Monster in plum color. He Texas-rigged the worm with a 5/16-ounce Tru Tungsten weight and tied it on 20-pound Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon line.

“Seventy percent of my bites came on the initial fall. I would put the boat in anywhere from 20 to 30 feet, and I would make long casts up toward the ledge. In the morning, especially on cloudy days, they were way on top of the road bed, and I was keeping my boat deep and making really long casts to keep from spooking them, and I was throwing shallow – maybe even 8 feet.”

Williams’ five-bass limit weighed 24 pounds, 3 ounces, bringing his two-day total in the final round to 42 pounds even. His kicker fish weighed 9 pounds, 1 ounce and was the biggest bass caught during the entire four-day event.

“That was the first fish I caught this morning. Right then I knew that I had a chance to win if I could settle down and catch a limit. When you catch a 9-pounder, it’s your time.”

The Conway, Ark., pro has fished the FLW Tour since 2000. He’s had considerable success, including seven top-10 finishes, but this is by far his biggest paycheck. He said the $125,000 is great, but the self-assurance it will give him for the future is what means the most. After all, Williams didn’t just defeat the FLW Tour field, he out-dueled the area’s top local angler and perhaps the greatest pro to ever pick up a rod and reel.

“There have been a lot of ups and downs over the years, and this will really give me a confidence boost. I had a few good years when I first started fishing the Tour, but then I hit a dry spell. I even considered not fishing, but Land O’Lakes has always been there supporting me. If it wasn’t for them keeping me in it, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Missed fish will haunt Young

David Young has had a tremendous run on his home waters of Kentucky Lake. At the recent Stren Series event, he finished second by a tiebreaker. He also took second this week, but by a larger margin – over 2 pounds. In 1997, he also finished second at the FLW Tour event on Kentucky Lake. That tournament, won by David Fritts, was decided by only 2 ounces.

While Young has several victories, the major win still eludes him. Early this morning it looked like a sure thing.

“I told my cameraman to get ready right before I made my first cast,” he said. “Sure enough, I caught a nice keeper, and I caught another keeper on my second cast.”

From there, the day took a difficult turn. Young had a 7-pounder all the way to the boat that actually broke off his hook. He lost another 7-pounder and a 5-pound smallmouth that rolled off right at the edge of the net. Needless to say, it will make for some excellent television coverage.

“It was unbelievable; I should have had 30 pounds. It was absolutely heartbreaking to see those fish come off.”

Young said the key to his success this week was fishing a mixture of mussel and rock. The Mayfield, Ky., pro estimated that half of his spots were homemade.

“I never went to the spot I had saved for today. I never went four or five miles from where we took off this morning (Kenlake).”

Young’s key bait was a 1-ounce Spaits Spoon. As day four concluded, he used a Bill Norman DD22 in chartreuse and blue to give the fish something they hadn’t seen yet.

“When the sun was shining, that spoon was just like a flashlight going off down there. The fish could see it from 20 to 30 feet away.”

For 39 pounds, 10 ounces, including 19-9 Sunday, he earned $50,000.

Nixon falls to third

Like many others, Chevy pro Larry Nixon targeted mussel-laden ledges in 18 to 22 feet of water. Day four was by far his toughest day as he managed only 14 pounds, 3 ounces. The three previous days he surpassed the 20-pound mark with relative ease.

When practice began, he used a crankbait and a jig, but all they would produce were tons of little fish. He then switched to the Spaits Spoon, and it made all the difference in the world.

“I got my tail kicked on that thing two years ago in Ultimate Match Fishing by Kelly Jordon,” said the three-time FLW Tour champion. “It is huge and it floats kind of funny, but they absolutely hammer it. Once the tournament started, I never weighed a bass on another lure. Sometimes you had to force-feed them, but if you got one, you could get them every cast.”

Nixon said he lost two bass early in the day, and then his best school shut down.

“I was fishing from the Eggner Ferry Bridge (Highway 68/80) down almost to Paris.”

Combined with his day-three total of 19-8, he finished with a final-round weight of 33 pounds, 11 ounces. He earned $40,000.

