Kentucky River fishing is like a box of chocolates: You never know what you’re going to ….
Photo by David Stephenson
By Chris Poore
As the boat departed from the ramp and made its way under the fog-hidden High Bridge in Jessamine County, Elliott Hess leaned back and looked up at the bluffs above him.
Sun kissed the big rock ledges. Birds departed silently from treetops. Fog danced on the surface of the Kentucky River.
Hess, a 22-year-old photographer and a student at UK, grew up in Lexington and wandered all over Fayette County as a kid to find the next perfect fishing hole: a golf course pond here, a church pond there, a stream behind a city park.
But his experience with the Kentucky River, like that of many Central Kentuckians, had been limited to the vantage point of the I-64 and U.S. 27 bridges.
So given the chance to explore the river up close, Hess didn’t hesitate.
As the boat made its way on this 16-mile trip from High Bridge to below the dam at lock Number 8, Hess was moved by the river’s beauty.
“I almost don’t care if we catch fish today,” he said.
It was an angler’s version of “knocking on wood,” but it was an unneeded sentiment this day.
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Low head dams in Kentucky are much more dangerous than they might seem
A 13-year-old boy died beneath a low-head dam on Elkhorn Creek at Great Crossings in Scott County this weekend. Low-head dams such as this one on South Elkhorn Creek in Franklin County are some of the most dangerous water structures in existence. Just a drop of a few feet creates dangerous water turbulences below the dam that few escape alive. These types of dams are commonly called "drowning machines." Show this picture to your children, and please be overly cautious any time you're fishing near dams on Kentucky's rivers.
Ohio River To Host BFL Buckeye Division Tournament Aug. 8
July 31, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
MAYSVILLE, KENTUCKY – The Buckeye Division of the $8 million Walmart Bass Fishing League® will visit the Ohio River in Maysville, Kentucky, August 8 for the fourth of five regular-season events. As many as 200 boaters and 200 co-anglers are expected to compete in the tournament, which will award as much as $45,000 in cash, including a top award of $6,000 in the Boater Division.
If the winner is a participant in the Ranger Cup incentive program, he or she will receive a $2,000 bonus from Ranger Boats. If the winner is not a Ranger Cup participant, Ranger will award $1,000 to the highest-finishing Ranger Cup participant. That’s a potential top award of $8,000 for anglers who meet contingency guidelines.
Bombardier will award $1,000 to the winning boater if the winner’s boat is equipped with a qualifying Evinrude E-TEC or Direct Injection outboard.
The winning co-angler will earn as much as $3,000 cash.
The Bream Reaper
June 2, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
Fishing Kentucky waterways is both a joy and at times can be frustrating. Especially for the fly fisherman. The Dix River is one of the best Trout Streams I have ever fished and the Cumberland River is a bonanza of structure and plenty of trout. Thing is during the rainy season of the year, which we are currently in, it is hard to fish these bodies because the water is too high. We fly fisherman must find other ways to satisfy the fly casting jones. Bream fishing in farm ponds is a great way to both practice casting and timing the setting of the hook on smaller fish. Practicing barrel casts and fishing in tighter spaces rather than wading in a river are good skills to have as a fly fisherman.
Editor’s note: Jonathan Palmer is a frequent contributor to www.kentuckyfishing.com. He’s also a terrific photojournalist who manages to shoot great pictures while he’s fishing. Check out his work in a publication near you, or at www.jonathanpalmer.net.
A guided canoe trip down Elkhorn Creek in Central Kentucky
May 10, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
Join the Salato Wildlife Education Center staff for a guided canoe trip along the Elkhorn Creek in Franklin County. This event is from 8 a.m. – 1 p.m. Saturday, May 16. Paddling down this beautiful creek is a wonderful way to surrounded yourself in nature and view some wildlife.
We will meet at the Salato Center in Frankfort at 8 a.m. We provide transportation to the outfitter, Canoe Kentucky. The trip requires about two hours of paddling and is 6 miles long. This section of creek is good for beginners or intermediate paddlers. Please bring a sack lunch, water and sunscreen. Small coolers are allowed for food and drink items. Wear water shoes and clothes that can get wet. A waterproof bag is ideal for items you don’t want to get wet.
We will provide a few field guides and binoculars, but feel free to bring your own. Canoe Kentucky is providing life vests, paddles and canoes. The cost of the program is $35 with a limit of 15 people. The program may be cancelled due to bad weather. Registration and pre-payment are required.
The Salato Center has a variety of native animals for the public to see, including 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 may require a registration fee, general admission to the Salato Center is free.
For more information 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 Kentucky Fish and Wildlife, 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.
