KY Lake Feb 6th 1st longline trip with Cuz

[M R Dux]

I've had the pleasure of getting my Cuz, Rickie(rnvinc), out on crankbait trips several times but we had just not gotten together for a longline day. Since I owe him about 50 fishing trips for all the rigging he did on the new Excel, I decided there was a short window Sat morning that looked pretty good. My 1st text got a no, too busy. He then reconsidered.

We got on the lake about 8 and it was cool but not much wind. We were both really worried that with TVA pulling 180,000 at the dam it would be futile but we were going to give it our best shot. It was also his 1st time fishing out of the new boat that he had worked so hard on. We spent several minutes getting 8 rods set up with curly tails and Strollers on 1/16 and 1/8 heads.

I started down a ledge I have caught lots of crappie on pulling cranks but our 1st pass was pretty much a skunk. We worked on the 1199HD and Helix 10 to make sure we had everything set the way Rickie wanted it. We started picking up a fish here, fish there but as the wind got up and the current started pulling the boat around, we would go from 20 feet of water to 8 and then time to tie on new jigs for the ones we just broke off.




We were amazed at the stacks of fish just off the current side of the breaks but couldn't make out if the smaller signals were crappie, whites,? Some of the signals were large enough to be Asian carp. A couple of times the jigs settled deep as I fought the wind and current in turns and we picked up a couple of really nice white bass. Guess we found out what some of them were.

I did catch one for my buddy Chaunc. I think he's going to have to go to work to knock me off the Gasper Goo crown.


We finished off our 4 hour trip with 13 keeper crappie and 2 whites, no monsters but some solid 12-13 inch fish and a few dinks. Throw in the whites and it made for a pretty good bucket.

My buddy Bald John couldn't stand it when he saw my rig at the shop and had to see how we did. I just can't convince some of my buddies that these few nice days weatherwise are worth getting out there and trying to catch a few. A bucket 1/2 full will help.


It was another great day with Cuz on the lake. We talked to some guys who were spider rigging who had a few keepers and were running Rickie's cover brackets on their Humminbirds. Nice to see them being used the way they were designed.

[Zippy]

Nice! Is that a white bass your holding? Those mouths always look wrong to me in pictures. What was the surface temp? Our rivers in maryland are relatively warm at 44 degrees about 10 degrees up from same time last year.

[CrappiePappy]

Nice! Is that a white bass your holding? Those mouths always look wrong to me in pictures. What was the surface temp? Our rivers in maryland are relatively warm at 44 degrees about 10 degrees up from same time last year.

Nah, Zippy ... that's a Freshwater Drum. (sometimes called "sheephead", "gaspergoo", and I even heard them called "white perch" when I was a kid ).

... cp

[M R Dux]

The surface temp was 44 degrees. Our lakes have been going thru serious level fluctuations because of flooding on the Mississippi and Ohio systems. Ky Lake got up to about 7 feet over summer pool (359.5), back down to winter pool (354.5) now back up to 357 all within the last couple of weeks. Poor fish probably don't have a clue what they need to be doing.

[Wiskers]

Nah, Zippy ... that's a Freshwater Drum. (sometimes called "sheephead", "gaspergoo", and I even heard them called "white perch" when I was a kid ).

... cp

That ain't what I call the darn things when they tangle up about 6 lines while I'm spider rigging!

[slabseeker1]

Are you sure that was Rickie? I don't see a thermos under that imposters arm.

[M R Dux]

Are you sure that was Rickie? I don't see a thermos under that imposters arm.

I think Rickie really liked that big, wide butt seat. He had his thermos and all his required tools plus a jar of nibbles sitting on it. The thermos was hidden behind the 1199 in those pics. No doubt it was there.

[Zippy]

Wow, a drum? In freshwater? Never heard of that around here, but it sure does look like the puppy drum we get off the beach in the mid atlantic. Does it have a barbel?

[CrappiePappy]

Wow, a drum? In freshwater? Never heard of that around here, but it sure does look like the puppy drum we get off the beach in the mid atlantic. Does it have a barbel?

They're related to the Redfish (Red Drum).

I don't remember seeing any "barbels". Here's some info : Freshwater Drum (Aplodinotus grunniens) - FactSheet

... cp

[Zippy]

Thanks for that information! Sorry to sound so excited but Im always amazed that there are other fish that I dont know about. Been reading everybook on fishing and fish species that I could get my hands on for the last 45 years and its amazing that one got by me. Puppy drum is our name for juvenile red drum/red fish/channel bass. Do they croak? We also catch tons of croaker in the summer. Croaker are close relatives to all the drum and can be a real nuisance in mid summer. Their arrival marks the end of bay flounder season for me until the fall. Sorry to hijack, great catch guys.