“That was one of the most fun tournaments I’ve fished in a long time. But I’m still not happy. Every time you make a top-10, you want to win.”

Rose rises to fourth

Mark Rose is known as an excellent TVA angler who loves to drag a jig over deep main-river ledges. He did plenty of that this week, and his jig of choice was a 3/4-ounce Strike King football head tipped with a Strike King Rage Chunk. He also mixed in a Strike King Series 6 crankbait.

The Marion, Ark., pro would start every morning just south of the Eggner Ferry Bridge. He would then make a long run about 15 miles south of Paris. Rose weighed 18-11 today after catching only 14 pounds Saturday. His final-round total was 32 pounds, 11 ounces.

“I just fished a conservative tournament the last couple of days,” he said. “I had a small one today that I couldn’t cull; I was hooked up with a 4-pounder, but it jumped and spit my jig.”

After taking second at the recent Walmart Open, this was Rose’s second consecutive top-10 finish. For finishing fourth, he earned $30,000.

“Confidence brings success, and I’m really starting to feel comfortable out there again.”

Fox fifth

Rookie pro Travis Fox took fifth in his first FLW Tour top-10 appearance with a two-day total weight of 31 pounds, 1 ounce, good for $20,000. His day-four limit weighed 13 pounds, 2 ounces.

During the opening round, Fox caught his fish on a PJ’s football-head jig with a Yamamoto twin-tail grub. He said the jig helped him locate and feel the shell beds. During the final round, he caught his bass on a blue-and-chartreuse DD22 crankbait and a 10-inch Lucky Strike Worm. He tied his baits to 12-pound Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon line.

“Practice was awesome, the tournament was awesome – my week was just outstanding,” said the Springdale, Ark., native.

Fox focused on ledges north of Kenlake State Park Marina. When the fish were on top of the ledges, the crankbait was his best lure.

By Brett Carlson

Rest of the best

Rounding out the top 10 pro finishers at the FLW Tour event on Kentucky and Barkley lakes:

6th: Jason Christie of Park Hill, Okla., 30-9, $19,000
7th: Ron Shuffield of Bismarck, Ark., 30-4, $18,000
8th: Ott Defoe of Knoxville, Tenn., 28-9, $17,000
9th: Bobby McMullin of Pevely, Mo., 25-13, $16,000
10th: Kenneth (Boo) Woods of Hazard, Ky., 21-2, $15,000

Coming up

The sixth and final FLW Tour qualifying event is scheduled for Lake Champlain in Plattsburgh, N.Y., July 9-12.

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Switch methods to catch crappie in Kentucky, Barkley lakes

admin — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 20:58:54 +0000

Frankfort, Ky. – For years, anglers at Kentucky and Barkley lakes sought crappie in spring by jigging baits around drop-offs, fishing with minnows in shallow brush and probing stake beds with grubs. While these traditional methods worked well for white crappie, they are not nearly as effective nowadays because of the growing population of black crappie in both lakes.

Anglers who want to catch more fish from Kentucky’s most popular crappie fishing lakes this spring need to change their techniques.

“People are still looking for white crappie,” said Gerry Buynak, assistant director of fisheries for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “According to our data, there are more 10-inch crappie in Kentucky Lake right now than we’ve seen since 1985. But 97 percent of the ones we collected in our trap nets are black crappie.”

While white crappie still dominate Lake Barkley, black crappie now make up nearly 40 percent of the population. Buynak says anglers will find fish if they put away their white crappie techniques and target the many black crappie the lakes have to offer.

“Black and white crappie differ quite a bit overall,” he explained. “Black crappie move shallow earlier and stay longer. They also prefer clearer water. People don’t usually cast to rocky shorelines when fishing for crappie, and this is where the black crappie are in the spring.”

Western District Fishery Biologist Paul Rister says fishing for black crappie is starting to heat up as the days turn warmer.

“On warm, sunny days in late February and early March, black crappie are up on those rocky shorelines taking advantage of clear water and warmer temperatures,” he said. “You’ve got to key in on the western shorelines that get sun early in the morning.”

