Eastern Kentucky Fishing Report

This fishing report was compiled for the week of May 5, 2015.

Editor’s note: The biggest news this week has been the continuing rise in water temperatures. This is the time of the year where we start to see bluegill coming to the bank, and bass start staging for the soon-to-come spawn. White bass will start to move back out of the rivers and spawning streams and Muskie will move into emerging weeds. Crappie has been nesting and remains shallow; small road-runner bait continues to produce. We want your fishing pictures. Please 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 have started to recede dropping from 760.5 feet last week to 757.5 feet as of press time. This is a three-foot drop from last week. Most ramps remain open, but others are still underwater. We will continue to check the lake levels. Water temperatures are also starting to come up, with 58 to 60 degrees recorded this week. Musky: Good, gishing the heads of creeks where the water is changing colors. Hot baits have been lipless crankbaits, some jerkbaits and in-line spinners. The in-line spinners have been the most productive bait while the water is still stained. Largemouth Bass: Fair, warming water temperatures have improved your chances fishing flats and creek heads. Use jigs, drop-spoons and A-rigs once you locate shad. Baits that produced were lipless crankbaits fishing creek heads and points. Smallmouth: Slow to 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: improving. 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 and starting to move up on points holding brush. Catfish: Fair, fishing backwater areas with live bait.

Grayson Lake: Summer pool for Grayson is 645 feet of elevation. At press time, it stood at 645.44 ft., which puts the lake near summer pool. We reported catches last week in the main lake area. This lake, along with Yatesville, has been going up and down quickly. This has hurt the fishing some but it’s expected to recover as water levels become more stable. The water is 56-61 degrees. Bass: Fair and improving. Upper areas of the lake are clearing making the lake very fishable. A few fish continue to be caught fishing shakey-head jigs and chatter-type baits in deep water. However, jig & pig type baits and some jerkbaits produced this week fishing creek heads and points. 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: Fair, fishing live bait from the heads of coves near discharge areas and backwater.

Greenbo Lake: Greenbo is unchanged and continues to be stained with water temperatures between 58-62 degrees. The water level has been stable. Bass: good. Spinnerbaits proved to be the best bait this week producing good numbers. Blade baits and crankbaits also produced using bright colors fishing points and flats. Trout: Good using Berkley sparkly orange Powerbait rigged using a small treble hook with a split shot about six to 12 inches up the line. Catfish: Fair fishing cut bait in the heads of coves and deep water points. Bluegill: Improving fishing live bait near underwater structure. The bluegills have left the banks making them harder to find.

Ohio River: At press time, the water levels of the Ohio River in both Greenup Pools were falling. If rains don’t move back in, the river should produce. Below the dam, the lower pool was 21.26 feet while it was 13.04 on the upper side of the dam. The Ashland pool was 36.29 at mid-week. Rain may continue to impact the Ohio River this week, but the river should continue to improve if it stays within normal levels. Fishing was reported improving. 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: We are continuing to wait on more reports from anglers fishing below the dam. However, water levels have returned to productive elevations and we expect to get good reports. The old standard method of twin tail grubs on ¼ oz. ball jigs is still the best producer of Sauger and Walleye, using 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: Fair, 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: Fair, using live bait in backwater areas. Minnows, cut-bait and worms fishing on the bottom have all been successful.

Yatesville Lake: While the lake is stable just above summer pool, we expect the lake to return to summer pool if rains continue to be moderate. Water temperatures have been ranging from 58 to 62 degrees and are producing both bass and crappie Bass: Good, some catches have been reported using crankbaits, lipless crankbaits, creature baits and blade baits while fishing first break structure and shallow-water areas near deep water. Some fish have also been caught fish ½ oz. jig and kicker in dark colors fishing points that get long periods of sun. Crappie: Fair, some success has been reported using Road Runner spinners fishing the edges of flats in channel bends and old fish attractors using 1/32 oz. white crappie jigs or lives bait. We have seen some anglers improving their odds drifting across fish attractors using both live bait and jigs. Catfish: Good, fishing backwater areas where flooding has created some warmer pools of water. Bluegill: Improving, fishing old spawning beds using live bait and small 32 and 64 oz. jigs.