A finesse worm that works as well in Kentucky today as it did 30 years ago
April 19, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
My dad came home from a boat show in Louisville back in the late 1970s with a small plastic tackle box, a 5-foot top-of-the-line light power graphite rod and a new Shakespeare spinning reel spooled with 6-pound line. Excitement radiated from him as he couldn’t wait to try his new gear in the distillery lakes close to our home near Bardstown, Kentucky – an area that produces a generous share of the world’s bourbon.
Similar in size to those used for cigars, the small tackle box came with five compartments: one filled with funny-looking leadheads and the other four filled with small, 4-inch straight-tailed worms. Black worms filled one compartment; grape worms lay in another, while brown with an orange tail and motor oil filled the other two.
He bought the new gear from a man at the boat show who told him all about this new system that caught bass in the toughest conditions. The man said this new technique would excel in the weedy, shallow and clear distillery lakes near our home if he just stuck to it long enough to learn it.
The author, Kentucky Afield Magazine's associate editor, with a big largemouth caught in a pond on a Slider worm.
The legendary Charlie Brewer Slider worm
My dad caught many bass with his new gear, but soon he could not find the small tackle box and rod because I had them on the shore of one of those distillery lakes. I learned to consistently catch bass year-round using light line and 4-inch worms and profited from it enormously. The knowledge gained provided the foundation for my later writings about bass fishing.
The man at the boat show was Charlie Brewer and he died 9 years ago this week. In the mythology of bass fishing, finesse techniques of using light line, subtle lures and spinning tackle to tempt spooky clear-water bass belongs to the deep, crystalline lakes of California. In reality, these techniques belong to Charlie Brewer.
He developed the Slider system to fool black bass in what he called the “tough, mean” reservoirs of east Tennessee, southeast Kentucky and the Highland Rim of middle Tennessee. Brewer’s Slider Worm launched the finesse revolution 20 years before most heard the term.
Brewer returned from World War II to Lawrenceburg, Tennessee and opened a radio and TV repair shop with knowledge gained in the South Pacific. A natural-born tinkerer, Brewer grew weary of the long, fishless hours throwing a baitcaster spooled with black nylon line and a crankbait such as the Heddon River Runt. He figured there had to be a better way to catch bass more consistently when they aren’t active and chasing lures.
Brewer developed a unique leadhead designed to plane in the water, not fall to the bottom like a smooth rock. He also poured his own slender 4-inch ringed worms with an egg sack that tapered to a paddle tail. He cast these worms on short graphite or graphite composite rods with a Tennessee handle for increased sensitivity. He removed the bail from the reels to increase casting distance for his 1/16- to 1/4-ounce leadheads and diminutive worms. He founded the Crazy Head Lure Company in 1970, now known as the Charlie Brewer Slider Company.
The key to Brewer’s system is presentation. The Slider method is designed to find bass suspended in the water column or hanging just above the bottom. Bass in clear-water lakes such as Lake Cumberland, Laurel River Lake and Dale Hollow Lake suspend most of the time during the day, especially in summer and winter. Suspended bass represent one of the toughest bass fishing situations.
The original Crazy Head was a flat-bottomed leadhead that came through the water in a straight line on the retrieve. Brewer later developed other styles of flat-sided heads and bullet shaped ones, but the basic concept remains. The heart of his Slider system is manipulating the speed of the retrieve and the weight of the leadhead until you hit the combination of depth and speed bass want that particular day.
This may require cutting some weight off the Slider head till it weighs just 1/32-ounce or flattening it to slow the rate of fall. Find a likely fish-holding structure, such as a channel point laden with boulders or stumps. Cast parallel to the structure and count to ten. Reel the Slider worm with a rhythmic, but slow cadence and watch your line intently. Keep counting down and reeling slowly until you get a rapid peck or nip from a bluegill, baby bass or crappie. This is the activity zone. Count down a little more on the next cast and you’ll be in bass.
Once you find the depth and speed they want, you can fish similar areas all over the lake and catch fish all day. The Slider worm resembles a minnow more than anything and fish can’t help themselves. It is simple and ingenious. Plus, light to medium-light spinning rods and 6-pound line make 2-pounders feel like trophies. It is simply a fun and relaxing way to catch bass after bass, plus the occasional trophy bluegill, crappie, walleye and even freshwater drum.
Brewer also believed bass anglers do way too much running and gunning instead of fishing. He felt folks should pattern their fish close-by and focus more on technique than covering water. Brewer relates in his touchstone book “Charlie Brewer on Slider Fishing” that some of his best fishing days stemmed from engine trouble that forced him to scour the fishy-looking areas near the ramp. This also saves gas and wear and tear on the big motor.
