I need a lesson.

[WRB]

26 minutes ago, Catt said:

 

That's post spawn fishing ?

I believe that was your initial response!

Never fished Kentucky lake so will take many hours to come up with good recommendations. I do know the Little River area is where most early tournaments are won so that is where I would focus my efforts.

Tom

[Ben Miller]

3 hours ago, WRB said:

So now we know the screen shot is a tiny portion of Kentucky lake, a massive riverine reservior with current. Everyone still think this area is a good spawning site?

Tom

Isn't the shore the most spawned?  Like real close to shore, edge?

[WRB]

When you look at the screen shots notice the red and green navigation buoys that indicate boat traffic lanes. Spawning areas areas are wave and current protected places that bass instictively seek to make nest sites. 

Tom

[Catt]

7 hours ago, Ben Miller said:

Isn't the shore the most spawned?  Like real close to shore, edge?

 

Nope!

 

Depends on the size of the body of water

 

Not every bass in the lake is gonna swim to the bank.

 

A lake the width of Toledo Bend there are bass that spawn miles from a bank in 10-12' of water.

[scaleface]

7 hours ago, Ben Miller said:

Isn't the shore the most spawned?  Like real close to shore, edge?

  Bass will even spawn on top of stumps and laydowns . They do what they have to do . There are also two protective coves on the   north of that map.

[Bluebasser86]

2 minutes ago, scaleface said:

  Bass will even spawn on top of stumps and laydowns . They do what they have to do . There are also two protective coves on the   north of that map.

A lake I used to fish a lot had a huge tree trunk that was still in the lake bottom. It was probably about 2' across, came to within a couple feet of the surface in 17' of water. It was broke off in kind of a bowl indention in the top and there was a bed in the top of that tree every year. I caught one of the healthiest looking fish I ever caught out of that very overpressured lake. It was in the middle of a cove and well off the bank while everyone else was on the shoreline looking for beds. 

[Catt]

9 hours ago, Savage33 said:

. I’ve had some stellar days flipping bushes all around those islands. But once the bush bite starts slowing down, I’m lost as where/how to catch them until they get all the way out to the ledges at the main river channel. For example, I can hammer them for a few days, then it’s just over the next. So I head to the main channel ledges and it’s terribly slow for several days.  I’m just trying to figure out what to look for between the islands and main ledges

 

As I mentioned this is typical post spawn fishing!

 

After the female is done spawning she'll pull back out to the first or second breakline away from the nest site. She to worn-out to even eat, so the active bit dies off. After a period of recuperation she'll start feeding again & moving.

 

This process like pre-spawn doesn't happen over night!

 

To address your problem of where they're at, ya gonna have to look beyond what's on the map!

 

Try as I might I've never been able to stay on em all the way back out!

[Team9nine]

10 hours ago, Savage33 said:

The screenshots I posted are from the new Johnsonville area. I’ve had some stellar days flipping bushes all around those islands. But once the bush bite starts slowing down, I’m lost as where/how to catch them until they get all the way out to the ledges at the main river channel. For example, I can hammer them for a few days, then it’s just over the next. So I head to the main channel ledges and it’s terribly slow for several days.  I’m just trying to figure out what to look for between the islands and main ledges. I’ll post another screenshot but it’s mainly just a giant flat across there.  

 

 

I guess I'd either check the roadbeds with their bridges and saddles a bunch as they run straight to the river channel, as well as the channel cut breaklines that run South and connect to the main river. I'd also look just a smidge North (barely off your map) where two feeder cut channels run nearly together with a deeper water connection (Fourmile Slough creekbed and bridge area). As has been mentioned, it's hard to stay on top of them all the time, but if you can figure out their route, you can at least milk run a bunch of stuff and increase your odds of running into a group.

[bagofdonuts]

Kentucky lake has become famous for the offshore/ledge bite. Bass are known to move offshore almost immediately after spawning. I would flip the bushes some to make sure. But try to find the shad in 10-12', depending on the water level that could be all the way out to the ledges on the main river channel or the first drop out.

I don't know for sure but seems to me the carp, which have taken over on ky lake, might be driving the bass off shore. I know when we were there last year, the big head carp were so thick in the bushes i don't know how any bass could stay there.

[TnRiver46]

For those who don't know about ky lake, it is the furthest lake downstream on the Tennessee river. From Pickwick lake downstream, the Tennessee river flows straight north. Take a look at the map @Catt posted, I bet most of you thought the water flowed from the top of the map to the bottom, but its the opposite. Just downstream of Kentucky dam the TN river enters the Ohio river near Paducah KY. The Cumberland river takes a similar path to the Ohio. The Ohio flows into the Mississippi in Cairo, not long after collecting the Cumberland and Tennessee river. To say it has good current would be an understatement right now, they were pushing 240,000 cubic feet per second earlier this week 

[Hawkeye21]

14 hours ago, Savage33 said:

No sir. I don’t own a kayak. Just a big tin boat. I want a kayak tho.  I think itd be pretty fun. 