Anglers should try curly-tailed jigs with 1/16-ounce jigheads, Rooster Tails and other small in-line spinners. Good jig colors include white, white with chartreuse, white with red, lime-green, chartreuse, blue and pink.

“You need something really light,” said Rister. “The old standard is a minnow fished underneath a bobber, using a slow retrieve. Let it sit for several seconds, give it a bump, let it sit there, and continue to work it slowly.”

Anglers fishing from boats should cast toward shallow, rocky shorelines. Both lakes possess this type of shoreline on the sides bordering Land Between the Lakes, although Barkley Lake is less rocky than Kentucky Lake overall. The lakes’ shorelines are rockier towards the mouths of embayments.

Bank fishing in these areas is also productive. However, anglers must be careful not to spook fish in the shallow, clear water. “If you are fishing from a boat, you must stay back away from the bank and cast,” Buynak said. “If you get too close to the bank, you’re going to spook the fish.”

As cold winter days give way to early spring, the time is right to target black crappie at Kentucky’s two largest lakes. Anglers willing to update their fishing methods will find good prospects this year.

Kentucky and Barkley lakes have a 20-fish daily creel limit, 10-inch minimum size limit for both species of crappie. For complete fishing regulations, pick up a copy of the 2009-10 Kentucky Fishing and Boating Guide, available wherever fishing licenses are sold.

—KDFWR

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Salato holds wintertime scavenger hunt to fight Kentucky wintertime fishing blues

admin — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 01:54:56 +0000

Frankfort, Ky. – To beat the winter blues, the Salato Wildlife Education Center in Frankfort will host a fun scavenger hunt from 10 a.m. – noon Saturday, Feb. 28. Explore Salato exhibits, wildlife and native plants to test your nature detective skills. The scavenger hunt is appropriate for kids of all ages. Participants will get to decorate their own safari hats to take home. The cost of the program is $10 with registration required.

The Salato Center has a variety of native animals for the public to see, including a black bear, bobcats, elk, deer, bison, eagles, snakes and fish. The Center has numerous indoor exhibits and miles of hiking trails open to the public. Fishing is available at two lakes. While some programs require a registration fee, general admission to the Salato Center is free.

For more information or to register, call 1-800-858-1549, ext. 4445. Learn more about upcoming events at the Salato Center on the Internet at fw.ky.gov. The Salato Center, operated by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, is located at the department’s headquarters on U.S. 60 in Frankfort, 1.5 miles west of U.S. 127. Hours of operation are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays. The Center is closed Sundays, Mondays and state holidays.

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Questions and answers with: Dave Stewart, Bass Buster Guide Service

admin — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:20:28 +0000

Dave Stewart of Bass Buster Guide Service in Benton, Ky.Years guiding: 6. Contact number: 270-354-5039. Email: dave@kentuckylakeguide.com

Kentuckyfishing.com: How did you get started as a guide and why?

Dave Stewart: Actualy, I got started after I retired from the military in 1995. I moved to Kentucky Lake and I was living at a resort. People at the resort asked me if I could take some people out who weren’t catching fish. I helped them catch fish and this eventually became a business.

Kentuckyfishing.com: What do you like about the job?

Dave Stewart: I like he people. Outdoors people, especially anglers, have got to be some of the best people to be around. For me, watching clients catch fish has become more fun than catching the fish myself.

Kentuckyfishing.com: What do you not like so much about the job?

Dave Stewart: Winter. I hate the off season. I get bored.

Kentuckyfishing.com: What is your favorite tactic?

Dave Stewart: I primarily guide for bass; it makes up probably 95 percent of my business. For smallmouth, I love to fish crankbaits and jerkbaits in teh spring. In the summer I fish for largemouth and I love to use Carolina rigs. Kentucky and Balrkley are good Carolina rig lakes. I love to fish tubes, too. That’s kind of a trademark of mine, tube fishing.

Kentuckyfishing.com: Why do you like to fish for bass over other species?

