Do any of you regularly fish on Ky lake?

[Indiana shooter]

I grew up in a once small town called Benton just a stone's throw from this beautiful slice of heaven. Since moving north with my parents I still go back home at least twice a year to visit family and fish the now not so familiar waters.

It seems to me that the best bass fishing was back in the 90's when there was a large amount of grass in the northern part of the lake, Eurasian millfoil if I recall correctly. Since then it seems as though The late spring/early summer patterns have changed quite dramatically from fishing the outer edge of the grass to fishing the shelves/ledges.

I can remember learning how to fish the ledges using electronics to locate the active bass, then catch them. As recent as 5 years ago I could fairly easily find a large school of bass sitting on a ledge and catch as many fish as I wanted to. The past couple of years it seems as if these "mega schools" of bass have broken up into much smaller pods of 5-15 fish and are much harder to find.

On my recent trip down there I talked with a game warden and he's blaming the Asian carp saying that the gamefish populations are suffering because the fry survival rates are Way down. Have y'all noticed this as well or am I just not hitting this pattern at it's best?

[Fishman]

I don't know anything about Kentucky Lake's fish population, but I know how you can find out. Send an email to the fisheries biologist responsible for the lake. They will be able to tell you what their surveys are showing. Odds are they have recent sampling and angler catch data. "Game wardens" are tasked with many things, but in the vast majority of cases those tasks don't include collecting fisheries data. Sometimes they know what is going on with fish and wildlife populations and sometimes they don't.

I will say that poor fry recruitment of largemouth bass is not a problem I have seen in any of the reservoirs I've managed, and would expect this to be the case across most of the southeast. Changing fishing patterns year-to-year are most often due to habitat changes such as aquatic plants and water levels.

[richhodg66]

I've got to get out and do more fishing. Best past time there is and I have good places to do it here, not sure why, but I never seem to do it anymore.

[w5pv]

The Sabine River below Toledo is dropping pretty fast since they closed the flood gates and all the water that is coming down stream is from the generators/It has dropped about a foot in a couple od days.I will give it a couple more days and try my luck after then.

[chuckbuster]

I've got to get out and do more fishing. Best past time there is and I have good places to do it here, not sure why, but I never seem to do it anymore.

Give a man a fish, he will eat for a day

Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day,,,

[rototerrier]

Benton County or Town of Camden? I grew up in Camden and moved away to go to college here in GA about 20 years ago. I still go back several times a year to hunt. My dad still fishes and operates bass fishing tournaments out of New Johnsonville. I don't know the specifics, but he has mentioned a few things about bass being a little hard to find. But they still manage to bring in some big hauls, so they are out there somewhere.

He was always the big bass fisherman. I mostly water skied and knee boarded out there. I did do a lot of cat fishing from the banks of Rock Port and a lot of crappie fishing up in Birdsong. The place is still a fairly secluded paradise and keeps pulling me back year after year.

We just got back from taking a 10 mile canoeing trip down the Buffalo River. They've been getting a lot of rain and the whole place is lush green and beautiful. I love it there, if you can't tell.

[w5pv]

Around here drinking beer all day will get you a trip to the county hotel,they will get you in the river,lake or at the boat ramp.There has been stories of them waiting for you to drive your vehicle and then get you for DUI.I use to indulge in the blue cans pretty heavy but diabetes and old age has change things for me.

[Indiana shooter]

Roto, I'm from just over an hour north of ya in Benton Ky. I spent countless hours of my youth fishin blood river and around smiths bay. I may have left there years ago but my heart has always stayed there. Many of my distant relatives had their homesteads inside what is now LBL And I have many relatives buried in the many small cemeteries located within LBL as well. I too love it down there, beautiful scenery and great people. One day I hope to retire down that way and the great thing is that I've found a wonderful woman that shairs that dream with me.

I can't say that the fishing is necessarily bad, I did catch a lot of bass 1 over 7 lbs 2 over 6 lbs and countless 3-4 pounders as well as 2 smallies pushing 5 pounds. It just seems like the days of catching 50+ bass in only a few hours are behind us. I'm really just worried that the asian carp doesn't kill the wonderful fishery that I grew up with.