Kentucky Lake

 

One day in late fall is not a whole lot of time. I tried to figure out a monster bay on Kentucky Lake known as Blood River in just one day. I did pretty good I believe, thanks to some helpful tips, tricks, and my ACC Crappie Stix fishing rods.

Once you figure out a few key secrets you can drop anywhere and find cover to fish. I started at the back of the bay. Let’s say it has two sections: the front and the back. The front is the section that meets the main river. The back is where it makes a dog leg and has a bend in it.

So, I started in the back close to the ramp. The first thing I did was notice a defined channel that made many bends and curves. I went straight to these obvious fish holding areas and began scanning the inside and outside of these bends. The channel was only a couple of feet deeper in places, but make no mistake that is all it takes to attract Crappie.

Once I started marking cover — whether it was stumps, stake beds, or brush piles — I would grab a marker buoy and go to work. Some folks may say to mark many pieces of cover first, but I am rather impatient and have been in the truck for over two hours so I’m ready to feel a thump.

I always use a 3/16 ounce pink head and usually a big bait. When I know I will be fishing pretty much the same depth from one minute to the next, I will use two rods so I can cover more water and try two different colors out at the same time. If you are fishing gnarly cover and big depth changes, two rods can be more trouble than it is worth.

So once I dropped my jig in the first brush pile I immediately got bit. Great way to start, right? Decent fish, kept fishing and caught a few more. Although there are fish on this pile I have work to do. Remember, I have many acres to cover today so unless it’s loaded with monsters I won’t stay on a piece of cover too long.

I kept marking and fishing cover on these channel bends and catching fish.

I stayed in 11-14′ of water. Now I decide to see what the front of the bay has in store for me. This section of the bay wasn’t as easy to mark the channel it was basically two monster flats that dropped off on all sides and more steep to the south.

I would find cover in eight feet and there was no bait activity at all, so I just kept moving. As the day went on I realized either the fish weren’t relating to the mouth of the bay or I wasn’t finding them, which I am sure was the case.

So after a couple of unfruitful hours I went back to where I started and marked a few more stake beds in the right depth zone and started catching fish again. Well, by this time it was starting to get late and I needed to hunker down and get more bites before I went home so I went back over the spots I had caught fish earlier in the day.

After it was all said and done I had around 20 decent fish and had found and marked 25 or so pieces of cover. Not too bad for a days work on a new body of water. Always start by looking for depth changes this time of year and you will find the fish. Thanks for reading, take those kids fishing, and shop here for the best crappie fishing rods around. Andy.