New KY Crappie Fisherman Needing Help

Hello All,

I just moved back home after living in Ohio for the past few years. While in Ohio, I started crappie fishing with friends and fell in love. Now that I am back in KY, I am trying to crappie fish on my own and I am struggling. I have been fishing here for the past couple months with minimal success. I have fished Buckhorn, London Dock, and Cedar Creek. While I can catch 1 or 2 a trip, I know I am missing them. I am using a Garmin Echomap 7SV. Here are a few issues that hopefully you can help with.

I am struggling to identify fish on my electronics. I have watched ALOT of YouTube videos and its still a struggle. I was able to identify crappie in the pre spawn in Ohio and caught 15 off of a flat but I haven't seen anything like that since. Does anyone have a contrast picture of structure that shows the difference between a tree and a tree with fish? Also, I am not sure that I am looking in the right places. I think I see a little something on the finder and try to fish it before finding a school of fish. How long do you normally look for the fish before finding them?

At London Dock and Cedar Creek there is so much structure/brush piles, how do you identify which ones to target? There is so much cover I do not understand how you could see the fish in it. I went yesterday and fished everything from the bank to 25 FOW and only caught bass. I tried casting and vertical jigging to make sure I wouldn't missing them in the water column.

I only went to buckhorn once but found fish on a large flat that was 10-25 FOW. I was able to catch a couple but it seems like they were not "schooled". I could see from my Garmin that the fish were chasing shad all over the flat. How do you fish large flats like this?

Thanks in advance!

On Cedar Creek ... I haven't had enough success to warrant going there over the last several years. Best reports I remember coming from there in recent years was fishing at night (minnows, under lights, tied to trees with brush at the base of them). I can tell you from my last night trip there, that not every clump of trees has fish around them. I scanned 10 different stands around the dam launch ramp area with Livescope and not a single fish showed up (but the bugs sure did).
I've not fished the other two places you mentioned. In fact, I haven't been fishing since late June :Doh:

But, were I to go ... it would be to Green River Lake. Pushing or Long Line Trolling jigs on the flats is the current successful methods. (See recent t.slabseeker's reports for Green)

You're probably not seeing schools of fish on your 73sv right now, because they're scattered & out in open water following Shad schools. They probably won't school up until the water temps start dropping and the Shad start moving up the lake and/or into the backs of creeks. They're going to stay in close proximity to the Shad schools and above the thermocline level at least until "turnover".

:welcome to Crappie.com (& back "home")

Thanks for the reply! The crappie being scattered out makes me feel better about "not missing them" because it seems like everything I read pointed to brush piles and docks.

While fishing London Dock, I saw ALOT of shad schools on 73sv in open water. Would it be a good idea to setup at the mouth of a creek or where the Rockcastle meets the Cumberland River and setup with a light over open water? I think I may have saw someone doing that and didn't understand what they were doing in 30-40 FOW.

Also- I am glad to be HOME. I enjoyed Dayton, Ohio for 4 years. It was a good experience in every aspect of my life but nothing can beat My Old Kentucky Home!

Cumberland can be a difficult lake to fish this time of year. My advice is to use your depth finder to find brush, trees, or lay downs in 20 to 30 feet of water and tight line a jig tipped with a crappie nibble about 20 ft deep. Jigs in a chartreuse or white color (especially monkeys milk) have been working pretty well for me.