Thread: Redear on Barkley or Kentucky help

I think the redear were making a rush to spawn around April 23rd. When the TVA sucked the lakes down 2ft in 24 hours, that ruined the first attempt for them to spawn. They finally spawned on the May full moon pretty good. They absolutely should be spawning this week, it's the new moon of May.

The high water really screwed me up. All the spots I usually find them were 6 feet under water and anywhere closer to the bank was covered in debris or too thick with trees and brush to get in and fish it without spooking the fish. I thought with the dropping water I would find them in those spots again, but so far nothing.

Originally Posted by redearhoosier

I think the redear were making a rush to spawn around April 23rd. When the TVA sucked the lakes down 2ft in 24 hours, that ruined the first attempt for them to spawn. They finally spawned on the May full moon pretty good. They absolutely should be spawning this week, it's the new moon of May.

The department shocked ky and barkley from the week of the 23 to about May 12th. This is part of our routine surveying for black bass, however we also frequently observe redear and bluegill. We saw plenty of redear up shallow early when they raised the lake to summer pool. These fish were in the bushes in their usual spots. We did not electrofish during the low water (3' drop) because the conditions were outside of our sampling design. When the water jumped up again, we expected to see abundant redear and bluegill up shallow, but that wasnt really the case. The fish we saw were extremely concentrated together in large spawning areas near emergent vegetation such as mustard flowers. We saw very few in the bushes themselves, but did pick up a few. We collected a small sample of fish for growth analysis and found that our redear (unsurprisingly) still have really good growth rates compared to other waters in the state. The growth rates observed this year were much higher than previous samples. As most of you know they eat snails and small mussels as adults, so there isnt much diet overlap with Silver, Grass, or Bighead carp except at the larval stage. Black carp however have the potential to compete more directly with the redear as they are known to consume similar prey, but fortunately we dont have a large established population yet. If any bowfishermen happen to come across one of these black carp, please call the department and let us know. They look very similar to grass carp, but the website below provides a good description of how to tell the difference.

Asian Carp > RESOURCES > Outreach Materials

Good luck with the redear! As usual, they are out there, just hard to find!

Originally Posted by redearhoosier

It's been a tough redear season for us. I'm a serious redear fisherman and thought I was decent at catching them but this season has humbled me.

What makes redear fishing on Barkley and Ky Lake so difficult, at least from my experience, is that it's hard to pattern them. For example, we caught 22 one day, went back the next morning and caught 11. They were gone the third morning when I returned. Their disappearing act is frustrating and puzzling at the same time.

The first year I came down here we lucked out and caught between 50-70 big redear in a short trip. These fish were studs, several big males that pushed the 2lb mark mixed in with big 1.5lb sized fish. That very spot has been a bust since that first year...talk about frustrating!

My son and I went out today and I guess the high sky had them tight lipped. Here it is the May new moon and could barely find a bluegill...I just hope these Asian fish aren't finally taking a toll on the bluegill and cracker population. I'd like to hear about any recent creel surveys/electro shock findings concerning the numbers of big bluegill and redear. It's been an odd season...

i think this mild winter we had has em off their normal patterns. i was pitching sliders for crappie the 1st weekend of april and i absolutly hammered them. in two days i caught over 200 fish. this was in multiple spots. went back two days later and didn't get a bite. i call them the here today gone tomorrow fish.

Originally Posted by redearhoosier

It's been a tough redear season for us. I'm a serious redear fisherman and thought I was decent at catching them but this season has humbled me.

What makes redear fishing on Barkley and Ky Lake so difficult, at least from my experience, is that it's hard to pattern them. For example, we caught 22 one day, went back the next morning and caught 11. They were gone the third morning when I returned. Their disappearing act is frustrating and puzzling at the same time.

The first year I came down here we lucked out and caught between 50-70 big redear in a short trip. These fish were studs, several big males that pushed the 2lb mark mixed in with big 1.5lb sized fish. That very spot has been a bust since that first year...talk about frustrating!

My son and I went out today and I guess the high sky had them tight lipped. Here it is the May new moon and could barely find a bluegill...I just hope these Asian fish aren't finally taking a toll on the bluegill and cracker population. I'd like to hear about any recent creel surveys/electro shock findings concerning the numbers of big bluegill and redear. It's been an odd season...

Ever give thought that you've caught all the aggressive fish from those spots. Not all beds will have two hundred fish in them every year. Have to remember that predator fish are eating their fry after you take large numbers of fish that would be guarding those spots. That could mean less spawners return the following year and after so many years, there just won't be as many using that spot anymore. Don't get me wrong. I love catching and eating them just as much as the next person. I just won't decimate the population in one bedding area. Find more beds to keep more fish or as MRDUX says, throw those females back to seed the area again. Don't blame the Asian carp for what we are doing to our bluegill fishery. We just have to use our heads when it comes to gillin. And chances are that you may not be the only one that takes fish from that hole.

I do typically practice catch and release on the females. The first year I came down, we kept a handful of females that were pregnant. Once I filleted them and saw how heavy the roe was, I've kept maybe five in three years.

I try to fish several different spots for bluegill and redear. I certainly don't want to cash out a nice spot. I've probably caught fewer than 70 keeper redear this year, so I'm certainly not hurting the pop. I actually threw back a half dozen 9 inch males this spring.

I caught 4 nice female redear Monday morning and they were heavily pregnant. I'm actually thinking this coming full moon just might be somewhat productive for ears/gills.

Not on Kentucky, but I released 20 -25 big females last Sunday. Hope it helps.

Went to Barkley yesterday in search of some nice bluegill which didn't turn out to well, found lot's of them just not the size I was wanting. I did stumble across some bedding Redear manage to catch 7 nice ones in a 5ft area, I released all of them but snapped a couple pictures of the best one.

I gave up on finding some big bluegill so I tried a few crappie spots, ended up with 14 keepers before the pleasure boats ran me off the water. One thing I noticed was how thin the fish were I figured from the stress of spawning, I threw back a few that would have measured but hardly any meat on them.