April 15, 2015 Kentucky Lake: Water Level at Kentucky Dam - 358.83 Surface Temperature - 64 Lake Barkley: Water Level at Barkley Dam - 359.00 Surface Temperature - 64 Both lakes are at summer pool level. Kentucky Dam is spilling at an average rate of 93,000 cfs this afternoon. Barkley Dam is spilling at an average rate of 50,000 cfs this afternoon. The latest lake levels, current flows and forecasts for all the TVA lakes can be found at http://www.tva.com/river/lakeinfo/index.htm. Kentucky Lake ranges from slightly stained to clear. Lake Barkley ranges from heavily stained to muddy. FLASH: I do not normally advertise tournaments in this report but there is an up coming tournament on the Cumberland River that I would like to mention. This tournament is being held on the behalf of Jenna King, a sweet 9 year old girl that has Leukimia. Jenna has already under gone a heart catheter operation and is now receiving chemotherapy and her family needs your help and support. The tournament is a Team Tournament and will be held at The Clarksville Marina on Saturday, April 25th. The entry fee is 100.00 per team with a 10.00 Big Bass optional pot. There is a 2000.00 guaranteed first place and 1000.00 guanteed second place for this tournament. All proceeds from the tournament will go to Jenna's family to assist with her care. Contact Todd Phillips at 931-980-3450 or email: atphillips62@yahoo.com for details. General Conditions: We have received a lot of rain here and up the rivers over the past few days and both lakes have been rising to present levels. These heavy rains has some stained water in the backs of some creeks and bays on Kentucky but overall the fishing conditions are good. Lake Barkley has gotten heavily stained from these rains with some areas down right muddy. The forecast thru the weekend is showing a high of 80/low of 59 tomorrow with a 20% chance of rain and wind ENE5. Saturday looks good with a high of 78/low of 64, 20% chance of rain with wind ESE10. Sunday is forecasted with a high of 78/low of 60 with a 90% chance of thunderstorms and wind SW11 as another cold front approaches. The extended forecast into early next week is for post frontal conditions with highs in the 60's and low's in the high 40's. Make sure you check the latest wind and weather forecasts before venturing on the lakes as the forecasts can change on short notice this time of year.
The Largemouth are now in late prespawn patterns for the most part. We are taking fish on lead in banks and points just off the spawning areas and also some on the flats just in front of the spawning areas. With the water rising into the abundance of mustard flowers this year we are starting to pick up fish where the water has come up over some of them. We fished Barkley last weekend and on Monday and the Largemouth there seemed to be more established on the late prespawn bite than on Kentucky which we fished the past few days, but I expect Kentucky Lake will catch up real quick with the rising water and the warm up today and forecasted warm up over the weekend. We are still getting fish on the channel banks and points about half way into the creeks and bays as more fish are staging to come in shallow. Expect the shallow bite to just get better over the next couple of weeks with the exception of a slow day or two with passing cold fronts. Largemouth Bass: Largemouth are being taken on secondary points and channel banks inside the creeks and bays. More of these fish are showing up on the staging points and banks leading into the spawning areas every day now. The deeper fish are being taken on Carolina rigged lizards and creature baits, crankbaits, jigs and shakey heads. The closer staging fish off the spawning areas are taking shallow running crank baits, spinnerbaits, Texas rigged lizards and creature baits, jigs and shakey heads. Some Largemouth are also being taken on shallow flats in front of the spawning areas on lipless crankbaits, spinnerbaits, Texas rigged lizards and jigs. Our best bite over the past week has been on Texas rigged lizards and jigs on the lead in banks just off the spawning areas. Smallmouth Bass: Smallmouth are being taken on shallow main lake gravel points and banks near the channels and on gravel secondary points and banks in the creeks and bays. These fish are being taken on slow rolled crank baits, Texas and Carolina rigged lizards and creature baits, tube jigs and jigs. Productive Lures: Some of the more productive lures this week have been: Excite and Strike King medium running crankbaits in black/chartruese, Bandit crankbaits in rootbeer and rootbeer/chartreuse, Strike King Red Eye Shad and Excaliber One Knocker lipless crankbaits in red or orange with black crawdad patterns as well as chrome sexy shad, D&L jigs in Cumberland Craw and Oops patterns with Missle Turbo Tail
