CALVERT CITY, Ky. – Sometimes called “the South’s Great Lake,” Kentucky Lake earned that moniker for its size. About 160,000 surface acres depending on the time of year, it’s the largest manmade lake east of the Mississippi River. But “great” has often been used to describe the bass fishing on the final fishery on the Tennessee River, too – and, at times, “great” hasn’t been a strong enough word.
Like many fisheries, Kentucky Lake (and neighboring Lake Barkley, sourced from two different rivers but connected by the Barkley Canal) has gone through cycles in the 81 years since the completion of the Kentucky Dam. At times, there hasn’t been a better bass fishery in the country. At other times – specifically in the late 2010s, with the proliferation of silver carp and disappearance of aquatic vegetation – Kentucky and Barkley underwent periods of transition wherein the bass fishing took a serious hit.
And “transition” is perhaps the key word for Lowrance Stage 5 Presented by Mercury this week. As is well known to anyone who has paid attention to bass fishing on Kentucky Lake in recent years, the lake seems to have morphed from a premier largemouth destination to one of the best smallmouth fisheries south of the actual Great Lakes. There are several theories for the shift – you can read more about that here – but suffice to say: You’re going to see a lot of smallmouth on SCORETRACKER® during Stage 5.
Green is still in play, though
Throughout the 258-tournament history of FLW/MLF at Kentucky Lake, largemouth accounted for most of the big wins. The Bass Pro Tour has never visited Kentucky/Barkley, but the FLW Tour/Pro Circuit/Tackle Warehouse Invitationals have plenty (as have every other level of MLF competition from Abu Garcia High School Fishing and up). The shift from largemouth to smallmouth has never been more apparent than when you consider the past two tour-level events on the lake: last year’s Tackle Warehouse Invitationals event (Stop 3 last April) and the then-FLW Tour’s event on Kentucky Lake in May of 2018.
That Tour event in 2018 was historic (for more than just the infamous Jason Lambert-Randy Haynes spat), as Lambert went on to win with 101 pounds, 9 ounces over four days. After catching more than 27 pounds by 10:30 the final tournament morning, he went back to the ramp to eat pizza and chat with fans before a weigh-in that saw him win $100,200 by nearly 30 pounds over Scott Martin in second.
That doesn’t happen with brown fish. Lambert caught a ton of big largemouth – basically all from one ledge and one school – during that event. Fast-forward six years to Andrew Nordbye’s Invitationals win at Kentucky Lake: 63-5 over three days in a spawning smallmouth showdown that saw most of the Top 10 picking off spawners from shallow flats and points.
Largemouth are still very much in play on Kentucky and Barkley, though, especially with the new forward-facing sonar rules on the Bass Pro Tour that only allow for one period of FFS use per angler per day. Instead of targeting individual smallmouth tucked up against stumps on shallow flats, the field is going to have to spend a lot more time hunting schools of largemouth offshore or chasing big bites around shallow rock, wood, docks – you name it; Kentucky has ample cover to ply.
Despite the recent smallmouth proliferation, you can still count on some giant green ones being caught this week. In the 31 years of FLW/MLF recordkeeping at Kentucky Lake, the heaviest largemouth weighed individually in a tournament was a 12-1 caught by Kinney Noe in a 1997 BFL. More recently, now-BPT pro Cole Floyd caught a 9-9 in a 2018 BFL.
By the numbers
Before we further break down the playing field and the BPT field (filled with pros who have extensive histories on Kentucky and Barkley), let’s take a look at some relevant facts and figures for Kentucky-Barkley.
4: Number of wins Paris, Tennessee, pro Jake Lawrence has amassed on Kentucky and/or Barkley since 2023
11: Number of Top 10s Cole Floyd collected from 2016-2019 in the BFL LBL Division en route to three consecutive AOYs
12-1: Heaviest bass on record for MLF events at Kentucky Lake (Kinney Noe, 1997)
33-5: Heaviest bag caught in MLF competition on Kentucky Lake (David Reault, 1997)
101-9: Jason Lambert’s winning weight in 2018, representing the heaviest four-day total caught on Kentucky-Barkley in MLF competition
223: Megawatts capacity of the five generators of the Kentucky Dam. As a power-generation lake, current is and has always been a major factor in how bass behave (and eat) on Kentucky Lake.
265: Number of total MLF events that will have been held on Kentucky-Barkley by the end of 2025
3,300: Approximate miles of shoreline between Kentucky and Barkley combined
218,209: Combined surface acres of Kentucky and Barkley, though the lower ends of both lakes will be off-limits for Stage 5
The playing field…
Kentucky Lake itself is massive. With about 2,300 miles of shoreline and a north-south reach of more than 180 miles, the playing field would be huge if only Kentucky was in play. Tack on another 1,000 miles of shoreline and a north-south reach of 134 miles from Barkley, and there’s a virtually endless amount of water to fish.
That said, the extensive tournament history on Kentucky and Barkley has given us some solid clues as to what are going to be the biggest factors in winning Stage 5. For starters, it’s most likely the winning fish are going to come from Kentucky Lake, and more specifically from one or more of a handful of key areas that always seem to produce: Kenlake State Park, Paris Landing State Park, the Blood River area and, more generally, much of the northern end of the lake, which produced most of the Top 10 finishers in last year’s Tackle Warehouse Invitationals event.
