Thread: Taylorsville Opinions

I see from most reports on here that most people have to work this lake hard to catch afew scattered here and there.I can.t seam to locate any schools of fish and the ones i do catch are not where seasonal patterns say they should be.Is this just me or do any of you guys see the same thing?I don't get to fish other lakes to compare it to could this be because this lake doesn't get drawn down?I need to try somewhere else or beg you guys to show me how to find fish.

Originally Posted by arca54

I see from most reports on here that most people have to work this lake hard to catch afew scattered here and there.I can.t seam to locate any schools of fish and the ones i do catch are not where seasonal patterns say they should be.Is this just me or do any of you guys see the same thing?I don't get to fish other lakes to compare it to could this be because this lake doesn't get drawn down?I need to try somewhere else or beg you guys to show me how to find fish.

I wish I could help you, but even when I did fish T-ville regularly ... it wasn't all that often in the Fall. I do remember some trips, where I'd go from cedar to cedar ... if they were standing in 20fow or more ... and dropping a minnow/slip float down in the branches, about 6-8ft deep ... and catching some decent fish. I'd rarely catch more than one or two from a tree, though. It was always windy (as it almost always is when I try to fish ) and boat control was a little tricky.

The only times I remember finding a school in Nov ... they were hanging between two trees that stood in nearly 30fow. It was always chilly & windy ... but, we usually managed to get some good fish from those trees. Again, we were using minnows/slipfloats (back then we weren't all that much into jigs). And, they seemed to come from around 8-10ft down (if memory serves me).

I used to could stand on the bank, in Nov/Dec/Jan/Feb when the temps warmed for a few days (>40deg ) and cast a tube jig out over a big blowdown that used to be off the bank to the right of Settler's Trace ramp (if you're looking towards the lake when standing on the ramp) ... and usually catch Crappie off of it. Sometimes they'd be out, suspended in the top branches at around 6-8ft deep ... other times they'd be right in next to the bank, around the trunk of the tree, in no more than 3-5ft of water .... but, alas, that tree is long gone. I couldn't even begin to tell you how many Crappie we caught off that tree :D

Wish I could give you more, but that's all I got ... it's just been too long since I fished T-ville, to be of much help.

... cp

Stock more crappie- The bass guys don't like the lake because they say it's a dead sea for bass, so turn it into a crappie lake. Get rid of about 1/2 the shad population for starters. The Blue cat stocking was supposed to help but you can still walk across the lake on top of shad. I fish T-ville several times a year and in the past two years the crappie fishing is next to none. Years past it wasn't the greatest but you could always pick up a few each time out. I have had more bad days than good in the past two years.

I fish T'ville weekly, have been for the last 20 yrs. and I rarely
catch more than 1 or 2 at a spot.
If I catch a big one I hardly ever get any more at that spot,
it's only when I catch small ones that I get more than a couple.
And small ones are getting more rare, the past few spawns have
been really bad and the numbers are down, I don't see many
small ones any more.
The guy that takes info for the creel study at T'vill told me they
are going to stock the lake with crappie this year.
I hope that's true.

If the KDFWR wanted to kill two birds with one stone .... all they'd have to do is seine out a couple thousand of the 7-8in Black Crappie from Cedar Creek Lake --- and take'em to T-ville

Heck, they might even luck up and pull a few Blacknose out of Cedar Creek ... and transplant them to T-ville. Then we'd have Blacknose in Taylorsville Lake !!

I tell ya what, though ... there isn't going to be much chance for a stable & growing population of Crappie in Taylorsville Lake, as long as the dang thing floods all through the Spring spawning times, most every year.
... that, above everything else, is the biggest reason for the numbers decline - IMHO. There's plenty of food & shelter for them ... the Hybrids don't seem to have had any effect on them ... (though I do wonder if the big Blue Catfish may have had some impact). They should be doing much better than what I'm hearing from you guys.

... cp

I've said the same thing about Jericho lake, I wish they could take some of
the little crappie out of there for T'ville. It's over-run with em'.
I hear the high number of shad really hurt the crappie spawn, the shad
hatch out first and eat everything that the newly hatched need, the
mico-organisims and such. The lake is sooooo over run with shad.
there have been other smaller lakes like Beaver where they were
rid of the shad and it really helped-a lot! Made a huge difference.
Then there's the pollution level at T'ville, the worst of any body of water
in the state. Lot's of water samples showing E-coli and many others.
I guess that's why there's no plant growth in the lake, ever notice?.
T'ville has even had bass stocked before because of falling numbers.
It's not just crappie. The lake is not good for fish, even before it was opened
there was talk of the pollution problems it was going to have.
Salt River has human waste in it from upstream.
Other lakes have levels up and down way more than T'ville and don't have
the problem.

