Kentucky lake fall trip

[red68prostreet]

Just got back on tues from a 5 day fall trip to Kentucky lake. Not a good trip at all. I wanted to go north in mich but got out voted. ( It appears people who fished Burt & Mullet last weekend would have proved me right. )

Back to the fall trip. We got to kentucky wed the 16th. A cold front with wind greeted us on thurs. Water temps were still in the low 70's so the shad were undecided as too when they should transition to the back of the bays. Some fish were but most were not.

Wind was our biggest issue everyday as we could not fish the points on the main lake but rather had to fish inside the bays. We managed to catch some fish the first three days. Sun was our best day when my buddy and I caught 39 fish in about 2 1/2 hrs. The deal was that this was mixed bag of fish. We caught largemouth, catfish, drum, white bass, yellow bass, shiners and Asian carp. When I say Asian I mean the Bighead version that were in the 25 lb range. You don't catch them in the mouth. You actually snag them in the side when retrieving your lure. ( More on them later. )

The only bait we could catch any fish on during this trip was the Steel shad. It is similar to a silver buddy but longer and to me it works better than a silver buddy. The only way we could fish it was to drag it on the bottom slow and I mean slow like a carolina rig. There were several other boats in the same cove with us watching us catch fish while they caught nothing. One boat finally asked what we were using so I told them. They did'nt have any so they moved on. Dragging a two treble hook bait on the bottom did result in a loss of 4 baits but it seemed worth it at the time.

Back to the Asian carp. I have been going to KY lake for the past 17 yrs. It is a great place to fish and a central meeting place when a group of 10 to 12 of us from around the country meet for a week in the spring. For the past several yrs we have watched as the Asian carp are becoming more and more populated. In the evening we could pull into a bay and when you spooked one fish the whole bay would erupt. When you saw that you may as well fish somewhere else as you were not going to catch any bass.

Kentucky is looking at options. They held a tourney last spring where they invited 5 teams of commercial fisherman to come in. In three days they caught 88,000 lbs. They held a fish fry where everyone that tried it said it was an excellent fish to eat. I have yet to try it but hope to some day. These commercial fisherman said they would fish for these but a processing plant needs to be built to handle the catch. It appears there is a market for these fish. Prison systems could feed them to their population.

My biggest concern is it is only a matter of time before this fish gets into the Great Lakes. Proposals are being made but in reality nothing is getting done. Someone needs to get everyone together and go on a trip to one of these lakes already infested to see the problem. On the other hand we may all be missing out on a great meal that could take the place of salmon, crappie, bluegill, or any other fish you like to eat.

One last thing. As much as I hate this fish trying to get a 25 lb snagged Bighead into a net was a blast. It took 7-10 min to wear one out. In some cases we had to chase them down with the trolling motor. The Bighead don't jump but the Silver Asians do so we had a couple of close calls during the heat of battle. ( I'm going north next fall even if I have to go alone. )

[Firefighter Jeff]

Good report, thanks.  Wish the fishing had been just a little better for you.