Barkley certainly could be a factor, but the Cumberland River impoundment that runs parallel to Kentucky Lake is smaller, shallower and maybe slightly less conducive to catching numbers over size.
Lacking pretty much any kind of fishable grass, Kentucky’s ledges, points, rock, laydowns, docks, flats and rocky banks offer about as much variety as you could ask for on a TVA fishery. With the sheer size and amount of different options available to the field – and the fact that no more than 66 BPT boats are going to be on the water at any given time – everyone is going to be able to find something on one or both fisheries.
As for getting around, wind is always a huge factor on Kentucky Lake (both in terms of fish positioning and navigation). It’s not uncommon for a north wind, especially when paired with a strong south current, to rip right down the chute and churn up big rollers that make moving freely around the lake a real challenge. Luckily, the forecasted wind conditions for Stage 5 don’t appear to be as foreboding as that, though it’s impossible to rule out anything when it comes to wind and waves on Kentucky Lake.
…And the players
Being the most-fished lake in MLF history – despite the BPT having never fished the lake for an event – most of the 66-angler field has a bunch of experience at the fishery. You may recognize a few of these names: Jake Lawrence. Mark Rose. Anthony Gagliardi. Dave Lefebre. Jeremy Lawyer. Cole Floyd.
Every single one of the aforementioned BPT pros has won at least one FLW/MLF event at Kentucky and/or Barkley – to say nothing of the pros with top finishes at Kentucky Lake on other tournament trails. Here’s some other fun stuff, by the numbers:
0: Shockingly, the number of MLF events Dustin Connell has fished at Kentucky Lake. He’s one of 16 BPT pros who hasn’t fished an MLF tournament there.
2: Number of BPT pros (Rose, Andy Morgan) with 21 MLF events fished at Kentucky Lake, tied for second most after Cole Floyd.
4: Number of professional events Drew Gill has fished at Kentucky Lake – and number of Top 10s he’s recorded in those four events.
6: Number of different BPT pros who have an MLF win at Kentucky Lake (only Lawrence has more than one)
21-14: Weight Rose caught on Day 3 of the FLW Tour event on Kentucky Lake that aided in his eventual AOY. Rose is a master of cranking ledges on the TVA and at Kentucky Lake especially.
32: Number of MLF tournaments Floyd has fished on Kentucky Lake – far and away the most in the current BPT field
45.5: Winning percentage for Lawrence in MLF events on Kentucky Lake. He’s fished 11 such tournaments and won five of them.
$120,200: Amount Lawyer won in 2016 with his All-American win at Lake Barkley (one of three MLF wins and 46 Top 10s for the Bass Pro Shops pro)
Also of note
-Most of Lake Barkley will be in play for Stage 5 – the off-limits area is everything south of the HWY 79 bridge on both lakes. However, the Kentucky Lake playing field will effectively be chopped in half, as everything south of Paris Landing State Park will be out of bounds. That means Big Sandy – a popular and productive bass tournament area of the lake – will be off-limits, as will anything south of that.
-As of this writing, water levels on Kentucky Lake sit at about 359 feet. While there are some thunderstorms in the forecast for each day of the event, forecasted lake levels remain steady at right around the 359 mark. That means there should be some decent current throughout the tournament with the Kentucky Dam generators working to move water and keep lake levels stable.
-At 359 feet, Kentucky is at exactly summer pool (May 1 through July 5) and has been for a while now. That stability is going to be great for predicting where a lot of the lake’s bass are going to be, and water levels might just be high enough to make the shallow flipping bite a viable pattern.
-While six BPT pros have won MLF events at Kentucky Lake, others have won there on other tournament trails. In 2018, when he was fishing the Elite Series, Wesley Strader won fishing docks. Edwin Evers won in 2015 and Bobby Lane did the same in 2009, both on the Elite Series and both at this exact time of year.
-Lawrence will have redemption on his mind when he takes to Kentucky Lake Thursday. The pre-tournament favorite entering last year’s Invitationals event on his home lake, Lawrence went on to finish 24th and never really managed to put it all together. In his past three BPT starts, he’s finished 10th at Stage 3 (Lake Murray), fifth at REDCREST and then punctuated that stretch with a thrilling win at Stage 4 and Chickamauga/Nickajack. Simply put: He’s fishing about as well as anyone, and now he’s got a shot at redemption on his home pond.
-This event really has the potential to showcase the “new” Kentucky Lake that everyone’s been talking about for a couple years, but not just because of the smallmouth. With FFS only allowed for one period per angler per day, it wouldn’t be surprising to see several pros go back to basics on the ledge-laden behemoth with a combination of traditional sonar to identify schools of largemouth and traditional baits to catch them. It may not end up being the ledge bonanza of old, but don’t expect it to be the smallmouth-heavy, FFS-dominated event that Stop 3 was last year. It’s a good bet we’ll see some of both, and as a result, get a real taste of what the newest iteration of Kentucky Lake is capable of producing.