Eastern Kentucky Fishing Report

This fishing report was compiled for the week of June 9, 2015.

Editor’s note: The fishing this week has changed very little change. We are starting the summer with stable water in all of our reporting lakes. Cave Run Lake has made it back to summer pool for the first time since early spring. The Ohio River has been stable for a few weeks now as spawning in the river is about over except for bluegills that spawn monthly. If you catch a good fish send me the picture, I will include as many as I can in the fishing reports each week. Please send pictures or story ideas to: trimmer308@windstream.net.

Cave Run Lake: The lake level has continued to recede dropping from 735.5 feet to summer pool at 730 feet. All ramps are open. The Licking River and Beaver Creek are also at summer pool and are still hard to navigate because of standing trees that may not be visible. Extreme caution should be taken while in these areas. Water temperatures remains in the 75 to 78 degree range with some fluctuations according to the daily weather pattern. Musky: Good fishing the heads of creeks where the water is changing colors. Hot baits have been lipless crankbaits, some jerkbaits and inline spinners. Square-bill crankbaits have also been hot this past week producing some good fish. Largemouth Bass: fair. The water temperatures have dropped over the last week but are expected to return as the weather heats up again. Some fish are nesting; however most are finished. I fished this lake last week with family members. Most of the fish we caught were on spinnerbaits but we also caught fish on lipless crankbaits, weightless jerk-worm and square-billed crankbaits. Smallmouth: Good to fair. Smallmouth fish are typically spotty on this lake but some good fish continue to be 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 were 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. White Bass: We did get a few reports that the white bass have been jumping off and on. This is good news because of last year’s white bass kill. We are interested in hearing more from anglers having success catching white bass. Bluegill: Bluegill spawn during full moons, and we look for them to be on the next the first week of June.

Grayson Lake: Summer pool for Grayson is 645 feet of elevation. At press time, it stood at 645.5 feet, and was stable. We had reports of good catches being taken in the major arms of the river fishing plastic worms and spinnerbaits. The water is 74-77 degrees. Bass: Good in areas where bass have finished spawning. Bass are expected to be near the banks and spawning areas as bluegill begin to spawn during the full-moon phase starting June 2. 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: Good fishing live bait from the heads of coves near discharge areas and backwater. Bluegill: The second spawn should begin as we enter the full moon phase.

Greenbo Lake: Greenbo is unchanged and continues to be stained; it had a stocking of 5,500 rainbow trout on Jan. 29. The lake is near 76-80 degrees. The water level has been stable. Bass: fair. The bass are been nesting, which has slowed the fishing. However, jerk-worms proved to be the best bait this week producing fair numbers. Blade baits and crankbaits also produced using bright colors and 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: Good, fishing live bait near underwater structure. The bluegills are moving into shallow water some have spawned, but we expect the biggest spawn to have started June 2.

Ohio River: At press time the water levels of the Ohio River in both Greenup pools have been stable for a couple weeks. The fishing has been slow with water levels being a little low for the best fishing conditions. Below the dam the lower pool was 16.81 feet while it was 12.72 feet on the upper side of the dam. The Ashland pool was 35.16 feet at midweek. Heavy rains from thunderstorms may impact the Ohio River this week but overall the river is in good shape and a week warmer temperatures will improve fishing. Largemouth Bass: Good, fish have been taken near spawning areas and backwater areas along with at the mouths of some creeks using spinnerbaits and jerkbaits. 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. 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 should still be the best producer of Sauger and Walleye. Use bump the bottom retrieves while running a two-jig setup. One of the two baits needs to be a little off of the bottom. White Bass: Good, fishing inline spinners and blade baits. Look for breaking fish. We had no reports of Hybrid Striped Bass catches this week. Bass: The reports we got this week were better than expected fishing old spawning areas using jerkbaits, spinnerbaits. Catfish: Good, using live bait in backwater areas. Minnows, cut-bait and worms fishing on the bottom have all been successful.

Yatesville Lake: The lake is stable near summer pool. The water temperatures have been 74 to 78 degrees, producing both bass and crappie catches. Bass: Good, some catches have been reported using jerk-worms, AC Shiners and other jerkbaits. Some fish have also been caught using a ½ oz. jig and kicker in dark colors fishing points. Fishermen are reporting that the bass are finished spawning; however, we expect to some late spawners to continue to be active as we come out of the most recent full-moon phase. Crappie: Good, 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 back water areas where flooding has created some warmer pools of water. Bluegill: Good, fishing old spawning beds using live bait and small 1/32 and /164 oz. jigs.