I was curious since the big tourney will be held there next month.

[slonezp]

I have fished KY Lake a number of times but it's been a few years. Always in March/April. The bass will stage initially on the main lake points, then move to the secondary points, and finally spawn in the creeks around the buck brush. Never did any post spawn fishing but I would start at the secondary points and then the main lake points and go from there

[Catt]

Ya gotta understand these maps only show so much, to connect the dots ya gonna look for breaks/breaklines not on the maps.

 

Ya gonna have to spend hours graphing the areas between those islands & the main channel ledges.

 

[A-Jay]

27 minutes ago, Catt said:

Ya gotta understand these maps only show so much, to connect the dots ya gonna look for breaks/breaklines not on the maps.

 

Ya gonna have to spend hours graphing the areas between those islands & the main channel ledges.

 

 Say What ~ How come I can't just throw a dart at a map, plug in the numbers and go start catching hawgs ?

That sounds pretty time consuming and like quite a bit of work.

This bass fishing stuff seems very mysterious . . . 

A-Jay

 

 

[bagofdonuts]

240,000 cfi. That's hard to wrap your head around. The arkansas river at 70,000 cfi is dangerous.

[TnRiver46]

3 minutes ago, bagofdonuts said:

240,000 cfi. That's hard to wrap your head around. The arkansas river at 70,000 cfi is dangerous.

It's gushing! You can probably find videos online of the dams spilling high volume. It is dangerous, people drown every year. When it flooded last year two guys got sucked over Pickwick dam in a jon boat and drowned 

[WRB]

Kentucky lake is the impoundment Buck Perry developed his theories and spoon plugs to control trolling depths along those ledges. Perry observed that bass migrated from spawning areas out into the main lake basin. Perry noted bass migrated along the ledge breaks and Kentucy lake was the ideal impoundment for these observations. 70 years later the bass haven't changed their behavior.

Tom

[Catt]

I'm pretty sure ole Buck started in the Carolinas & I'm pretty sure @Team9nine will tell us exactly where!

[Team9nine]

50 minutes ago, Catt said:

I'm pretty sure ole Buck started in the Carolinas & I'm pretty sure @Team9nine will tell us exactly where!

Yeah, I was going to question that one. Buck lived in Hickory, NC next to lakes Hickory and Rhodhiss, and likely developed most of his theories on those lakes back in the 40s and 50s. He also spent quite a bit of time in Georgia and Florida, and ultimately traveled all over the country fishing most every major body of water available. To my knowledge, there's nothing special about Kentucky Lake and Spoonplugging other than a few jamborees being held there in the late 90s, and it being a popular lake for some members of the TN club who mapped parts of it and named some of the spots.

 

Tennessee had the largest Spoonplugging club in the nation back in those days, and Buck was actually going to develop a spoonplugging community near Nashville/Old Hickory Lake back in the 70s until his first wife passed away. Plans were scrapped and the land ultimately sold off.

[WRB]

2 hours ago, WRB said:

Kentucky lake is the impoundment Buck Perry developed his theories and spoon plugs to control trolling depths along those ledges. Perry observed that bass migrated from spawning areas out into the main lake basin. Perry noted bass migrated along the ledge breaks and Kentucy lake was the ideal impoundment for these observations. 70 years later the bass haven't changed their behavior.

Tom

 

1 hour ago, Catt said:

I'm pretty sure ole Buck started in the Carolinas & I'm pretty sure @Team9nine will tell us exactly where!

You may be right, I read an article that quoted Perry that he fished Kentucky lake during a q&a regarding why he didn’t use sonar and that didn’t surprise me as Perry had little use for modern tools or presentations. The article was in 90’s. 

Tom

[papajoe222]

The only area I see that may be a possible spawning area( depending on how big to is) would be that hump on the NW side that the road bed passes over. If the waters fairly clear and there’s a lack of traditional spawning flats. 

[Turkey sandwich]

6 hours ago, bagofdonuts said:

240,000 cfi. That's hard to wrap your head around. The arkansas river at 70,000 cfi is dangerous.

 I was thinking the same thing.  I don't know if I've ever been on a river flowing 70,000cfs+ that isn't the St. Lawrence.  

[TnRiver46]

On 2/16/2018 at 5:49 PM, Turkey sandwich said:

 I was thinking the same thing.  I don't know if I've ever been on a river flowing 70,000cfs+ that isn't the St. Lawrence.  

Well in some parts the river is so wide you can barely see the other side so its only dangerous near the dams. The current flowing through the lake is your best friend when bass fishing anywhere on the TVA system. What’s crazy is the TN river gets swallowed by two larger rivers just below Kentucky lake