Thread: Tough Conditions on Barkley 3/16/17

I've got some guide trips coming up on Barkley so a couple of buddies and I went over Thursday to cover some water and check on some spots. When I backed the Excel off the trailer, I knew we weren't in Kansas anymore Toto. The surface temp was 47.4 degrees. That's down from almost 60 on KY last Thursday. We started out on a ledge I have done very well in the summer on cranks, knowing it had a lot of cover on it.

This was the 1st time either of my buddies had ever longline trolled. One of them hooked into a bass in the 3 pound range pretty quick. At least the skunk was off. I took us over to a steep rocky bank with several docks on it. I know several of the docks have brush around them. Our first crappie came off one of those docks on a 220 Arkie crank behind a planer board. It was a fat 14 inch black crappie. I thought we might be on to something then the clouds moved in.

We went into several more spots and finally found some along a channel drop that went from 8 feet down to 25 feet. 2 solid keepers there and it was over. The brush was showing some fish but we couldn't get them out to bite. We finally wrapped everything up and I told them I had one more place I just wanted to check on the way to the ramp. I found some 50 degree water there with some schools of suspended fish that will be solid picking for my next longline trip. Time didn't allow us to fish it.

We did have some excitement as I was motoring out of that cove, a silver carp that looked 3 feet long almost jumped into the boat. A short ways later a second jumped close to the boat but not as much of a threat as the 1st.

It was a great day with buddies but the crappie weren't in a cooperating mood for us. We talked to guys in 2 other boats at the ramp and their stories matched ours. Tough out there with the 10+ degree drop in temps in a week. Maybe the warmer weather this weekend will stir things up.

Nice pictures