Last month’s record rainfall raised Kentucky Lake well beyond summer pool, and now the lake is back to normal. During the rise and fall of the lake the conditions got prime for largemouth to move into shallow water and spawn.
As a result the bass and the fishing are in a state of flux. The bass are getting acclimated to the water level and so are the pros fishing the Berkley Bassmaster Elite at Kentucky Lake presented by Abu Garcia.
Stephen Browning summed up the general sentiments of his peers with this quote.
“It’s going to be a grinder of a tournament.”
That means four days of junk fishing, trying anything and everything in the tacklebox, and expecting failures and nice surprises as the week goes on.
“I think it’s going to be a grind this week because of the water having gone up and down so quickly,” added Browning.
This morning Browning also told me that his practice hasn’t been solid, a comment echoed by his peers, but he expects more forward movement by the bass into the shallows.
“Hopefully as conditions stabilized some of those largemouth will be more motivated to move up and spawn.”
Browning plans on approaching the day one cast at a time and like he said, grind it out, not think too far ahead, and avoid letting his mind spin out.
“I have seven rods on the deck and plan to use them all today.”
Grinding it, junk fishing, takes an open mind while using all the tactics and tackle it takes to catch a limit.
Jacob Wheeler will follow that plan.
“This is 110 percent going to be a junk fishing tournament,” he said. “Being consistent will take catching fish shallow, midrange and deep.”
This time of year the bass already are migrating toward their summertime patterns. On Kentucky Lake the largemouth gather in concentrated schools on offshore ledges bordering the main river channel. That bite is what appeals the most to bass fishermen attracted to the lake during summer.
The downer is a majority of the largemouth fishing is still in shallow water.
“I was planning on the fish already being out in deeper water, but that’s not going to happen,” continued Wheeler. “It’s going to take grinding it out in shallow water to make it to the end.”
With the ledges barren of largemouth finding them will take more effort. So far, not so good, according to reports during practice and this morning.
“They are in that post-spawn funk and just hard to pin down,” said Mike McClelland. “Hopefully though, with the water stable, finding fish will be easier to do.”
Practice was hit-or-miss for McClelland, but he took the positive side of what is to come.
“It’s Kentucky Lake in the month of May, one of the best times to be here,” he said. “We have four days on one of the best bass lakes in the country.”
Not a bad time or place, even when it takes grinding it out.