FantasyFishing.com Insider: Everything you need to know about Kentucky Lake
Kentucky Lake will make a return to the national stage this week when Tackle Warehouse Invitationals Stop 3 Presented by Phoenix Boats puts the 150-angler field on the famed fishery along with its sister reservoir, Lake Barkley.
No lake has hosted more MLF/FLW events than Kentucky and Barkley through the years (253 and counting). All that history could be a double-edged sword for Phoenix Boats Fantasy Fishing players. On one hand, we have quite a bit of data about who tends to perform well on the last reservoir of the Tennessee River. On the other, making sense of which past tournaments might be indicative of success this week could be a challenge, especially given the transformation Kentucky Lake has undergone in recent years, with the bass population declining then rebounding thanks largely to a smallmouth boom.
Luckily, we did the legwork for you. Here’s everything you need to know about Kentucky and Barkley Lakes. Tune in to MLFNOW! Friday through Sunday to watch all the action.
The heavy favorites
Adding Jake Lawrence to your roster this week might be the easiest selection you make all season. Rarely do we see an angler with Lawrence’s combination of skill (he’s currently second in the Fishing Clash Angler of the Year race after consecutive Top 10s to start the season) and local knowledge. In the past year, he’s won two Toyota Series events and a BFL Super Tournament on his home waterway.
Drew Gill should be another lineup lock. The Stop 1 winner and current AOY leader, Gill is riding high after finishing fourth at the Bass Pro Tour event on Dale Hollow last week, and he’s spent plenty of time on Kentucky Lake — he finished third in the Toyota Series event that occurred around this time last April.
Strong (recent) history
Normally, you wouldn’t expect a fishery that has gotten so much tournament traffic through the years to offer a big advantage to local anglers. But given how much Kentucky Lake has changed, those who have spent time on the water in recent years could have a significant edge. Plus, there’s a chance we see the conditions line up to where Barkley’s shallow largemouth bite could produce a handful of high finishes — if anglers know the right places to look.
So, it’s worth considering competitors who live around the lake and/or have put together some strong tournaments on the fishery in recent years. Even though they hail from Ohio, Cole and Steve Floyd have to be near the top of that list. The father and son have been mainstays in the Top 10 on the fishery in recent years, and they typically pull it off by chasing shallow largemouth, a bite that might not have a lot of pressure with many competitors likely looking to replicate the forward-facing sonar-based, spawning smallmouth pattern Lawrence used to win a year ago.
Ramie Colson Jr., meanwhile, is a true local. He’s tallied a whopping 30 Top-10 finishes on Kentucky/Barkley during his long career, five of them coming since the start of 2020. He’s fishing well, too, having finished 10th at Sam Rayburn to open the season. Hunter Mills is another Kentucky native with four Top 10s at the fishery on his résumé. Toby Corn notched a pair of Top 10s in BFL competition on Kentucky Lake in 2023, including an eighth-place finish in the two-day Super Tournament.
Finally, continuing the theme of looking to last April’s Toyota Series event for clues, Adam Bartusek finished second to Lawrence after getting on a similar spawning smallmouth program, and he’s back in the field this week. Matt Stanley finished eighth in that event and has spent tons of time on the Tennessee River during his career.
Breaking down the BPT options
There’s always a handful of Bass Pro Tour anglers in each Invitationals field. Targeting the ones who aren’t fishing the full schedule (unlike Gill) has produced mixed results. Unconcerned with points, those anglers are more apt to take risks, which can produce high finishes (like Keith Poche at Sam Rayburn) or zeros (like Jacob Wheeler at West Point).
There are eight BPT pros in the field this week. While I’ll just about always consider putting Justin Lucas and Nick Hatfield on my fantasy roster, the two guys in addition to Gill and Floyd who interest me most are Poche and Kelly Jordon.
Poche has notched consecutive Top 20s to start the Invitationals season, and if the shallow flipping bite really can keep pace with the spawning smallmouth (some locals seem convinced it can, especially if the lake level gets to 359 feet or higher), he could be a real contender. Jordon, meanwhile, seems to have taken a liking to the Invitationals. After winning last year at Lake Eufaula in Oklahoma (right around this time on the calendar), he signed up for all six events in 2024 and has started strong, making the final day at both Sam Rayburn and West Point. Jordon will have some fond memories on Kentucky/Barkley, too, with three finishes of 11th or better on the fishery during his career.
Other names to consider
Flight One:
Cole Breeden — Coming off a Toyota Series win on Grand Lake over the weekend, Breeden is red hot. He also finished 21st at Sam Rayburn and sixth at West Point. Plus, he’s fished two Toyota Series events on Kentucky Lake in the past year, and while he struggled in March, he placed 13th last April.
Troy Stokes — Stokes is coming off a Top 10 at West Point, and despite calling Michigan home, he has some solid history on Kentucky/Barkley. He finished fifth in a 2019 BFL on the fishery and 18th at the Toyota Series event in March.
Flight Two:
Brody Campbell — The Ohio native has spent a fair amount of time on Kentucky Lake and other nearby waters in recent years, including a 17th-place finish at the Toyota Series event last month. He’s off to a great start to his rookie season with a pair of top-15 finishes in the first two events.
Brad Jelinek — The Missouri native calls Lake of the Ozarks home, but there’s clearly something about Kentucky Lake that suits him. Jelinek finished 10th in the Toyota Series event on the fishery last April and seventh this March.