Salato holds wintertime scavenger hunt to fight Kentucky wintertime fishing blues
February 22, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
| 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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Last-Minute Entry Lands Kentucky Auto Parts Production Worker $100,000 Prize in Fantasy Fishing Game
February 22, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
Berea's Terry Moberly decided at the last minute to enter the FLW Fantasy Fishing Game Contest. The decision won him $100,000.
To win FLW Fantasy Fishing, or any contest for that matter, you have to enter. And entering at the last minute counts just as much as if you entered days, weeks or even months before.
That’s what Terry Moberly, 45, a resident of Berea, Ky., a small town near Lexington, Ky., learned. Last Wednesday, Feb. 11, with less than four hours until the closing bell on FLW Fantasy Fishing picks for the first tournament, Moberly registered at fantasyfishing.com. Using Player’s Advantage, an online tool that provides “inside” information about FLW Tour bass pros, Moberly picked 10 bass pros from among a field of 157 that would be competing the very next morning in the first of six tournaments that make up the Walmart FLW Tour, professional bass fishing’s largest and most prestigious tournament circuit.
Late winter is prime time for striped bass in Lake Cumberland tributaries
January 10, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
Jacob Knight of Lexington holds a 6-pound striper caught on a 30-degree day on Lake Cumberland
A slight temperature variance can make a huge difference in February, according to Tim Tarter of Nancy Guide Service, who has been fishing for Lake Cumberland’s legendary stripers for as long as the fish have been in the lake.
“We’re always looking for a little bit warmer water this time of year,” he said, noting that alewives and consequently the stripers will congregate in spots where the water is just a degreee or two warmer than other parts of the lake during February.
Often that means heading up the Cumberland River or up tributary creeks to parts of the lake less famous for their striper fishing than the lake’s open lower main body. These areas have more flats, which warm up just a bit on sunny February days, and the creeks bring warmer water into the lake after most February rainfalls.
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Look for hot smallmouth fishing in winter
January 1, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
We have experiences in the outdoors that can be transcendent, although the conditions are rough. Catching crappie after crappie in cold March sleet, bagging your biggest turkey ever in a chilling April downpour or taking a limit of ducks in weather so cold hot coffee quickly freezes on the rim of your cup make great memories.
Although these encounters test your mettle and enrich your life, few outdoor pursuits compare to December fishing for smallmouth bass in the snow. The activity seems incongruent – floating in a boat on ice-free water with white frozen snow lining the banks. You seem completely out of place, casting a hair jig, the float and fly or a shiner with snow in your eyelashes. You feel you should be at home; that it is dangerous to fish in such weather.
Questions and answers with: Dave Stewart, Bass Buster Guide Service
January 1, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
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
Teen catches state record, 47-pound muskellunge
November 14, 2008 by admin · Comments Off
Frankfort, Ky. – A 14-year-old freshman at Montgomery County High School landed a 47-pound muskellunge while fishing with her family on Cave Run Lake Nov. 2. Sarah Terry’s fish is now Kentucky’s state record muskellunge.
“I saw it come to the boat,” she said. “It went under the boat and then came back out and hit it. It really chomped that bait. If I had a dollar for every time I said ‘Oh, my God,’ I would be rich.”
Terry and her stepfather, Scott Salchli, were fishing the edge of a weed bed near the Claylick Boat Ramp late in the afternoon when the fish struck. Terry caught the record muskie on a Double Cowgirl in-line spinner with two size 10 gold blades and a purple skirt.
The 54-inch fish succumbed as Terry made a figure eight in the water with her lure. Muskellunge that follow a lure but don’t strike often fall for this old trick.
“She did the figure eight perfectly,” Salchli said. “She made really good, wide circles. The fish struck just as she was making her second figure eight.”
What to do if you catch a state record fish
November 14, 2008 by admin · Comments Off
Frankfort, Ky. – The waters of Cave Run Lake surrendered another state record muskellunge when Sarah Terry caught a 47-pounder Nov. 2.
Terry, a 14-year old freshman at Montgomery County High School, and her stepfather, Scott Salchli, went through the proper steps to make sure her catch was certified as the official state record. If you catch what you think is a potential state record fish, you must follow the correct instructions to insure your fish makes the official state record fish list. This list is on page 33 and 34 of the 2008 Kentucky Fishing and Boating Guide.
First, you must catch the fish by pole and line. Fish taken by commercial gear, trotlines, gigging, snagging, limb lines, hand grabbing or bow fishing are not eligible for state records.
Winter drawdown at Kentucky Lake makes for good bass fishing
September 14, 2008 by admin · Comments Off
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 .
Targeting Kentucky Lake smallmouth in early summer
September 13, 2008 by admin · Comments Off
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.
For Kentucky smallmouth in the heat, turn your back to the banks
August 29, 2008 by admin · Comments Off
“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.
