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Had family vacation on Kentucky lake. I have never had great success on that lake and the mayflies always seem to hatch right before we get there or just when we are there. This year I planned to go a little later to avoid the mayflies (since that always seemed to kill the fishing - even got skunked on a charter a couple years ago and they blamed it on the may flies). So the first two days the fishing was slow then Monday night the mayflies started to hatch. This year we switched to mostly ultralight and just went after the pan fish. We had to have caught well over 300 fish between my son, wife and me. A lot of Gills and a ton of small striped bass (one of the smallest pictured below lol). But in the pan fish we ended up getting several large mouths from 13" to 18" (legal keep is 15 on KY Lake). We threw everything back but had a blast. The striped bass were a blast - for small guys they hit hard and fight like they are 4x there size. below are some of the bass and a picture of the mayflies the one night.

Nice pics Ed!

I've only fished KY Lake in March and April and it's always been hit or miss for me then too.

That is a lot of bugs! Made me think of the mosquito swarms in Ely, MN in June.

Good job.

Nice job Ed. Looks sounds like you had a blast. Except for the bugs! lol

Cool pics thanks for sharing ed!

SafeCracker wrote:

I've only fished KY Lake in March and April and it's always been hit or miss for me then too.

That is a lot of bugs! Made me think of the mosquito swarms in Ely, MN in June.

Good job.

The may flies got bad enough in one area they had to shut down a bridge because it got too slick from all of them on the road. My son and I could only sit there laughing it was soooooo bad. Good thing was that the stupid biting flies all disappeared when the mayflies came out (well that and the fishing was crazy good while the mayflies were out).

I was on Barkley myself on Friday afternoon and all day Saturday fishing the Cumberland river drop-offs for whites and largemouths. My son and I caught our share as usual trolling deep runners and spinners. I even managed a 18 inch sauger on this trip. First one in probably 2 years. Lots of pleasure craft running around. I seen my first boat load of Amish guys at Prizers Point taking a high speed boat ride. Wished I had a camera ready.
One of my twin sons Dave landed a drum or "goo" on the trip. Here is a pic.



How do guys like the new orange heavy duty plastic fish gripper I got off Ebay? Pretty cool, it even floats.

Yea the pleasure boats were just coming out Friday night -was glad we were leaving Saturday morning. We got a couple cats, my wife got a drum (first that anyone ever caught) and I got a carp. Never trolled for whites but may try it next year at Bull Shoals and maybe Kentucky lake. Thanks for the post and any tips for trolling whites would be appreciated.

BigEdV wrote:

Yea the pleasure boats were just coming out Friday night -was glad we were leaving Saturday morning. We got a couple cats, my wife got a drum (first that anyone ever caught) and I got a carp. Never trolled for whites but may try it next year at Bull Shoals and maybe Kentucky lake. Thanks for the post and any tips for trolling whites would be appreciated.

Love to show you a couple of items in my bag of tricks. I know timing is everything in fishing and this past
week was not the best. Way to cool outdoors for hot white bass action. The best days are the screaming hot days with little wind. Sounds awful but those are the days when the hydroelectric generators are running. The river is moving quickly with current and the fish are turned on by the cooler moving water. Find the drop-offs along the river channel and troll that edge of shallower and deeper water. Look at your fish finder a lot to stay on track. Follow the green and red buoy lines for a fast place to look. Ones where there is a bend or curve in the river is first place to look. They usually sit right on a dropoff.
I use crank baits spinners, and plastic shad type jigs a lot when trolling. I often long line a crank bait back 125-150 feet back to start. You want only occasional bottom contact, adjust your line as needed. You will pick up everything that swims using this method. When you see that the bite has increased I use a big DD 22 with the hooks removed as a delivery system to get my little home made spinners and the jigs in the strike zone. I tie about a 26 to 30 inch leader to the DD22 and tie on the spinner. I only let out 75 feet of line now because the crank goes deep in a hurry. You then have less line to bring in after a hook up and resetting takes less time. I use a couple of 1/2 inch long or so barrel swivels, a #2 hammered Colorado blade and 2 #2 or 3 split rings and a red #6 treble to make the spinners. One eighth ounce jigs and white or chart, green 2 inch sassy shads are the favorite to use on the troll. Do not tie these to the DD 22! Tie about 18 to 24 inches above the DD22 on a 18 inch leader. Use 12 # line as leader material and a higher tensile line as a main line. The spinner or jig will break off before the DD22. I have included some pictures of the stuff I use.






The smaller cranks are 6A bombers in my favorite colors. Others work on different days but my 2 favs are the top and bottom lures. They are the chart. shad and the Tenn. shad. At times the fire tiger pattern is a good one. Good luck on your next trip down. Give me call, I'll show you some spots.