trailers, Last Cast jigs in green pumpkin with Baby Paca Craw trailer, Slong's spinnerbaits in white/chartreuse, Charmer lizards and timber pups on Texas and Carolina rigs in green pumpkin and watermelon/red, Charmer shakey head worms as well as Yamamoto senkos and Yum Dingers on D&L and Slong's shakey head jigs in green pumpkin. Crappie: Crappie are moving the spawning banks early and late in the day in 3-5 ft of water..gravel banks with flowers or wood cover are reported to be working good. These fish are being taken by casting curly tail jigs, road runner baits and under bobbers with minnows. There are still staging Crappie in 8-12 ft of water over brush piles and these fish are being taken by spider rigging minnows and small curly tail jigs, minnows under bobbers. If you are coming to the big lakes here to enjoy our great fishing, make sure you stop by these businesses for all your fishing and boating needs: The Cabin Bait and Tackle is located in Kuttawa on U.S. 62 about one mile west of the I-24/U.S. 62 interchange. The Cabin Bait and Tackle has a great selection of the latest in rods, reels, lures for you bass anglers and also a great selection of tackle for the panfish anglers to include live bait. You can also find a selection of bows and guns for the hunter as well as personal handguns in the store. The Cabin also hosts the a website where you can order all your fishing needs with free shipping on all orders over 50.00. Be sure to check them out at www.tackleexperts.com. The Cabin has a great delicatessen where you can get that early morning breakfast sandwich or enjoy a delicious lunch. Phone: 270-388-6440. Fisherman's Headquarters is located in Draffenville at the U.S. 68/U.S. 641 triangle. Fisherman's Headquarters boasts a great selection of the latest in rods, reels and lures for bass anglers that are on the market, not to mention one of the best selection of high end lures and local custom lures we use here on Ky/Barkley lakes. You can find many of the custom lures you see in my fishing reports there including the Bag5 custom painted crank baits and jerk baits. Fisherman's Headquarters also has a really good selection of Crappie and panfish tackle featuring Wally Marshall "Mr Crappie" rods, reels, lures and line as well as live baits. Phone: 270-527-5938 Jet-A-Marina: If you have a problem with your boat while you are visiting our
great fisheries, let me recommend you have the folks in the service department at Jet-a-Marina check it out. These folks have a well known reputation for trying to keep our visitors on the water while they are here if they can possibly do so, especially you tournament anglers. Hopefully you will not need this kind of assistance but if you do, you can find Jet-a-Marina located on U.S. 62 in Calvert City, just a couple of miles north of Kentucky Dam. Jet-a-Marina also has a great showroom for all your boating accessories and check out the new Ranger, Stratos and Triton bass boats too as well as bulk oil at rock bottom prices for your engine. Phone: 270-395-4030 GUIDE SERVICE: For those of you that may not be familiar with my service: I am a full time catch and release bass fishing guide. I only guide for bass. I have been guiding for bass full time on these lakes for 19 years and bass fishing the lakes for over 30 years. I do not go out and fish panfish for 4 or 5 days and then try to guide on bass for one or two days. No one knows everything the bass are doing but one thing is for sure, if you only fish for bass day in and day out, you will have a lot better idea of what they are doing and also be familiar with all the different techniques it takes to be a successful bass angler. If you book with my service, you will have me as your guide and you will be guided in the comfort of a late model Z522 Ranger Comanche equipped with Lowrance HDS sonar and top of the line tackle. I provide just for fun bass fishing trips, tournament preparation trips, focused teaching trips and technique instruction. If you are in need of a bass fishing guide give me a call or drop me an email. Available Dates: April: Sorry, I am booked up. May: 8, 10, 12, 13 June: 1, 2, 12, 23, 24, 25, 29 Call me or drop me an email to book your late summer and fall trips with me now. The sooner you make a reservation, the more likely you are to get the date(s) you want. I am also taking bookings for my Ledge Teaching trip. The Ledge Teaching trip consists of both classroom and time on the water. This trip not only teaches you how to find the highest percentage ledges but also what you are looking for on your sonar and how to interpret what you
are seeing, how to search the ledges, set up on the ledges as well as making decisions on what type lures you should be throwing depending on enviromental conditions. Captain Dave Stewart Bass Buster Guide Service 270-362-9987 dave@kentuckylakeguide.com www.kentuckylakeguide.com "Fish With a Professional"