All you need is a small box or a paper bag with a few colors of Slider worms, some Slider heads, a pair of sidecutter and needlenose pliers and knowledge. Largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass gobble them up with the same abandon now as they did when Sliders first hit the market 30 years ago.
By Lee McClellan, an award-winning outdoors writer and associate editor of Kentucky Afield magazine.
Smallmouth fishing on Elkhorn Creek looks good this year
March 8, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
Lexington angler Billy Elkins lands a smallmouth bass from central Kentucky's Elkhorn Creek. Fishing for smallmouth bass in Elkhorn Creek and other Kentucky streams should improve in 2009. Photo by Lee McClellan
Frankfort, Ky. – Elkhorn Creek, one of the premier smallmouth streams in Kentucky, produced fantastic smallmouth bass fishing from 1998 to 2002. Anglers could expect to catch a few dozen smallmouth in a day’s fishing. A couple of these fish were usually longer than the 16-inch upper limit of the 12-16 inch protective slot limit in effect for largemouth and smallmouth bass in the creek.
Fishing flattened out on the Elkhorn in 2003 and the downward trend continued through 2006. It isn’t pollution, disease or development that caused this trend. It’s rain.
“When we have really wet years, it impacts the spawn in a negative way,” said Jim Axon, former assistant director of fisheries for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “Drought years are good years for smallmouth spawning on streams.”
Fishing on the Elkhorn flourished from 1998 to 2002 because drought years in the late 1980s and early 1990s encouraged great reproduction of smallmouth bass. The better smallmouth bass breed, the better the future fishing.
The same positive development that created the good fishing is taking shape again. Smallmouth fishing on the creek began to pick up in 2007 and improved again in 2008 until last summer’s drought made the fish lethargic. This coming year should be the best year for fishing on Elkhorn Creek since the 1998 to 2002 boom.
During the spawn, dam if dams aren’t good on the Ohio River
March 1, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
If you want to catch a sauger, now is the time. And the best fishing hole — whether you live in Louisville, Carrollton, Cannelton, Maysville or Smithland — is just outside your back door.”The best place to catch a sauger is in the Ohio River,” said Doug Henley, a fisheries biologist and Ohio River specialist for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.
“You can catch them other places. The Kentucky River has sauger; in fact, we’re continuing to stock above pool 3. The Tennessee River below Kentucky Lake and Cumberland River below Lake Barkley have good numbers of sauger, and some pretty good-size fish, too, I believe. And I would think any of the Ohio’s tributaries should have sauger in them.
“But the Ohio River is our best for sauger.”
To read more, check out Gary Garth’s story at The Courier-Journal by following the link below.
Don’t let high water scare you away from trout fishing
January 26, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
The author holds a fish caught in higher-than-usual water.
Standing shin-deep on a gravel bar that I had stood atop, bone dry, only a month earlier, I stared at the currents that whipped across the top of a normally placid pool. My hole was washed out. About that time my buddy popped through a gap in the thicket behind me and stepped out onto the gravel bar. “Mighty high today,” he said. “They should be concentrated.”
He pointed to an eddy no larger than my laptop on the far side of the river and asked whether I had hit it. I shook my head, so he snapped of a cast and placed his plug right against the bank. One crank of the rod handle, and a trout walloped my buddy’s offering. Impressed, I followed suit, and so did a trout that would turn out to be the twin of the one my friend was about to land.
Read more
A Connecticut Yankee on a Kentucky Trout Stream
August 23, 2008 by admin · Comments Off
Stephen Wrinn hooks into a trout during his first trip on the Cumberland River tailwater.
First published in the Kentucky Fishing Journal August 2002. This essay has also been published in Of Woods and Waters
By Stephen Wrinn
Among the many myths that outsiders have come to believe about Kentucky is that it has no outstanding trout fishing. Despite 13,000 miles of rivers and streams, and more navigable waterways than any other state except Alaska, it is still widely believed that only bass, catfish, panfish, and the occasional musky lurk in the Commonwealth’s depths. Until very recently, I too shared this fiction.
This is the story of my enlightenment, and of the knowledge I gained after one trip to the Cumberland River. I now believe that Kentucky is home to a river that ranks as one of the best trout fisheries on the continent, period. Not just in the South, or in the midwest, or west of the Appalachians, or east of the Mississippi. Period. Below the Wolf Creek Dam, the Cumberland is a river that, in both natural beauty and trout population, rivals any I’ve encountered. And I’ve encountered more than my fair share.
