Destination: Kentucky/Barkley lakes

EverStart Series, Central Division, May 1-4

Run a quick review of springtime tournaments held in years past on Kentucky/Barkley lakes and you’ll find that most multi-day events have been dominated by healthy bags of spawning largemouths plucked from willow bushes, buck brush and other shallow cover.

Wal-Mart FLW Tour pro Terry Bolton of Paducah, Ky., believes this could be the year that smallmouth bass break the mold.

“For quite some time I’ve said that an angler couldn’t win a multi-day tournament here strictly with smallmouths,” Bolton said. “But that may not be the case anymore. Nobody has done it yet, but some people have come awfully close over the last year. This smallmouth fishery has really come of age over the last couple of years. Kentucky Lake is chock full of 3- to 5-pounders.”

Bolton says smallmouths should be wrapping up the spawn by early May, which means they’ll be hanging around main lake bars, points and gravel washes that dump into the Tennessee River. For best results, he suggests targeting defined structure in 8 to 15 feet of water with Carolina-rigged lizards and tube lures rigged on lightweight spinning gear.

“The key will be to work your way down the structure and find the rougher spots that are holding the fish,” Bolton said. “They seem to prefer those spots with bigger rock.”

Largemouths, meanwhile, should be smack in the middle of the spawn when the EverStart field rolls into town. Those anglers who have never been there are going to like what they see in terms of visible targets for pitching and flipping jigs, lizards and tubes.

“There is so much good-looking stuff to fish that it can be intimidating,” Bolton said. “A shallow-water fisherman needs to pick an area and stick with it. It’s really easy to get into that `grass is always greener’ mode on this lake. You can waste a lot of time running around if you’re not careful.”

While both reservoirs harbor excellent populations of largemouths, Bolton believes Barkley Lake is the stronger of the two. The lake is newer, so its creeks are more defined and there is deeper water around the shoreline cover.

– Matt Williams

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