Laurel River Lake - South Eastern Kentucky

[justinrose40]

It took a while, but it seems that Laurel Lake is finally starting to catch up to its big brother Dale Hollow. I work on the lake and have had the opportunity to watch a lot of the spring weigh-ins and I've seen the size and number of smallmouths weighed in the past few years go through the roof.

Spring 08 it seemed like you had to be in the upper 20s to have a shot at winning a tournament. I can remember not too many years ago when 20 pounds made you a sure winner, now it takes 20 just to finish in the money.

The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife have done a great job managing Smallmouth on Laurel Lake. For a long time now there has been a 18" size limit on Smallies, and they have recently added a 2 fish per angler slot limit. This makes the huge bags being weighed in in the spring even more impressive, since you can only weigh in 4 Smallmouth and have to pick up a Largemouth or Kentucky somewhere else.

I was wondering if anyone else fished Laurel much, and had noticed the recent upswing in Smallmouth numbers and size.

[rickyterry]

I have never fished that lake but I have stopped and checked it out and it is a very pretty. I fish big south fork which feeds lake cumberland just next door to laurel. I have heard some storys of smallmouth from that lake.

[justinrose40]

My personal best on Laurel is a 20.5 incher weighing in at just over 5lbs. It's the one in my profile picture.

The best day I've ever been a part of was in spring 06. I only had one smallie over 18 inches, but my partner that day had 6 over 20 inches, 2 of which where over 22. The only one we weighed was one of the 21.5 inch fish and it weighed 5.54lbs. So we guessed the six fish bag to weigh between 33 to 36 lbs. A truly remarkable day. Of course it didn't happen in a tournament though, just a couple friends out fishing.

He caught 14 total fish, 8 were legal keeper smallmouth. Every fish came on the same bait, he only had two of the baits and he loaned me the extra. I caught my keeper and then the bill broke off of it, and I never caught another fish while he kept on slaying them.

[easton]

what bait were youguys using

[JWallin]

Were are the better spots there? I am planning on going this coming weekend. I still haven't gotten a boat yet. I just got out of the military after 10 years. Is holly bay park pretty good?

[Captain Rhino]

I've been over to Laurel a few times this year, I have not been disappointed with the results. Though I have been catching mostly trout, it is an awesome place to go. I cannot really speak about years past, since I have only recently been able to get down there, but I'm glad to hear about the positive results with smallie sizes. I can't wait to get back and catch some.