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Crappie Fishing on Kentucky & Barkley Lakes

Kentucky and Barkley Lakes have been among crappie anglers’ top destinations from all over the country for many years. The anglers have regarded our lakes as top crappie fisheries for decades and the lakes continue to crank out not only numbers but size. Offering a wide array of ways to fish for and catch both white and black crappie as well as some blacknose crappie. And we have a number of hybrid crappie that approach the 3-pound mark every year.

The fishing changes throughout the year for crappie but they can literally be caught 12 months out of the year on both lakes if you adapt your fishing to their migrations and seasonal behavior changes.

Let’s run through what crappie collectively do on these West Kentucky riverine systems from season to season and where to best focus your fishing during each.

Prespawn Crappie Fishing on Kentucky Lake

Starting around February, crappie will begin their migration from deep waters and the main lake back into the bays. Some crappie simply move from hunkering down in the mud bottoms in the bays to moving more towards shallow water, hard bottoms and cover. Now keep in mind, when we say towards shallow water, they can sometimes just rise up off the bottom in 20 feet of water and move towards the surface to collect warmth from the sun and start thinking about feeding up for the spawn.

They will move towards warmer waters and places where they can absorb warmth on calm sunny days. They often hunker down on the bottom in winter and will start roaming and suspending a lot more as you get closer to the spring spawn. They will use cover much of the time, but they will transition on large open areas just as well roaming to sun their eggs and feed on baitfish and microorganisms emerging toward the surface in warming weather.

Spider rigging really excels in this prespawn period as does long line trolling although the latter tends to get better as water temps rise and fish get more active. Vertical jigging is also still good and casting starts getting better if you are good at locating cover and reeling light jigs slowly, being careful to stay above the cover. A deeper slip bobber fishing rig can be good as well.

Focusing your efforts around creek channel ledges is a good idea. Fishing around cover above and below the breaks or edges of shallow and deep water. Mid-depth flats will start getting good as well later into February and early March.

Spring Crappie Fishing

The crappie spawn usually comes in March or April depending on water temps and the blacks will often go just a bit ahead of the white crappie. Blacks will spawn on rocky banks, as well as around some wood like stumps. White crappie mostly spawn around wood cover and gravel hard bottoms in 1 to 9 feet of water depending on water clarity, predators, available cover and more.

When crappie come shallow to feed and spawn, almost every tactic for crappie fishing will be good. Pulling a jig under a cork, casting, vertical jigging, spider rigging, some slow trolling, pushing jigs like Road Runners and more. However you like to crappie fish, you can do it when they come shallow in the spring.

Look for shallow flats and pockets with some cover and good hard bottoms with gravel or decent rock and gravel mixtures. Or wood cover on any shallower area. Often sticking with the major creek arms on both lakes will be your best tickets this time of year.

February and March are two of the best months for catching your biggest crappie while April can be one of your best months for catching a lot of good crappie shallow.

Photo by Jason Sealock

Post Spawn Summer Changes

After the crappie spawn, they will guard their fry for a brief period usually around shallow cover and again this can be a great time to cast for crappie as well as slowly reel a jig under a bobber for crappie. As the water temps warm, crappie will migrate back out to mid-depth cover before finally going out to deep cover and creek channel ledges to spend the summer.

This post spawn to summer period can really make low light conditions important for catching crappie. Both early and late are better times to crappie fish than the middle of hot sunny days. And your overcast and rainy days can be some of the best days to crappie fish in the middle of summer.

If you plan to keep your crappie to eat, you are often better to throw them on ice as soon as you catch them to keep their meat nice and firm from catch to cleaning to cooking.

Summer techniques often involve casting to brush, vertical jigging cover and trolling. Crankbaits and jigs like Road runners pulled around deep flats, creek channel ledges and cover can produce consistent action for crappie.

Fall Crappie Fishing on Kentucky Lake & Lake Barkley

As water temps cool in the fall, crappie will come shallow as well as group up to feed. Our black crappie population often schools up in the fall to provide some great fast action if you can find schools chasing bait on deep channel swing banks. White and black crappie will also move back toward shallower cover where bait has congregated over the summer and fall. Casting a jig is probably better in the fall than any other time of the year. The crappie are feeding and willing to chase and when the water temps are between 50 and 60 degrees, it can be fast action.

Find areas with lots of brush and creek channel swings and keep moving, picking off fish from each of the different pieces of cover and then moving on. Most of the time you can get a few fish off one piece of cover and then move on to the next and do it again.

Shade can play a big role in the fall too. Often a shady bank will hold more fish than a sunny bank. So again pay attention to places where the crappie can congregate on cover around shade.

As the water gets back below 50 degrees, crappie will migrate out towards the mouths of the larger creeks and bays and even go out towards the main lake again. They will slow back down and often vertical jig fishing and minnow fishing takes over as the slowest and most productive ways to fish for crappie when their metabolism slows in the winter.

You can catch fish casting, but it’s often a painfully slow way to fish. You need to use light jigs so you can reel ultra slow and keep the bait in the deep strike zone and that can be pretty tough to do on windy days. So most good crappie anglers will resort to vertical fishing as the water gets cold.

Photo by Jason Sealock

Other Tips on Crappie Fishing on the Lakes

Barkley and Kentucky Lakes are very similar, but they are truly two different ecosystems. One can often be ahead or behind the other. Which is the best of both worlds for anglers that frequent the lakes. If you like fishing around the spawn. You might get a month of it on Kentucky and then move over to Barkley and get another month of it.

If you like fishing in those magic 50 degree temps you often find one lake cooler or warmer than the other and can prolong bites you find be moving back and forth between the lakes.

Historically speaking you will find more color to the water on Barkley and more shallow cover on Barkley.  Kentucky has a lot more deep defined ledges and stumps while Barkley has a lot more flats and natural cover like laydowns and buck brush.

Barkley is a much shallower lake collectively speaking and Kentucky has a lot more deep water. Something to consider as you chase crappie in the various seasons.

Staple Crappie Lures & Techniques on Kentucky Lake

A jighead and soft plastic body is hard to beat for crappie on Kentucky Lake. Hair jigs also catch crappie all throughout the year. Bobby Garland Baby Shads, Crappie Magnets, Stinger Shads, Popeye Jigs, and more can all be good. Colors that have some chartreuse and green accents are good as are staple colors like Monkey Milk (blue glimmer pearl). Contrasty colors work well in dirty water and more subtle natural colors work better when the lakes get really clear.

Vertical jigging is a great way to catch crappie year round. A long rod allows you to lower a jig down to the fish and stay back off of them so the boat doesn’t spook them as much. It allows you to hold a jig dead still on a piece of cover until a crappie finally decides to bite. And you can usually get away with a little heavier line because you don’t have to cast.

Casting a jig is easily done with 1/32 and 1/16 ounce jigheads and plastics or the same in hair jigs. The lighter line you use will get you more distance. A good 4-pound monofilament on a spinning rod will do the trick most days. With crappie fishing you get more bites just steady reeling with slight pauses or letting the bait fall naturally. Jerking it and reeling it fast will get a lot less bites. And most bites are seen not felt. So be sure to watch the line at the tip of your rod for a “slight jump” to know when a crappie bites.

Trolling requires a little more gear and of course a boat. Long rods with flex, rod holders and a good trolling motor help keep a constant speed and depth. But it can be very effective for catching roaming crappie and crappie spread out over large areas like they do in the summer.

Pushing jigs or spider rigging lets anglers use multiple long poles staged out in front of the boat and slowing working flats and covering water ahead of the boat. This has been a staple technique on Kentucky and Barkley Lakes for decades.

Photo by Jason Sealock
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