Please post your reports for Barren River lake here
Please post your reports for Barren River lake here
September 3rd, 05'
Water was up about 5 feet after the heavy rains from Katrina. Floating debris was collecting against most channel bend bluffs and floating in the lake as well.
Water temps were in the high 70's early and warmed up to near 82 by late afternoon. Water was stained in most areas on the main lake and reportedly muddy in the creeks.
Caught some early fish suspending around flooded trees and bushes with jigs and worms. Also picked a few up with a crankbait around points where we found some fish schooling.
The mid-afternoon bite was difficult but we found fish on bluff walls in 12-15 feet of water again on jigs.
Nice day on the water.
To add to mike's report we found several fish on the shallow windblown flats. Unfortunately the only ones biting where 10".
Got several bites fishing cumberland craw and clear with blue flake jig with pumpkin seed trailers. Most of the fish we caught where on ledges of chunk rock. Caught a couple of small fish working a silver rattle trap on the shallow flats and through submerged sycamore trees where the wind was blowing into them.
We hit the water about 7:30am and had a lot of surface activity so I tried to get on a spot really quick before it ended. Worked a white buzzbait and a silver zara spook for about 30 minutes with no luck and the top water activity stopped around 7:45.
I really worked shallow areas near deep water on the mainlake(My summertime strategy). However with the recent rain and cooler water pooring in I think working deep up into the creeks might have been better. That is if you could get past the staind water and back into the creeks cooler/clearer water should have been present.
This year I have been the most productive using D&L jigs in cumberland craw, Smoke Purple, and clear with blue flake. I also have some FLW plastic pumkin trailers that have been unstoppable. Smoke purple tubes, red shad worms and junebug worms have been popular on most of the clear lakes.
http://www.billymarlin.net
\"If at first you don\'t succeed, then skydiving definitely isn\'t for you!\"
Hey Billy
Way up the creek you could get above the strong color and the temps were a few degrees cooler. That was our winning ticket. Back out the creek we did get bit but it was only short fish.
JR19
9/09/05 Barren River Lake, from sun rise to noon
Water 78 -80, Stained to green color.
Still a lot of floating logs in the upper end of creeks and some in main channels.
No keepers at all, but had a ball and caught 3 slots and the rest where dinks.
Crank baits,( 6 -8' Bandits) and plastic (Baby bush hog & Paka Craw)
All where in 8 -15' of water on a vertical walls. On and one big fat Spot that would have been a keeper...even if they where all less than 15" first time in my life I got bassin thumb ( skin all roughted up ) from lipping so many bass
2011-721ProXp/250SHO
9/10 thru 9/11 Caught 11 pounds 4.5 oz one of which was a 4 pound 9.5 oz hog.and partner had 10 2. Most fish were caught next to submerged timber. We caught our fish on Road kill tubes and watermellon brush hogs. Water was 79 degrees in the morning and warmed up to about 82 by noon
Water was stained. We went way up the Barren River to catch these fish.
We also caught fish on 9/9 but it was practice day so they did not count.
September 24, 2005
The lake is being drawn down and the fishing is tough. Most of the lake is stained, up the creeks is very stained to muddy. Shad are everywhere.
Launched at 7am, water temp 80.5 degrees. Caught several short fish on a Zara Spook and Buzzbait. One good 14 inch slot fish came on the spook out of 1 foot of water on a secondary point.
headed to Peter Creek and caught one more 14 inch slot, a fat KY, on a jig on a point on the main creek.
Headed back under the bridge and up another mile and fished some layed down wood catching another slot on the jig. Again, shad were everywhere.
Water Temps on the main lake at 2pm were 84.2 degrees.
Pretty much caught short fish everywhere we went but no keepers. 2.66 pounds was enough to win third place. Pretty sad, but this time of year is tough
Tues. Sept. 27, 05
Fished from Sun up till 3 PM
Water 85.4 to 89.5.
Clarity slightly stained to almost clear down near dam.
Hooked a lot of nice fish but was not able to land any of them.
Lost one on a crank bait, spinnerbait, jig, and plastic.
Some where hitting like bluegill, real lite and just tap tap tap by the time you figured out is was not a bluegill, was to late.
Had 4 spit hooks back at me near boat.
Not sure what I was doing wrong but some where hitting the jig so hard it tore the claws off the paca chunk I had as a trailer.
Hit it hard, and spit it out before you could do anything, must be getting old and my reflexes are getting slowAny way real nice day to be out high was only 80 with 3 - 5 MPH north wind.
Oh most of the fish I found at the mouth of creeks on walls with 20 - 30 ft of water.
Shad are starting to school up at the mouths of creeks.
2011-721ProXp/250SHO
Sat. Oct. 1.
Fished from first light to around 12:30 PM
Water is from slightly stained to stained, almost clear near dam.
Water temp. from 73 way up in Skaggs Crk to 78 near Dam.
Lets say I had a ball caught fish where ever I went.
Ended up with 5 keepers 2 at lest 3LBs
Lost a real good one when my old Diawa handle snaped off
Caught them on crank baits, Jig and Paca Craw, Bush Hog.
First light no top water so started throwing jig and wow caught my best ones, most of the good fish came before 9 AM except for one and it came from WAY up in Skaggs Crk and I mean way up as far as you can go, where I was is not on the map nor on my GPS
Great Day and had a ball. the fish are starting to bite.
Oh what I listed does not include the Hyb Bass, or the white bass.
BUt pew was going to go to another creek and come out of Skaggs and pontoon boats everywhere so I just packed it in.
