Kentucky Lake 9/22/2011

Left Franklin at 4:30 am Thursday morning for New Johnsonville. Stopped at McDonalds in Hurricane Mills for a short breakfast. Fog was thick most of the way the driveway to Waverly. Oddly, the river wasn't foggy. On the water a little before 6:30. Ran out the canal to the edge of the river. Stopped for a few casts on the point. The third cast with a popper (Yellow Magic) yielded a 12" excited bass. I thought "this is going to be on". Shortly headed downriver to a cove we call the Factory. Cast the popper at least 50 feet off shore in 8-10 feet of water and a 1.5 smallie blew up on it and headed for the sky. After about 5 jumps he came into the boat. Again I thought "this is going to be on". I soon decided that it was not to be. Fished Little Dry creek hoping to find it full of shad with fish blowing up. I finally caught 2 shorts (one real short) and broke off one pretty good fish. Moved down to Big Dry Creek fishing the winding creek that enters the bay. No hits. Disappointed in fishing the ledge but that's fishing.

Headed to the back side of the river following the marker buoys. Stopped and fished a couple of points but no hits. Finally came to a small cut (unidentified) where I saw individual fish blowing up. Casting a Red Eye shad I caught 6 in about 20 minutes and missed several hard strikes. All were 1.25- 1.75. Then it stopped. Lots of shad in this small spot. After trying a few more spots I left the back side. Tried the factory again, stopped at the water discharge close to the bridge but again no hits.

Fished another ledge close to the Birdsong Creek entrance. None. Headed back to a slough we call Persimmon slough that has produced before in the fall. Caught 1 nice 2 lb bass on a Fluke but not more hits here although there was lots of shad moving in. Finally headed back toward the bridge and fished the island close to the canal but alas I was through for the day. A total of 11 fish in the boat all but 2 were club fish, all released safely. Loaded out at 3 pm. Not a great day but better than some. Spoke to a local who took out at the same time. He had only caught 1 fish but it was a 17.5. I didn't feel so bad. The cooler weather coming in should make for a good catch next Saturday, Oct 1.