Northeast Kentucky Fishing Report

This fishing report was compiled for the week of April 21, 2015.

Editor’s note: Heavy rains and violent weather continue to affect all of our lakes, rivers and streams. While some fish are being caught it is not an easy task with conditions changing so rapidly. If you get out on the water, please think safety first. The water is still very cold and getting capsized could be fatal. 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 at press time had reached 759.2 feet. That is a seven-foot increase from last week, which was already 20 feet over summer pool. Some ramps remained open at press time, while others remain underwater and are closed at this time. We will continue to check the lake levels. Water levels were falling slowly. Water temperatures were starting to increase with measurements of 49-54 degrees recorded this week. Musky: Fair fishing 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 in stained waters. 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 with fish continuing to hit small 1/32 oz. jigs dressed with twister tails or minnows along with roadrunner spinnerbaits. Fish were staged in channel trees and near weed beds and starting to move up on points holding brush. Catfish: Fair, fishing back water areas with live bait.

Grayson Lake: Summer pool for Grayson is 645 feet of elevation. At press time, it stood at 658.05 ft. which puts it a little over 13 feet over summer pool. We had reported catches last week in the main lake area. Water temperatures range from 47 to 54 degrees. Bass: Slow, upper areas of the lake are clearing, making the lake very fishable. A few fish continued to be caught on shakey-head jigs and chatter type baits in deep water. Jig & pig type baits and some jerk baits also 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 except for becoming stained; it had a stocking of 5,500 rainbow trout on Jan. 29. Water temperatures range from 49 to 56 degrees. The water level has been stable. Bass: Fair but improving fishing blade baits and crankbaits. We had a report this month that a smallmouth over 6-pounds was caught. Spinnerbaits and blade baits have produced this week too. 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: Slow 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 rising due to rains and should begin to fall again by the time this report is published. Below the dam, the lower pool was 48.16 feet, while it was 19.54 on the upper side of the dam. The Ashland pool was 47.63 at midweek, which is three feet below flood stage. Rain may continue to impact the Ohio River this week. However, the river should continue to improve once we have receding water levels. Fishing was reported improving until this last shot of heavy rain fall. 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: As water levels return to productive elevations we expect to get good reports from anglers. 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: While the lake was up nearly six feet over summer pool, we expect the lake to begin to fall quickly. The water temperatures have been in the 48-53 degree range. The lake is producing both bass and crappie Bass: Some catches have been reported using crankbaits and 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: Slow, fishing back water areas where flooding has created some warmer pools of water. Bluegill: Slow, we didn’t get any reports on the bluegill fishing on this lake this week.