Dave Stewart: I started ot fishing fo bass in clubs and tournaments. It just seems to be the most challenging of the fish here to catch. I enjoy taking people out, especially those who are having trouble finiding fish. I started out guiding as much crappie as I did bass. But I turned to bass. That’s where my reputation is. Ninety-five percent of my business is tournament preparation.

Kentuckyfishing.com: Are tournament anglers tougher to deal with? Are they more difficult to deal with?

Dave Stewart: Not really. You ahve to take each client as they come. Probably my most favorite clients are children — fathers and sons. But tournament types are not that hard to work with.

Kentuckyfishing.com: Do your clients have special tactics they want to try?

Dave Stewart: I find that for the majority of them, since I do a lot of tournament preparation, most people will leave it up to me. They realize one tactic is not a catch-all. But I do have a lot of people who want to try Carolina rigging.

Kentuckyfishing.com: What is your favorite lure?

Dave Stewart: As a go-to lure I’d have to say a tube. I’ve been fishing them for years and years and years. They’ve just become popular down here in the last few years. I’m not sure I’m happy about that. (laughs) My favorite lure to throw, though, is probably a Carolina rig or a crankbait. But a tube is definitely the go-to lure. When nothing else will work a tube will get you some fish.

Kentuckyfishing.com: When do you most like to fish?

Dave Stewart: I love spring. I love the early smallmouth and the pre-spawn largemouth. It’s got to be the most productive and the most fun fishing there is. Those are the days of the big numbers and the big fish.

Kentuckyfishing.com: What kind of cover or areas do you like to fish the most?

Dave Stewart: The obvious would be stumps. Old stump fields are the most productive. I also like brush piles. If you find those brush piles you can score fish. But fish like to cruise open water. So it changes all year long.

First published in The Kentucky Fishing Journal, February 2003

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Winter drawdown at Kentucky Lake makes for good bass fishing

admin — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 04:11:19 +0000

KENTUCKY LAKE — The headwaters of Kentucky Lake’s Sugar Bay — along with the upper reaches of nearly all of the other bays lining this massive reservoir — will soon be mud flats. That’s because the Tennessee Valley Authority is in the process of lowering the lake to its winter-pool elevation of 354 feet above sea level. That’s five feet lower than the summer level. Read The Courier-Journal’s story here .

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Targeting Kentucky Lake smallmouth in early summer

admin — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 00:31:43 +0000

Kentucky Lake Guide Dave Stewart nets a smallmouth for the author.

Before we went down to fish with Dave Stewart, a guide on Kentucky Lake, my fishing buddy called one of his brothers for some advice on where to stay.

“What are you going to fish for?” his brother, a long-time Kentucky Lake angler, asked at the end of the converstation.

“Smallmouth.”

“You mean largemouth,” his brother said.

“No, we’re going after smallmouth.”

Stewart wasn’t surprised later when he heard the conversation rehashed.

“A lot of people are thinking about largemouth because that’s what the laek is known for,” Stewart said. “I spend a lot of time convincing people to go after smallmouth.”

Stewart, who retired from the military and started guiding in the mid-1990s, has developed a busy service as one of the few who focus mainly on bass fishing.

” A lot of people who come here don’t focus on smallmouth,” he said. “The locals have picked up on it. But those who have come from out of state don’t even know they’re in here.”

Knowing that fact has made a difference for a number of anglers, including Stewarts clients who are preparing for tournaments.

Stewart switched to crankbaits for Kentucky smallmouth after noticing that smallmouth were reacting to a topwater chug bait only when it was moved rapidly. His hunch paid off. For the next hour, smallies hammered the faster-moving bait.

“In early spring tournaments, smallmouth are usually in the top 5 of the weight category of any tournament and most of the time win tournaments. The same happens in the fall.”

It doesn’t take long to convert a client.

“When you mention smallmouth, their eyebrows raise and they usually say, ‘I’ve never caught a smallmouth.’ It’s a great thing when somebody catches one when they’ve never caught one before.”

It’s not too bad when yo have, either.