Originally Posted by JCCLARK

I've said the same thing about Jericho lake, I wish they could take some of
the little crappie out of there for T'ville. It's over-run with em'.
I hear the high number of shad really hurt the crappie spawn, the shad
hatch out first and eat everything that the newly hatched need, the
mico-organisims and such. The lake is sooooo over run with shad.
there have been other smaller lakes like Beaver where they were
rid of the shad and it really helped-a lot! Made a huge difference.
Then there's the pollution level at T'ville, the worst of any body of water
in the state. Lot's of water samples showing E-coli and many others.
I guess that's why there's no plant growth in the lake, ever notice?.
T'ville has even had bass stocked before because of falling numbers.
It's not just crappie. The lake is not good for fish, even before it was opened
there was talk of the pollution problems it was going to have.
Salt River has human waste in it from upstream.
Other lakes have levels up and down way more than T'ville and don't have
the problem.

You never see any E-coli warnings, concerning T-ville. Now I have seen them posted for the KY River, usually around the Boonesborough area. And Herrington Lake goes up and down quite a bit, and has a serious Shad population ... and I can guarantee you it gets animal/human waste in large quantities.

Not saying that you're wrong in your assessment ... but, I think T-ville's biggest problem is more of the Spring flooding, than a Shad or waste problem. The Crappie were thin & stunted for years, until the Shad population exploded. The lake is no longer a young lake, either ... so the dynamics have changed a bit. May be that we just need to rethink our approach
Unless things have changed drastically over the last several years ... the Crappie spawns were usually around the first to second week of May, and the Shad didn't begin until mid May or later .... followed closely by the Bass. There never was any weed growth, even after the KDFWR made several efforts to plant water weeds. It "might" have a chance at holding some water weeds, if it weren't for the constant water level changes. But, with all the wood in that lake ... I'm not sure weeds are all that necessary.

I'm just basing my assumptions on this :



As this chart plainly shows .... the lake fluctuations occur at the most inopportune times The lake is normally only stable during the Summer months. The rapid rise/fall of the water levels seems to be the overbearing culprit, in making the lake tough to fish. Can't be all that good for the fish, either.

This is just my opinion & speculation, and I could be wrong (I have been before ).

... cp

Your memory is short, I remember the first few years the lake was open
that I had to go way out and around the first point out from
Settlers Trace ramp to avoid all the weed growth.
There WAS a lot of it.
And the lake was over-run with small crappie.

As far as health wise, you need to talk to the doctors.
The owner of the fishing store Bullfrog Creek has a sister that's a nurse
and she gave countless stories of people with E-coli infections
and that "flesh eating bacteria" linked back to Taylorsville Lake.
There's been plenty of people in her hospital from that lake.
But for some strange reason it's kept out of the news.
The guy at the store said he wouldn't let any of his family even near
that lake because of all the health concernes.
A bit overkill maybe, I don't know, I fish it every week,
but I wouldn't put my hand in the water if I had a cut in it.
And I keep the water away from my mouth.
There's a very real risk there that's not publisized
and people need to be careful.
That guys nurse sister has been trying to warn people.

I fished the lake from it's opening ... never noticed any weedbeds. Now, there was alot of moss, as is the case for most new lakes. And if there were any weeds, they died out in a short period of time ... as I've never noticed any great amounts, in all the years I fished there (from the opening year on).

They are planning a major upgrade to the sewer facilities in that area ... so maybe there is something to this pollution deal. Wouldn't surprise me ... more people = more pollution ... and we all live downstream !!

The lake was over-run with small Crappie ... granted. But, that was a case of stocked Crappie not getting an adequate food supply. IMHO But, once the Shad were introduced, they started to grow bigger ... instead of just "older" The Shad introduction was so successful, that the KDFWR decided to put Hybrids in the lake, to help control the numbers.

The lake is obviously a fertile lake, or the Shad wouldn't be so plentiful. As I understand it, Phosphates are the major contributor to its fertility ... and they come from farm runoff. Farm animal feces is a major source of E-coli ... and would be hard to control. I have little doubt that ALL the waterways of this state have some E-coli in them. (what with all the farms, leech line sewers, houseboats, etc)

I've eaten many a fish from T-ville, had the water splashed in my face/mouth, had cuts on my hands & had them in the lake ... no infections resulted. Maybe I'm just lucky. Then again, I haven't been to the lake more than a few times, over the last 8-10yrs. I wonder if this is a recent development ... or if it's been suppressed for the entire time the lake has existed

In any case .... thanks for bringing this to our attention.

... cp