Before I got my boat in the water this morning, I could see a school of fish in a surface feeding frenzy not far from the ramp. I got my boat off the trailer, dropped the trolling motor, grabbed a rod with an inline spinner on it and cast into the boiling fish. BAM! I was rewarded with a 12" Largemouth. I unhooked and released the fish and cast again. BAM! Another, BAM! Another, BAM! Another. After 7 or 8 fish in quick succession I thought to myself, Man this is COOL! I pulled up my trolling motor, started the big engine and headed upstream along the mainlake shoreline. I noticed there had been a large Mayfly hatch the night before. There were Mayflies hanging heavy in several trees that hung out over the water. This reminded me of a "COOL" trick an old timer taught me years ago. Get yourself a can of pebbles and anchor a good cast from one of these trees, then cast a cricket, small popper, worm, or small jig under the tree and you'll catch nice Bluegill and an occasional Bass. When the action slows, throw a few pebbles into the tree, which will knock some Mayflies into the water and the action will start all over again. COOL!
Where was I? Oh yeah, as I cruised up the mainlake bank I saw that each shallow gravel bar at the mouth of a bay had surface feeding schools of fish on them. I passed several schools up and then stopped on one I knew was an extra good one. Here I again caught small bass but also some White and Yellow Bass. I noticed the fish weren't eating Mayflies, they were eating this year's fry (baby fish) which are just getting big enough for a little larger fish to eat. Also, many of the fish that were feeding on them were Skipjack, and bigger fish eat Skipjack! COOL! By the way, I also noticed lots of surface feeding fish in the back of small bays. The sun was now getting higher and I knew the surface action would soon "COOL" off, so I motored out to one of the off-shore humps I'd been catching quality bass on for the past few weeks. As I motored over the rise that topped out at 20' I saw a small group of larger arches (fish) on my graph and pitched a marker buoy nearby, but off to the side. I cast a Texas rigged whacky stick worm to where I'd saw the arches, hopped it a couple times and felt a strong heavy bite. After setting the hook and getting a pretty strong tussle, I brought a fat, healthy, solid 3.5 Lb bass to the boat. And guess what? Swimming right behind and beside him were 3 or 4 more just like him! Now that's really COOL! I quickly released the fish and cast several more times but no more bites. That's ok though, because I had their address and today I'm just scouting. I then fished several more humps and caught 4 or 5 nice fish on one, none on a couple spots 1 or 2 on a couple and called is a day before noon. The deep bite was slower action but larger fish, and I knew the best deep bite was afternoon when there was more current.
Last Sunday I had two 14 yr olds in my boat and Mom & Dad followed in a pontoon boat. We went to a deep ledge on the main river channel and cast 3/8 oz white inline spinners into 30ft of water and reeled them quickly uphill into 18ft of water and then to the boat. It took the boys just a little while to get the knack of it but once they did, we were catching White Bass 1Lb to 1.5 Lb nearly every cast. Mom and Dad weren't catching as well, but once we caught our limit we gave Mom & Dad our spot and with a little instruction, they caught them pretty good also. At the end of 5 hours we had 53 White Bass, plus caught and released several Largemouth, and kept one 3 Lb Striper. Lots of fun and Mom & Dad and the kids have several good fish dinners ahead of them. COOL!
This past Monday I fished with Bret (Dad) and Brandon (son). Brandon is going to be in a high school bass fishing class! COOL! Some high schools in Illinois are offering a bass fishing class with credit towards graduating. Super COOL! We had a good day fishing ledges and off-shore humps. Brandon said he thought he caught 18 bass (tournament quality), Dad held his own, and so did I. Brandon is well on his way to becoming an avid fisherman. The day was warm but we drank plenty of liquids, put on our sunscreen and moved frequently to get some air flow. One particular ledge I came across had an unusually large amount of fish showing on the graph. I hadn't fished this ledge (hump) this year so I wasn't sure if we'd catch bass or not. After repeated casts to the area and no bites I was wondering what all those fish were, when out of the water came about 50 big shad. Something big was trying to eat them. COOL! We all got excited and cast where the fish came out of the water. I even switched to a big spoon and still no takers. I was a little perplexed at this point. Then several big splashes came in the area and I saw the tail of a big catfish. That explained why they refused our bass baits. A school of big cats were feeding on these large threadfin shad. Upon further investigation, I realized that a large tree had drifted into and hung on this main river ledge and a school of cats had made it home. I bet if a guy vertically fished some large minnows or leaches around this tree in 25ft of water, he'd probably hang into some behemoth catfish. COOL! Also, if a guy vertically fished smaller minnows around this tree, he'd probably catch some nice Crappie. COOL!
Last Saturday there was a BFL Tournament on the lake ,so to stay out of their way, my friend and sometimes client, Jeff, decided he wanted to go bass fishing below the KY Dam in the TN River. We had a very enjoyable learning experience. We caught quite a few small Largemouths, one nearly 5 Lbs, one Smallmouth nearly 4 Lbs, one Striper about 10 Lbs and I hung into probably a big Striper that burnt my thumbs as I tried to slow his run, but he won! COOL! We caught fish on a shaky head worm, a green pumpkin jig, and a crankbait. There's lots of fish in that river! COOL!
The only other thing I can think of that may be as COOL or COOLER than these other forms of summer fishing would be catching a big Smallmouth on a spinnerbait in the COOL of the night under the millions of stars in the sky. Maybe I'll do that this next week!
So, if you've read all of this you now know there are lots of COOL ways to spend your time on KY Lake. Which is the COOLEST? You decide.
If you'd like to verify the authenticity of this report, please check my COOL photos at www.captainkirksguideservice.com They say a picture is worth a thousand words.
If you'd like to do some COOL summertime fishing, you can call me at 877-54-6017 or e-mail me at info@captainkirksguideservice.com
See you on the water!
Capt Kirk, out!
