Hats off to you KY lake guys….

[redblood]

That is one big shallow lake. Me and my son fished the Duck river National refuge on Thursday. It was beautiful- standing cypress trees, tannin stained waters and not a soul
In sight…..nor a crappie. Got a cheap bnb in camden and hit ky lake today. Watched a 12 year old boy fill the livewells with big white crappie. We ended up with a few of his rejects, but it kicked my butt. Stained and shallow. Beaver dam area. At one point we were in 1.5 ft of water. Caught some fish in 7-8. Just wondering around. Totally different world from the deep blue small lakes in used to. Good experience. Just not what im used to.

 

[redblood]

A few pics…

 

[WTM]

you should have come over one creek to birdsong.

those flats are hard to fish at low water.

 

[bluball]

Should have tried a deeper creek or bigsandy,beaverdam can be tough this time of yr.

 

[redblood]

Should have tried a deeper creek or bigsandy,beaverdam can be tough this time of yr.

Yeah. No doubt. I should have have reached out for advice. I got suspicious when there were on 2 tucks with trailers at ramp on Good Friday. I found a do k that had 50 on it, stacked under a pontoon in 8 ft of water. Drove back throigh birdsong on wY home and saw lots of trucks

 

[redblood]

Should have tried a deeper creek or bigsandy,beaverdam can be tough this time of yr.

Just curious- is the lake always that low? Or does the level come up during warmer months?

 

[RUGER]

Just curious- is the lake always that low? Or does the level come up during warmer months?

It comes way up.

 

[WTM]

the lake is 3.5 ft high right now. they usually dont start to raise it until april 1, then slowly over the next two months. consider yourself lucky you didnt hit a stump in beaverdam.

 

[redblood]

the lake is 3.5 ft high right now. they usually dont start to raise it until april 1, then slowly over the next two months. consider yourself lucky you didnt hit a stump in beaverdam.

Oh let me tell you, no one has ever been more careful. The trolling motor did 90 percent of the work!

 

[redblood]

the lake is 3.5 ft high right now. they usually dont start to raise it until april 1, then slowly over the next two months. consider yourself lucky you didnt hit a stump in beaverdam.

Ok, this may be a dumb question, but since ky lake is just the tennessee river, how do they control it? Is their a dam in the area?

 

[WTM]

Ok, this may be a dumb question, but since ky lake is just the tennessee river, how do they control it? Is their a dam in the area?

ky lake is from kentucky dam to pickwick dam. usually they generate and spill in tandem in high water to keep levels stable. in a drought like we have been in the last couple of years, its been at winter pool 354' most of the time.

if you were to look out across the flats to where tva used to be and where dupont is, its goes from 4' at summer pool to a drop to 50-65ftft. that is the old river channel. it winds around the bridge on the west side you have birdsong inlet and on the east side you have big bottom flats that is part the refuge. go further south you have the duck river and eagle creek inlet.

the further north you go the more clearer the creeks since there isnt much ag and the crystal clear hill creek water that feed them. it has become a pretty good smallmouth fishery in that section, especially the east side.

ky lake has a little bit of everything including asian carp.

 

[redblood]

As maasive as that lake is, id say it would take awhile to figure it out. Guy taking out behind me had some massive white crappie that were spawning- very dark. Very different fishing than these small deep lakes where i live.

 

[WTM]

As maasive as that lake is, id say it would take awhile to figure it out. Guy taking out behind me had some massive white crappie that were spawning- very dark. Very different fishing than these small deep lakes where i live.

whites dont stay shallow long. a couple of weeks and they are back out in deeper water. blacks will stay shallow up until about june.

kind of crazy ive caught blacks on one side of a creek and on the other side would be all whites.

 

[Iglow]

ky lake has a little bit of everything including

6' to 10' rollers with a big north wind!!! Or that's what I heard.

 

[WTM]

6' to 10' rollers with a big north wind!!! Or that's what I heard.

yeah at least 4' lol. sometimes it will make the surface current flow south.

with heavy current and a bad south wind you best be getting to a creek somewhere unless you want to get beat to death.

 

[redblood]

its was breezy but in beaver dam, very tolerable. We crossed through the gap into the main river once. I could see a bridge but didnt go that far because imwe were only in 6 ft of water

 

[double browtine]

6' to 10' rollers with a big north wind!!! Or that's what I heard.

I crossed it once like that. Took us almost 20 minutes to cross from Clay bay to Boyd's branch. Once we got out there I couldn't turn around because the swells were so high. Just had to keep going over them really slow. Me and my buddy said lots of prayers in those 20 minutes. Couldn't have done it without a hot foot on my bass boat!

 

[RUGER]

I crossed it once like that. Took us almost 20 minutes to cross from Clay bay to Boyd's branch. Once we got out there I couldn't turn around because the swells were so high. Just had to keep going over them really slow. Me and my buddy said lots of prayers in those 20 minutes. Couldn't have done it without a hot foot on my bass boat!

Been there.
Glad I wasn't driving!!
Sucked !!

 

[TRIGGER]

I crossed it once like that. Took us almost 20 minutes to cross from Clay bay to Boyd's branch. Once we got out there I couldn't turn around because the swells were so high. Just had to keep going over them really slow. Me and my buddy said lots of prayers in those 20 minutes. Couldn't have done it without a hot foot on my bass boat!

I have been out there at night once in 5-6' rollers by myself. I crossed from panther to cypress and back in the middle of the night. One of the dumbest things I have ever done on the water.
Then another time at night with a guy that was begging me not to let him die. I'm not sure how big they were but the waves were coming over the riprap at Danville where the dock is and then all the way over to the ramp as well.

 

[tellico4x4]

Couldn't have done it without a hot foot on my bass boat!

The spring before Hurricane Hugo hit SC, we were fishing bedding bass on Santee Cooper. Fishing was awesome for big fish and we were having such a great time, just didn't pay attention to how rough it was getting until it was time to head back to condo. That dang shallow lake looked like the Bearing Sea to me with swells much taller than we were in the boat. Was playing the Hot Foot game timing the swells to get up & over when a rouge wave came over the bow whie we were in bottom of swell. I saw the trolling motor disappear and instinct kicked in & I mashed the Hot Foot to the floor. We literally submarined the boat & came out the other side of wave! Boat was about 1/4 full of water & only thing we lost was a pack of cigarettes out of my buddies shirt pocket UNDER his life vest. God certainly was with us that day.