2011-721ProXp/250SHO
Good to hear the action is picking up Ed!
The water temps were from 75-68. About 10-12 days ago they were about 4-5 degrees warmer. Poll level is 550.4 (summer pool 552) and the water level is stable(inflow VS outflow) with good colored water in the creeks and clear back out. Early morning bite was slow to fair on buzzer and spinner. Made a move to another location where there was alot of fish busting shad and had a ball. Caught fish on buzzbait, spinnerbait and a jig fish seem to be scattered everywhere but when I found shad the bite was more concentrated.
JR19
Gene sounds like a fun day! Gotta love this time of year when you can find them busting the schools of shad.
Sat. Oct. 8, 05
Fished from 12:30 PM till about 3 pm
Water 73.9 deg.
Wind 10-15 MPH out of the N
Cloudy with sprinkles.
Water is slightly stained
2 Keeprs, 2 slots, and 1 dink
Jig, and tub
Fish are holding it seems at the first major break.
Did not travel all that far and stayed around the Narrows area.
So considering figured I did not do to bad.
2011-721ProXp/250SHO
Friday Oct 14
Meet and fished most of day with Cincybassin to show him around the lake (pre fish for T)
Water slightly stained.
Temp ? his is broke
Caught fish almost every where we went.
But the I came threw around 3 PM
21.5" , 3.5 lbs SM on a crankbait in Skaggs Creek. Looked like she was just coming up out of the channels to start loading up for winter, she was skinnnnny.
But oh boy what a treat.
He took pics so when he gets home and emails me copies will post .
Day was nice and on top of it we caught fish, which was great showing him around the lake for his first visit here
2011-721ProXp/250SHO
Love those brown fish Ed
Fished Friday 10-14 with ED and it was a fun time. Ed was testing the handling of the Bug Boat or maybe he was just trying to get rid of me. hmmmm.......We might need to change his name to CrazyEd.
Here's one of his Smallie
Sat 10-15 fished way up the Barren river up in the no ski area around Glover Creek / Oakmont Bay. Caught a lot of slot fish Sat. Tubes, jigs and c-rigging.
Sun 10-16 fished same area as Sat. Caught all fish on drop shot. Missed some early fish on Buzzbait.
Ended up with big fish Sunday and placing 3rd.
Nice job Jamie! You had much better luck than I did at Barren! Congrats on big bass and 3rd place!
Barren River Reservoir: Saturday Oct. 15 & Sunday Oct. 16, 2005
Fished from 6:30 AM Local Time until 5:00 PM local (Central Time)
This was my club's 2 day tournament.
Water temp 64 in the morning when I began and 70 at the end of the day.
Water clarity: slightly stained to stained
Water level dropped on Saturday and had dropped a LOT more by Sunday. They started the winter draw down.
Air temp 48 at launch and warmed to 75 or so by finish of day. Very sunny with bluebird skies.
My partner and I caught a lot of fish mostly on a jig. However, we could not boat a keeper. Also caught fish on spinnerbaits, and worms. I caught one on a buzzbait and had about 20 that blew up on it but didn't hit it. They were just knocking it out of the way. Changing colors, blades, etc. did not help. Caught 1 fish on a crankbait.
We fished the river and wound up going way up till we almost ran out of water. All of our fish were caught off of rock banks in 10 to 25 feet of water. Wood and lay downs did not yield a fish and I bet we caught 30 to 40 fish between the two of us.
Sunday morning was very cool, showed 37 on my Expedition's thermometer at launch. Water temp was 61 in the morning and 69 by days end. Also EXTREMELY foggy until about 8 am local time. We fished from 6:30 local time to 3 pm local time. MUCH different day. Still no keepers and very few fish weighed in by our club. My partner and I caught about 10 fish total and EVERY one was off of wood! NOTHING off of rock bluff walls! We fished Skaggs and went to the back end of it. The water was stained to very stained. I caught 6 fish all of which were 14 to 14 & 1/2 inches...but no keepers. All my fish were caught on a spinnerbait off of logjams in little cuts. My partner caught 1 on a spinnerbait and everything else on a jig and no keepers. Beautiful weather but a tough tourney for us.
Tourney was won with about 16 pounds for two days and the big fish was a 3.75 lbs smallie!
Tight Lines!
John Thanks,
The bad news I lost Angler of the year by 1 point. The thing is the guy that got 2nd only beat me by a couple ounce this weekend. MY fault. Saturday I released a 14-1/2" slot which was about an inch longer than the one I had in the well. That hurt.....As it was sliding over the side I thought oooh chitttttttt. If I would have finished 2nd I would have finished first for the year. Theirs always next year.
Man the weather was pretty good. That fog really hurt us not being familiar with the lake Sun morning.
I hear ya on the buzzbait thing. They were smacking it Sun. but I didn't have any keepers on it. We had one guy catch about a 16" spot on a buzz bait.
It was a fun weekend.
Wow Jamie...1 point!! That really blows especially with the mess up in the slot fish. Oh well, it's not like second place is all the bad. I know it's not AOY but you were definitely in the hunt!
Our club doesn't count slot fish, only keepers. Makes it simpler like that, but it would have been nice to weigh a couple! I know I had one slot that would have weighed 2 lbs! FAT Fish!!
I hate I didn't get to see you, but it was tough as we were launching at 6:30 am local time. And you were right about the fog on Sunday Morning...it was dense!
Oh well congrats again on a good tourney and a great year!
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