GILBERTSVILLE, Ky. – Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley are no strangers to bass tournaments, especially with Major League Fishing, and the storied fisheries have hosted several already this year.
June 6 will bring yet another – the fourth event of the season for the Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine LBL Division. The fish have moved out deep, and the stage is set for a classic Kentucky Lake ledge showdown.
What to expect
Each of the past two years, Levi Kohl has won a BFL on Kentucky and Barkley in May, including the most recent LBL Division event on May 12. The good news for anglers fishing this June event is that he’ll be competing in a Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit event instead. But he said the fishing should be excellent with the offshore bite in full swing.
“It’s getting to be almost full-blown summertime, and they’re all moving out offshore,” he said. “The current has been terrible all spring, but just last week we started to get consistently good current, and it’s helped a lot. I think this one is going to be dominated by traditional ledge fishing with crankbaits, jigs, spoons and things like that.”
Ledge fishing is always a go-to on Tennessee River impoundments, and it’s changed with the advent of forward-facing sonar, which is limited to just three hours in this event. Kohl said the technology will be a factor, but not necessarily the only way to win.
“I don’t think it will be a major factor in this one besides just making you more efficient when you are ledge fishing,” he said. “If it were me, I would wait an hour or so in the morning for the fish to set up before I turned it on. Pretty much the whole lake is fishing well right now, and you don’t need it to catch fish.”
The other big question on the lakes right now is deciding between largemouth and smallmouth, but Kohl expects largemouth to be the winning species.
“The largemouth will dominate it. The smallmouth tend to disappear this time of year,” he said. “Last year, they were a bigger factor all the way into July because we had so much current from the floods. Without the current, they just spread out, and when they see your bait, they laugh at you, because you need the current to catch them in the warmer months.”
Kohl believes the offshore bite in deeper water will undoubtedly be the winning pattern, even though you can also catch some fish shallow right now.
“There’s a shallow bite, but you just can’t catch a big bag doing it right now,” he said. “You can catch 12 to 15 pounds and catch a bunch of fish, but it’s almost impossible to win up shallow right now.”
Baits to bring
Banking on a ledge bite, Kohl says to bring your traditional Kentucky Lake summertime favorites. He expects lures like crankbaits and hair jigs to play but advises bringing something to drag along the bottom, too, such as a football jig.
What will it take?
No matter the season or tournament circuit, Kentucky Lake has been fairly consistent recently with winning weights. Kohl expects more of the same in this one.
“It will take 22 or 23 pounds to win, somewhere in there,” he said. “To get a check, you’ll need 17 or 18 pounds; maybe the last check will be somewhere around 16 pounds.”