Conley Bottoms: A Hidden Paradise

By Chris Erwin

As the Secretary of the Kentucky Outdoor Press Association, I had the pleasure to visit Conley Bottoms Resort this past weekend for a writer’s conference. While some business is always the focal point of any get-together, I managed to get on the water for some fishing.

Conley Bottoms is located on the south side of Lake Cumberland near Monticello. Cumberland Lake is one of the largest lakes in Kentucky spanning 101 miles with 1,255 miles of shoreline and some 66,000 surface acres. The lake has good populations of largemouth and smallmouth bass, along with Kentucky bass, bluegill, white bass, catfish, crappie, walleye and striped bass. Under normal circumstances, the lake has an average water depth of 90 feet. However, the water has been down for some time as repairs to the Wolf Creek Dam continue.

KOPA members were lodged on a 75-foot houseboat with all the accommodations of a luxury suite in a good hotel, with the addition of a full kitchen. I can vouch for the fact this is not roughing it.

All the staff working at the resort was friendly and helpful as we got settled in. Then it was time for a snack – it was only steps away. We walked over to the Lighthouse Café where you have the pleasure to dine inside or out on the floating dock.

Our first day was a good time to catch up with the long-distance friendships that all the members share. The next day would be our chance to get on the water and test the fishing.

Tom Clay and I would be fishing together, the fishing reports we had received before we made the trip indicated that the smallmouth were in shallow water. Our task would be to see if we could establish a pattern. I always start a new body of water throwing the two baits I have told you about in other articles: crankbaits and spinnerbaits. Tom would start with spinnerbait and a Wacky worm rig.

For any of you who don’t know what a Wacky worm rig is, let me explain. You start off with a seven-inch plastic worm. In this case, Tom started with a bubblegum color. The worm is hooked right through the middle of the worm so that the worm just dangles off both sides of the hook. Out of the water, this is a stupid looking rig. But in the water, it comes to life. The whole idea is to cast the worm to the bank or structure and as its starts to sink, twitch the worm with no weight except for the hook. This worm looks alive as it wiggles down through the water column.

While I managed to get a few strikes on the spinnerbait, it was Tom and his Wacky worm rig that would catch the first good smallmouth that just topped 18 inches.

Before long, the pattern was starting to take shape. Most of the fish were coming from some type of wood in the water. Stumps two or three feet deep were the most productive. It didn’t take but a fish or two and I was tying on the Wacky worm, and we were jumping spots that didn’t have wood on them. After a bite of lunch, I was back out on the water. The pattern held up for us the entire time we were there.

I fished a little Sunday to round off our total of 30 smallmouth, five largemouth, and three really nice Kentucky Bass.

The monster striped bass did come up and jumped for a minute or two in one of the coves we were in, but they went down before we had a chance to cast to them.

Good fishing!