On the day we went out with Stewart, we pulled in at least a half dozen over three pounds. Not bad anywhere, though Stewart said it was slow for Kentucky Lake.

Our day started around 7 a.m. fishing a Pop-R, a chugging topwater bait. Stewart instructed us to popt it hard. He wanted to get their attention.

He noticed that the faster we retrieved, the more likely we were to get a strike.

So we switched to crankbaits _ rootbeer colored Bandit 200 Seires and a Norman’s rootbeer Little N.

“The key there is something I always try to preach to people,” he siad. “Let the fish tell you what they want and then go to it. This time they wanted a faster-moving bait.”

The switch paid off. We spent the next hour catching fish on the crankbaits.

When that slowed down, we switched to Snoozer Road Kill Cammo and Smoke Purple tubes, and we stuck with them the rest of the day.

We were targeting fishing that were chasing bass fry and drum fry in an area on the Land Between the Lakes side of the lake called Sugar Bay. There was no need to leave, except for food and sleep. Throughout the day, we bounced Texas-rigged tubes off the bottom in the back of the bay and on rocky points.

Stewart has two fewer people to convince about Kentucky Lake’s smallmouth.

You can find Stewart at http://www.kentuckylakeguide.com/ You can also call him at 270-354-5039

By Chris Poore

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For Kentucky smallmouth in the heat, turn your back to the banks

admin — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 18:21:08 +0000

“We’re going to live or die on one hole,” Lynn Lane had told a tournament partner. By noon, the latter was looking more likely, with neither a bass in the livewell nor a missed hit to lend hope. Lane stuck with his guns, however, and at 12:30, after six hours of fishing, he got his first bump. By 2:30, when he and his partner had to head for the weigh-in, they had an 18-pound limit in the boat.

The difference?

Current.

Tennessee Valley Authority began running enough water to create current over the bar that Lane was fishing, and the fish turned on as if someone had hit a switch. Such is the nature of summer smallmouth fishing on Kentucky and Barkley lakes, where Lane guides and competes in tournaments and has fished all his life.

Lane, who typically fishes for largemouths and smallmouths together more so than he targest one species, does most of his summer fishing with his back to banks. “Out on the deep structure near the main river channel is where you’ll find the most fish — and usually the best fish — on these lakes,” he said.

“That’s not to say you can’t catch a few fish off boat docks,” Lane said. “You can. However, I catch most of my smallmouths from deeper water.”

Lane concentrates on structure along the main Tennessee ad Cumberland river channels, primarily through the lower ends of the lakes. He catches more smallmouths from Kentucky Lake than from Barkley, but his biggest smallmouth, which weighed 6 pounds, 1 ounce, came from Barkley.

“They both have plenty of smallmouths. I think I just fish more smallmouth spots on Kentucky Lake,” he said.

The two primary types of features that Lane focuses his summer efforts on are ditches that dump into the main river channel and bars or humps that rise out of or very near to the channel. He often will position his boat over 40 feet or more of water in the main river channel and cast his offerings to structure that is 25 or 30 feet deep.

Lane always looks for a hard bottom, which he can recognize on his graph, because a hard bottom indicates that current regularly washes an area. For smallmouths, he specificallly prefers a bottom of gravel or chunk rock. “There’s just something about rock and smallmouths,” he said.

In addition to his mainstay bars and ditches, Lane targets smallmouths in a couple other types of places. First, he said that barge tie-offs in the lower end of Kentucky Lake always have smallmouths around them. In addition, he pointed toward main-lake pockets along the east bank of Kentucky Lake. A wash sometimes forms in the backs of steep-sided cuts, and the result is a subtle bar where the gravel settles.

“It might only be a rise of a foot or two in 14 or 15 feet of water,” Lane said, “but these areas really hold the smallmouths sometimes.”

Lane’s No. 1 summer tactic, far and away, is dragging a Carolina rig. He C-rigs an Exude B-A Hawg, which is a 4-inch creature bait, typically sticking with a few basic colors. He pointed toward junebug, green pumpkin and watermelon seed as good bets and noted that he abides by the often-stated premise of fishing darker tones on darker days or in stained water.

