Eastern Kentucky Fishing Report

This fishing report was compiled for the week of Jan 20, 2015.

Editor’s note: With temperatures returning to normal or above for this time of year, most of our eastern lakes remained unchanged. As you can see the Batten brothers caught some big fish this week at Laurel River Lake. Frank told me that they had problems keeping ice out of their guides, but they caught a couple of monsters. Many areas within the state continue to report good smallmouth fishing. Laurel River, Dale Hollow, Cumberland and Cedar Creek lakes all produced smallmouth this past week. Send us your pictures or story ideas to: trimmer308@windstream.net. We will try to use as many as we can in print and online.

Cave Run Lake: The lake level at press time was 724.5 feet, which is only about half a foot from winter pool. Winter pool is 724 feet. The water temperature is 38-42 degrees. If you fish the Licking River, you need to know that it’s only safe to travel in the channel. The lake is only .5 feet from winter pool making many areas of the Licking River very dangerous. The best fishing has now moved to the middle of the day. Musky: fair. As the water has cooled hot baits have been Bulldawgs, some jerkbaits and in-line spinners. The in-line spinners have been the most productive bait this past week. Largemouth Bass: slow. Cold-water temperatures have put the fish near the bottom. Use jigs, drop-spoons and A-rigs once you locate shad. Baits that produced were lipless crankbaits jigged vertically, Johnson’s spoons and shakey-head jigs. Smallmouth: fair. Smallmouth fish are always spotty on this lake; however, this week some good fish were reported caught near the dam area fishing spoons and lipless crankbaits. Crappie: slow. These fish continue to hit small 1/32 oz. jigs dressed with twister tails or minnows along with roadrunner spinnerbaits. The fish staged in channel trees and near weed beds. Catfish: Fair, we didn’t receive any reports on catfish this week.

Grayson Lake: Unchanged this week as it remains in the winter draw down and is falling slowly. Winter pool for Grayson is 637 feet of elevation. At press time, it stood at 637.6 feet. The water is 38-43 degrees. Bass: Slow, upper areas of the lake are stained from rains that turned creeks muddy. A few fish continued to be caught fishing shakey-head jigs and chatter type baits in deep water. Crappie: Fair, fish downed timber and brush in 14 to 18 feet of water. Jigs, live bait and small crankbaits have been successful this week. Hybrids: We continue to have some reports that the hybrid bass are active on the main lake. Fishermen have been locating shad and then backing off and throwing swim-baits and big spoons. Fish have been in eight to 10 feet of water. Catfish: Slow fishing live bait from the heads of coves near discharge areas.

Greenbo Lake: Unchanged, the water temperature is 32-39 degrees with some areas starting to freeze. The water level has been stable. Bass: Slow fishing structures with jigs and spoons. Some anglers have reported better catches when the wind is blowing and stacking up plankton near the dam. Spinnerbaits and blade baits have produced this week too. Trout: Fair to good using Berkley Powerbait and small spinners or blade baits like the Sliver Buddy. Catfish: Slow fishing cut bait in the heads of coves and deep water points. Bluegill: Slow fishing live bait near underwater structure. The bluegills have left the banks making them harder to find.

Ohio River: The Ohio River levels have fallen to 34.65 feet this week, which is within normal limits and fishing was reported to be improving below the dam. Largemouth Bass: Fair and improving. Jigs and small spinnerbaits have produced this week fishing points and areas that hold weeds. Some bass has also been caught near discharge areas fishing blade baits. We also saw some smallmouth caught this week using jig & pig baits fishing rocky areas. White Bass: Some white bass above the dam have been hitting blade baits and inline spinnerbaits. Look for schooling fish.

Below the dam: Continues to be the bright spot in the fishing report! The old standard method of twin tail grubs on ¼ oz. ball jigs is still the best producer of Sauger and Walleye. Use slow bump the bottom retrieves. Running a two-jig setup produces better strikes. One of the two baits needs to be a little off of the bottom. White Bass: Slow, fishing inline spinners and blade baits. Look for breaking fish. We had no reports of Hybrid Striped Bass catches this week. Bass: We are looking for some new reports on the bass fishing below the dam. If you get on the water help us out! Catfish: Slow, using live bait in backwater areas. Minnows, cut-bait and worms fishing on the bottom have all been successful.

Yatesville Lake: Unchanged, water temperatures have been in the 37-39 degree range, and lake levels have continued to drop. The winter pool level is 624 feet of elevation. The lake was at 624.1 feet at press time and stable. Bass: Some fair catches have been reported using creature baits and blade baits while fishing first break structure and deep-water points. Some fish have also been caught using A-rigs fishing over shad pockets in 18 ft. of water. Crappie: Fair, fish the edges of flats in channel bends and old fish attractors using 1/32 oz. white crappie jigs or live bait. We have seen some anglers improving their odds drifting across fish attractors using both live bait and jigs. Catfish: Slow, fishing spawning beds and creek heads using live bait and worms. Bluegill: Slow, we didn’t get any reports on the bluegill fishing on this lake this week.