barkley lake crappie

[ram2000]

Hello everyone. I am new to this site and to crappie fishing. The last 2 years i have fished for crappie like crazy on barkley lake and i can count the number of them i have caught on one hand. Can anyone give me some good advice and a possible location where i might catch some? I have even put brush out in eddy creek and still havent caught any. Plan to go to Little River area Sat. and try them there. Any pointers from you guys would be greatly appreciated. thanks

[crappiechaser2]

Hey Ram2000 you might want to PM....Eddy Creek Bandit and he might give you some pointers. I think he lives in the Eddy Creek area. I have fished out of Dover several times and done pretty good, but that is a long way from Eddy Creek...Hope that helps.

[Big Crappie 2]

WELCOME TO THE SITE RAM2000!

[caseydrew]

Best advise I can give is get away from the banks and spend a couple days doing nothing but marking brushpiles at different depths w/ a GPS. Once you have 30 or more on your GPS you should then spend time fishing and continue marking more as you find them. After a year or so start deleting the ones that didn't pay off and you will start to catch more and more fish. It is a #'s game.....if you fish enough piles some are going to pay off and the more you fish them the better you will learn when certain ones work and when they don't. The area of the lake isn't all that important although some are better than others. All the large bays have plenty of crappie and they really relate to cover...you just need to decide where you want to catch crappie and then figure out there favorite piles in that area of the lake. Good luck.

[buffalo13]

Ram, Welcome to the site.
I use to fish south on barkley from Fords bay to Pryors.
Have caught alot of fish there, just to far to drive when I am catching them up here.

[pistolpete]

I assume that you will put in at the marina at the state park. If you go out and around to the left you will see a lot of homes. I would be working that area over good. Probably would be drift fishing. There is a lot of brush and stumps in this area. Also if you leave the ramp and go around to the right look for the backside of goat island. Many brush piles offshore in this area. Use a chartreuse with glitter twister tail and as light a leadhead as you can get by with. It seems the slower the fall the better the crappie like it.

I forgot that the drift fishing would be done with a kentucky rig and medium size minnows.

[ram2000]

I want to thank you guys for the advice. went out saturday. still didnt catch any crappie. i dont know what the deal is. ended up bass fishing and caught my first 7 lber on the big water. my brother and i have decided that next year we are just going to hire a guide for a few days in late march early april and then maybe we can catch some crappie.