While Lane’s basic retrieve is a simple dragging motion, he will vary the speed that he moves the bait, the length of each dragging stroke and the amount of time he pauses his offering. “There are times when I will let it just sit there for 20 seconds or more after I bump a stick or a rock. Other times, I’ll hop it along steadily,” he said.

Upon arriving at a spot, Lane sometimes will make a dozen or so casts with a crankbait or a spinnerbait. “That will pick up the most aggressive fish,” he explained. After that, he’ll pick up his Carolina rig rod, which he typically will continue throwing until he leaves that spot.

When Lane specifically has big bass in mind, he sometimes turns to a tactic that Kentucky Lake anglers call “stroking” a jig. “You cast out over the structure, let the bait fall all the way down and then jerk it up off the bottom, almost like you are snagging,” he said. “Then you watch the line as teh bait sinks, looking for a slight tick. You typically won’t feel the strike.”

For stroking, Lane uses a 1/2-ounce black and blue jig tipped with a a black and blue Exude Craw Chunk. “It will wear you out,” he said, “but it produces some really big bass.”

For all offshore bass fishing, Lane looks for the current. If one lake is running more current than the other, he’ll almost always opt for the current. Likewise, he’ll scout spots to see how much current there is, as different spots run more according to which generators are running

“Our current isn’t like in a regular river. It’s very subtle,” Lane noted. “It makes all the difference, though.”

By Jeff Samsel

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Going vertical for ledge cats

admin — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 01:58:43 +0000

By Steve Vantreese

Lighten up and get down, but don’t expect to chill out.

Kuttawa, Ky., fishing guide Malcolm Lane isn’t offering philosophy of grooving when he advocates going lighter. He means tackle and line. And down means contact with the bottom. Any chilling, meanwhile, seems unlikely when it comes to one of his favorite endeavors — mid-sumer catfish pursuit on the big waters of Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake.

Lane, who operates on the big western Kentucky waters as Hook, Line and Sinker guide service, is a 40-year pro fish finagler who more and more nowadays looks to the whiskered species for amusing visiting anglers. On the giant, canal-linked reservoirs, the headliners traditionally have been black bass and crappie, with a special summer consideration for the swarms of white bass that are popular with masses of locals and visitors alike.

Catfish have been coming on, however. Their numbers seem to be higher, perhaps in part because of less commercial fishing pressure in present times, and their quality and size certainly is high.

“The catfish population is real good,” Lane said. “And with less pressure on them, the sizes of fish you see only gets better.”

The no-brainer attraction of catfish is that these species — primarily abundant channel cats and larger blue catfish — can provide a volume of action and probably the most arm-straining resistance per fish of anything that an angler might pursue on the lakes.

“I’m in the entertainment business first,” Lane said. “My people have a big time fishing for catfish, and that’s what it’s all about.”

And sizzling summer is prime for main lake structure fishing for cats. “Hot is good,” Lane said. The heat is what runs the fish out of the shallows and concentrates them out on the ledges where I can find them good from about the first of summer into September.”

Lane targets catfish on the lakes, more often Barkley, but sometimes Kentucky, along the main river channel — the inundated Cumberland River on Barkley and the old Tennessee River channel on Kentucky — where tributary streams enter the larger river. Those locations, and there are lots of them, provide the necessary elements.

“The number one consideration is structure, a change in the bottom countour from one depth to another,” he said. “Number two is current, especially on Barkley.

The presence of current, it seems, is the “on” switch for much catfish feeding as it is for other predatory species that are drawn to those main lake shelves. Foremost, current apparently pushes baitfish in the form of threadfin and/or young gizzard shad onto the structures. And the moving water activates the predators to, well, be predators.

“The creek mouths give me several options,” Lane said. “When the current is blowing super hard, the fish, especially blues, will get down into the creek and get a little break in the current that’s coming from one side so they don’t have to work so hard.”

