Thread: KY Lake report 11/3/16 Got a new lucky number

The time frame that most folks feel is the best time for pulling crankbaits has come and gone. The only problem is the fish didn't seem to get the memo. With KY Lake still in the mid 60s, it may be on for a while yet. Once it hits the 60 mark, I'll be breaking out the longline gear.

I got on the water just before the agreed upon time of 10 AM. I had a client from Wisconsin coming to learn some tricks on pulling cranks that he could take back to Wisconsin and try on some of his locals lakes.We had a forecast of medium winds from the south but when we stopped at the first spot, the direction we had wind from was southeast at higher speeds than forecast. Our 2 passes in that spot only produced a bunch of small yellow stripes or as I call them "razorblades". Anywhere you touch them you are going to get cut or poked. They are good table fare so a couple went on ice.

We moved on down the lake to a spot that had been producing good numbers of keeper crappie. A buddy I won't name here sent me a message about how he was doing in the same vicinity and what colors were working for him. I changed out a couple of bait colors but left on a couple of my custom colors that have been producing. Over the next couple of hours we caught a good box full of keepers plus a couple of dozen yellows that were keeper size. I was trying to show my client some of what I look for when cranking and why. I had my 1199HD turned where we both could watch both the GPS chart and the 2D sonar. The fish were scattered but hungry. We lost several crappie that just came off the hook on the way to the boat. That is just fishing and it's going to happen. Luckily the larger fish we hooked and got a look at made it to the net and livewell.

At the end of the 4 hour trip we tallied 14 keeper crappie, zero short crappie, a short sauger and LMB, and literally dozens of yellows. The fish that made it to the ice filled 3 quart ziplock bags when cleaned.

Here's my mystery: this is easily the 6th or 7th trip in the last month that I have ended up having EXACTLY 14 keeper crappie during the trips. My high day during that period was 25 keepers with 2 very happy guys from northern KY. Chaunc and I had 14 in the fruit jar tourney during shindig weekend.

I've never had what I called a lucky number but this 14 thing has me really curious. I know it's just a fluke but it still strikes me as strange. I would love to catch limits of keepers every trip and it does happen some, just not as often as I would like but as long as the clients are happy, I'm happy.

Here's Philip with a keeper that was just short of 15 inches on one of my custom colors.

Nice job and nice report, Doug!! See ya out there this morning maybe...My last trip so far for this year. The weekend of the 18th I have Illinois Outdoors coming down to film a 2 day show...may be rigging by then!