Thread: Laurel River Lake Fishing Guide

This is all I know about the lake, and it's exactly the same wording used in the 2019 report :

2020 Laurel Lake:
Crappie - Fair - Low-density population dominated by black crappie with 10- to 12-inch fish present.Upper portion of Laurel River Arm near city dam is the best area to target them.

I doubt there are any Crappie guides on Laurel, at least none I can find on the web.

Thanks for the information. It doesn't have to be a crappie guide. Just any guide.

Originally Posted by AEFISHING

Thanks for the information. It doesn't have to be a crappie guide. Just any guide.

I take it, then, that you are confined to fishing Laurel, correct ?? If not, you "could" travel a little ways West of Laurel Lake and fish Cumberland Lake ... and I'm sure there's a bunch of guides there.

As you can see by the yearly fishing forecasts on Laurel, it's not much of a Crappie lake. It's more of a Bass & Rainbow Trout fishery IMHO. You might call Holly Bay Marina or Grove Marina and ask them about guides. If anyone would know, it would be them.

That is correct. Have a house boat trip scheduled on Laurel in Sept. Thanks for the advice.

Laurel is a REALLY good SM lake, has some monster walleye too. Just have to have the conditions right. Blue skies don't waste your time, overcast or rain...hold on. There are some giants in that lake, and they are that way for a reason. One of the most beautiful lakes KY has to offer.....

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But no guides on the lake. Seems strange that the lake doesn't have at least one guide.

Originally Posted by AEFISHING

But no guides on the lake. Seems strange that the lake doesn't have at least one guide.

That it does!!
I’ve only driven by the lake once so know nothing about the lake


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Laurel is my home town lake. Yes there are some really nice fish in there but it fishes tough and would be hard for a guide to consistently put people with varying skill levels on fish there in my opinion. That is true especially in September which to me is one of the toughest fishing months. Most of the guides on Cumberland are for stripers where they do the fishing and you do the reeling in so the paying customer's skill isn't in play. With all of that said, if you are taking a fishing boat, go for it. night fishing will be best if you are comfortable doing that but they can be caught in the day mainly with finesse techniques. it isn't a large lake so not intimidating to navigate or overwhelming to try to fish. Find some deeper points and fish small stuff to target multi species as you have good populations of KY, largemouth, and smallmouth.

They also will start schooling early and late around that time and a topwater will work if you can get a cast out to them while they are up.