When current is present but milder, many times fish will gather in schools along the points formed by the ridges on either side of the tributary creek where it merges with the river.

“On Barkley, it’s common to come off the deeper river channel onto plateaus that are 20 to 22 feet deep,” Lane said. “Catfish like those areas in the summertime.”

Lane has a personal preference for channel catfish, although they tend to average smaller than their blue cousins. He notes, however, that some channels to 15 pounds and larger are taken by his clients, so he doesn’t feel he’s compromising anything by seeking them.

“The main thing I do is target the species according to the current,” Lane said. “The channel cat likes current, so I’ll look for them in some of the places that are more exposed to current when it’s running good. But if there’s a slack current, then I’ll go more for blues, because because the blue doesn’t want to expend as much energy. The channels are bigtime swimmers and will move around in the current, but the blues are more homebodies.”

Lane adjusts his offerings according to species, but his general technique and most of his tackle is aimed at both.

“I like a little lighter tackle and lighter line than some people do, and I think I catch more catfish because of it,” Lane said. “I use basically bass weight casting gear and 10- to 15-pound line — 10-pound most of the time.

“I believe I get more bites on the lighter line, I can fish with less sinker weight, and I can feel the fish better.”

Lane likes modest-sized No. 1 baitholder hooks with offset points for targeting channel cats and for combined channels and blues. To specifically cater to blue catfish, he opts for No. 1/0 or 2/0 Kahle hooks with a wider gap to handle larger bait.

Lane’s basic rig is to tie a one-ounce bass casting type sinker to the end of the line, then form a dropper loop by tying a section of line in a simple overhand knot about a foot or a little more above the sinker. The dropper loop, four or five inches of doubled line, is threaded through the eye of the hook, then around the hook to secure it with what amounts to a lark’s head knot.

“I fish for catfish like we used to rig minnows for crappie,” Lane said. “I bump bottom with the sinker — up, down, up, down, keeping regular contact. That keeps the bait close to the bottom without dragging it. The catfish tend to go to the bottom when they’re feeding. I want to see fish on the depth finder that are on bottom and not suspended.”

The all-purpose catfish bait as far as Lane is concerned is a combo treat.

His first choice is a live leech hooked into the mouth and out the belly, exposing the hook point. This is further embellished with a piece of frozen, peeled shirmp meat impaled on teh hook, the point again pushed through and exposed.

“I like the leech for taste and the shrimp for smell,” Lane said. “I think both of them together work better than either one alone.

“There used to be no leech fishing going on around here, but several years ago I had some clients down from Wisconsin, and they brought their own leeches for bait — and they kicked my butt on the lake. Since then, there’s been a few bait shops that have been handling leeches, and I use them all the time.”

When blue catfish are the specific goal, however, Lane gets fishy.

“Blues like yellowtails (threadfin shad) better,” he said. “They may be bigger fish, and they can take a bigger bait. I’ll put a whole frozen yellowtail on one of the Kahle hooks for blues.”

There’s not too much science in handling the tackle in Lane’s catfishing approach. Bumping the sinker along bottom, the bait riding a few inches higher, it’s quick-draw action when the hit on the bait is felt.

“When you feel the hit, set the hook. He’s got it in his mouth as soon as you feel it,” Lane said.

When the hook-set comes while fish lips still are applied to the baited hook, it’s action time. On bass weight tackle and comparable light line, it can be a pretty good handful, especially if the slippery one on the other end of the line is a channel cat that nudges into double-digit weights, or especially if it’s a blue catfish that will crack the 20-pound barrier, which is no rare feat.

“I like that touchy-feeling thing you get with catfish on the lighter tackle and lighter line,” Lane said. “I don’t feel like I lose anything by going lighter, though, because most of the places along these creek mouth structures are pretty clean bottom and, even where there’s cover, when you first set the hook on a fish, you wrestle him up off the bottom pretty quick. Then you can take your time becuase he’s in open water and not in danger of tangling your line.

Even on a big fish, as long as you take your time and don’t try to rush him, you can get him on lighter line — and have more fun while you’re catching him.”

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