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…

 

[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.

 

[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?

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[Urban_Hunter]

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.

About lost my 201 Pro XL to waves rescuing some morons. Big storm was coming and we were night bassing before it hit. Wind started to pick up and could see lightning in the distance so we headed in. Around the bend at the ramp we could see about 50 first responder vehicles all lit up. Then I hear a lady screaming at the top of her lungs and there sits a woman and husband in a bow rider that is mostly submerged, I'm assuming just the flotation keeping it up. I swing around and pick up the lady but the man is insistent I tow him in. Neither had a life jacket. I throw him a life jacket, get one on the lady who is now crying hysterically, and tow him in. Storm is now raging. As I get to the ramp, the waves are coming over the dock by a good 12" as they get people in the water to grab their boat as I swing it by and untie it. My buddy jumps in to get the truck but the parking lot is jammed. I idle into the wind for about 15mins with every wave coming over the front of the boat. I finally end up having to make a loop screaming at the responders to clear the ramp. When I trailered it, waves were coming over the back of the boat all the way to the seats and it had started running rough. There was so much water in the boat that it was over the fuel tank and had contaminated the gas through a leaky sending unit. I was seconds from stalling and not being able to restart. The morons had just picked their boat up from the mechanic and wanted to try it before dark. Top hose came off the block and the water pump filled up the boat in seconds.

 

[Crow Terminator]

I have never been on it in a boat; just crossed it by bridge. I can definitely see where the wind would play a huge role in it though. Chickamauga and Watts Bar are overall much more narrow and usually only get rough from boat traffic.

But speaking of low water. Yesterday was beautiful and it brought out one of those "boom boom" wake boats. I will say the guy driving it, had a wonderful taste in beautiful bikini women but they all had a horrible taste in music. They kept coming closer and closer to me as I was fishing this long shallow point where a creek comes into the main river. Just a few days ago the point was out of the water and extended for about 100 yards. I was fishing the drop off and stumps. Boom boom boat kept getting closer and I don't know if they were trying to get me to look at the girls or just being a pest. The river channel is wide open behind me, 20 foot deep. They decided to attempt to make a circle around me in the shallowest part of the whole area. The whole time their music is blaring F this..F that...N word this...blah blah blah. Well here they came across in front of me. Which brought them right across that shallow bar that at the place they crossed, was in approx 6 inches of water. Maybe less. The inevitable happens. They get beached. And beached good. He tried getting it unstuck with the engine but it wasn't going anywhere and they had obviously been drinking or smoking something too. Part of me wanted to help. The other part of me said...they were probably trying to mess my fishing up on purpose and didn't plan on getting stuck. So I stowed my gear, fired up the motor and left them sitting there.

 

[Urban_Hunter]

I have never been on it in a boat; just crossed it by bridge. I can definitely see where the wind would play a huge role in it though. Chickamauga and Watts Bar are overall much more narrow and usually only get rough from boat traffic.

But speaking of low water. Yesterday was beautiful and it brought out one of those "boom boom" wake boats. I will say the guy driving it, had a wonderful taste in beautiful bikini women but they all had a horrible taste in music. They kept coming closer and closer to me as I was fishing this long shallow point where a creek comes into the main river. Just a few days ago the point was out of the water and extended for about 100 yards. I was fishing the drop off and stumps. Boom boom boat kept getting closer and I don't know if they were trying to get me to look at the girls or just being a pest. The river channel is wide open behind me, 20 foot deep. They decided to attempt to make a circle around me in the shallowest part of the whole area. The whole time their music is blaring F this..F that...N word this...blah blah blah. Well here they came across in front of me. Which brought them right across that shallow bar that at the place they crossed, was in approx 6 inches of water. Maybe less. The inevitable happens. They get beached. And beached good. He tried getting it unstuck with the engine but it wasn't going anywhere and they had obviously been drinking or smoking something too. Part of me wanted to help. The other part of me said...they were probably trying to mess my fishing up on purpose and didn't plan on getting stuck. So I stowed my gear, fired up the motor and left them sitting there.

Epic win

 

[East TN Bowhunter]

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.

I've done the same thing on Douglas before. In the creek channel in 15-25FT of water I caught huge big white crappie full of eggs and 50ft away up on the bank I was catching nice sized black crappie that were colored up. This was right in the middle of the spawn a couple years ago.

 

[brassmagnet]

Ky Lake is rarely boring and when the sky gets dark too early in the afternoon you'd best be getting the boat on the trailer and finding somewhere else to be!!