Thread: Kentucky\ Barkley lake

Well the 2015 Ky Lake trip is behind us and all I can say is it was super tough fishing. Even with the conditions we had I had a good time and as usual it tough for me to leave that area.
Lot's of Ohio guys were down last week and some friends of mine ran into lipripper one day and Osker was texting me daily with both of us hoping someone found out some way to turn those fish on.
We had 3 boats in our group the first couple of days and but I stayed for a full week with a friend of mine. I not sure exactly what kind of numbers the other boats had but from my boat we averaged between 7 & 12 crappies most days but I will say the size was pretty decent. Now 7-12 fish doesn't seem like much but down there it was doing pretty good.
Lucky for me EFslabs showed me a spot he & his dad found and although I didn't catch any fish off of the spot of his, it did give me the idea to look into deeper water our last few days.
In the beginning of our stay we caught crappie in 8 to maybe 13 fow by the end of the week we were fishing 20-26 fow and all the shallow spots were pretty much dead.
Here's a few pics




and a pretty nice catfish too. Anyone know what kind of catfish that is?


There were only 9 fish we caught the last day but 7 of those 9 went from 14 1/2" to 15 1/5"


Here's also the pic Osker sent me of a good-un. 1 lb 15 1/2 oz (nice fish Osker)


Through the whole week the weather and water was just crazy. By the time we left the water had to go up at least a foot or 2 and it was higher than normal to start with. Several campsites that folks were camping on for several days were partially underwater by the time we left.

The week was also filled with excitement
Day 1, I lost my boat keys. I had to replace the ignition switch because I had no spare.
Day 2, I had a flat tire. Let's just say a guy name Lee at the Benton Wal-Mart tire center went way out of his way to get me back on the road.
Day 6, I lost the prop off my trolling motor. Looks like I hit some supper heavy fishing line and spun the prop loose.
Day 8, I locked my keys on my truck at the restaurant on the way home. Luckily an info center next door called the sheriff dept. and a deputy came while we were eating and open my door.
I will admit that by now I was pretty scared to drive home.

For the boat problems the guys at Legacy Marine in Grand Rivers Ky were a life saver here. For the ignition switch when we stopped it was an hour after closing and even though they were closed a guy was still there and he opened back up and tried to find a spare key that would fit my boat. When that failed he sold me a new ignition switch (now I have a spare key). He said that since there were no mechanics on duty if I had any problems replacing the switch I should come back at 6:30 in the morning and he would have someone replace it for me with no waiting. These guys also had a spare prop, shear pin and nut for my trolling motor. They are a smaller facility but they are well supplied.

You're not kidding, the fishing was very tough this year. Lots of small fish and the average size was down. We averaged 8-10 keepers each day, with a couple 14+" each day.

Thanks for sharing guys. This just must not be the year for southbound crappie adventures. My dad and brother and I only managed a few white bass in 2 days of crappie fishing at Reelfoot in late March. Of course, it's unlikely your going to be catching many of those size crappie at EF. Never caught any crappie over 14" myself.

I was curious how you're guys trip turned out. Sounds like there was never a dull moment. And good overall average size anyhow.
The cat looks like a channel in that pic. Definitely isn't a flathead and doesn't have the color of a blue. At least to these old eyes anyhow.