Need fishing info from a straight shooting person

[reggis]

I want to come down to ky lake to try and catch some redear. I need to know what kind of bait to use and if i need to fish with a floater, also where do i go at on lake, do i fish banks or out in water to try and catch some plus when will probally be a good time to come down for a couple of days. PM me if you don't want to put that info in post.

[kyfishman]

I have been catching redear consistently the last several days on both KY and Barkley Lakes, even with the high water. Most of them have come around grassy banks and trees in the backs and pockets of bays. Usually, if you can locate the big, bull bluegill you can catch a few redear. I will say, however, with the water falling now about a foot a day, the redear are a bit more finicky in their bite...but still catchable. I catch most all of my redear on artificial bait. I use grizzly jigs (made by Louie Mansfield at Grizzly Jig Co in Caruthersville, MI...they have a website) and the bream bugs that are sold at several places around the lakes. I've had the best success with a black or green or chartreuse color. I always tip them with Berkley Power Wigglers, but some folks use Gulp Maggots and even real waxworms. I fish the jig under a small float and split shot. With the falling water, I've been catching big bluegill the most consistently in depths of 3 to 8 ft. I have also found with the falling water that the redear tend to hold near the outside edge (in a little deeper water) where the bluegill are congregating. Lots of people simply use nightcrawlers or worms for bait and I won't deny that that's a good way to catch lots of fish. But, I like not having to constantly bait a hook and can fish much faster and easier with the artificial baits. Some nightcrawler fishermen simply use a small weight and hook and tightline for redear. That takes careful line-watching. A trick I learned from Bill Dance several years ago is to use a quill float when crawler/worm fishing. Simply set the float deep enough that it lays on its side when you cast it out in the water. Then, as the redear takes it, it will stand up on end and then disappear out of sight. These are just a few thoughts on redear fishing on our lakes. There are surely folks on here who may have better ideas and ways of catching them. I will add, though, that, at least for me, the redear fishing is much, much better on Lake Barkley than it is on Kentucky. But...the bluegill for me seem to average a better size on KY Lake. They are both great...and the redear fishing continues to improve on both lakes each year. So..good luck and good fishing!

[Bronson]

Excellent info from kyfishman! I've heard trout magnets work extremely well too. You can find them on the internet. Good people to work with. Some big shellcracker on Kentucky but I've never gotten into the big bull bluegill like they were catching a couple of years ago. Some think the high grass we had back then really helped them get huge.

A good shellcracker bed is addicting, just hard to come by for those of us who only have 1 day a week to get on the water. I hear some people are doing really well on the bank where the grass is short. Shellcracker are supposed to be moving up an feeding on all the waters that have been coming up.

[reggis]

Thanks very much as i now how some ideas what i need and how to try to fish for redear. Thanks to you both.

[Quackrstackr]

We haven't had a lot of luck on artificials so far this year. The fish have been stuffing themselves on worms in the flood waters and don't want much else. Hopefully the artificial bite will pick up again when the water stabilizes. I hate packing a bucket of worms around.

[CrappiePappy]

Watch these :

YouTube - Catching Redear on Barkley

YouTube - Redear and Bluegill on Lake Barkley

... cp

[kyfishman]

Fished this afternoon from about 4:00pm till 7:30 on Ky Lake. 2 of us caught 47 nice bull bluegill and several smaller females--3-4 ft of water. Just before dark (as usual) the shellcrackers started hitting. Caught 11 nice ones and three small ones. All the fish were caught on artificial bait--black grizzly jigs tipped with Berkley Power wigglers. By the way, all fish were returned to the water, which is why there are no pics. The fish seem to be biting as well now as they did when the water was high. You just have to keep following them out from the bank as the water continues to go down. Bluegill and redear are not as easily affected by falling water as crappie are. Sure, it affects them some, but not like crappie.

[watergate]

Sone great info .will be down Sunday for two weaks .hope the bite is still on,how long can you expect this bite to last?

[hatchieman]

what kind of structure/cover should i be looking for. mud flats, rock, or sand bottom, so that way i know where to start looking to find some redear. i plan on fishing all weekend and would like to get into some redear.

[M R Dux]

what kind of structure/cover should i be looking for. mud flats, rock, or sand bottom, so that way i know where to start looking to find some redear. i plan on fishing all weekend and would like to get into some redear.

Sandy/pea gravel bottoms in the major coves.