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This is the final installment of the “Spring Fishing Frenzy" series of articles, detailing productive fishing techniques and opportunities across Kentucky. These articles will appear on the second and fourth Thursday of the month. The series will continue until early summer.
With Memorial Day weekend on tap, the summer fishing patterns are upon us. The summer weather is a welcome relief after the spring of crazy weather we've had. With a brisk April followed by some of coldest average May temperatures in memory, we can finally look forward to stable water levels and predictable fishing.
Bass fishing in summer revolves around light, or the lack of it. The best times to sling a lure are pre-dawn to mid-morning, dusk and nighttime. You will not find a better largemouth bass fishing spot during these times than a weedy farm pond.
Tim Slone, former director of the Information and Education Division of Kentucky Fish and Wildlife, holds a largemouth bass caught from a pond in Shelby County in summer. Farm ponds are a good option for bass fishing early in the morning and at dusk in summer.
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Farm ponds make for great low-light bass fishing because they are much easier to navigate than a huge reservoir. Target weed edges with a floating plastic frog or a Jitterbug in the pre-dawn, dusk and at night. A steady retrieve usually produces strikes, but switch speeds or pause the lure for a time if they don't cooperate.
A weightless minnow-shaped soft plastic jerkbait is a good lure choice for low light, but not dark, conditions in a farm pond. Rig this lure on an offset worm hook to make it weedless and cast it into fallen tree tops, brush or along weed lines. You can practically work this lure in place using short, quick jerks of the rod tip, driving any nearby largemouth bass crazy. You can also reel it over the top of weeds and into holes in the vegetation that often hold some of the bigger largemouths in a pond.
The lack of weight and weedless nature of this rig make it easy to work in a shallow, weedy farm pond. Light lures are the way to go, leave the Carolina rigs and ½-ounce jigs at home. A medium-power spinning rod spooled with 8-pound test line works great for this presentation.
As the days turn steamy and uncomfortable, fishing from mid-morning to early evening makes for a sweat-drenched, uncomfortable experience. You can catch panfish and the occasional small buck bass, but fishing in the heat of the day usually leads to frustration.
Head to the Lake Cumberland tailwater and wade for brown, rainbow, brook and cutthroat trout. Fishing the Cumberland River below Wolf Creek Dam in summer feels like you are surrounded by natural air conditioning. You will fish in waters that stay in the 50s and 60s year round and trout bite willingly the day long, no matter how hot the air temperature.
Dave Dreves, acting director of Fisheries for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, said the recent generation schedule for Wolf Creek Dam is good for summer fishing.
They've not generated until noon recently," Dreves said. "That means you can fish by the dam at the beginning of the day and follow that no generation water downstream. You can fish all day.
Still, the Cumberland can grow from a gentle flow to a flood-level torrent when the turbines in Wolf Creek Dam start churning. Check the predicted water releases at the Nashville District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers website at https://www.lrn-wc.usace.army.mil/preschedule.shtml.
You can find a detailed map of the Cumberland River below Wolf Creek Dam at the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife homepage at fw.ky.gov. After reaching this page, click on the "Boating" tab, then the "Canoeing and Kayaking" tab, followed by clicking on the "Blue Water Trails" tab on this page. The entry for Cumberland River Tailwater contains a map that features the major access points and floating mileages from Wolf Creek Dam to Winfrey's Ferry.
You will likely need waders to wade the river because of the cold water temperatures, but some hardy souls wet leg the Cumberland during summer. A light-power spinning rod armed with small shad-colored suspending jerkbaits, a few in-line spinners dressed in white or red along with a couple of small silver casting spoons will put trout in hand.
Fish suspending jerkbaits over a rocky or pebble bottom across the current with a stout, erratic retrieve. If this retrieve does not produce strikes, slow way down. After reeling to get the lure down, let the suspending jerkbait float downstream and gently twitch your rod tip occasionally. Trout that ignored your lure earlier often hit this presentation.
Cast in-line spinners and spoons at a 45-degree angle upstream and simply reel them back, making sure they give off lots of flash. Do not over think fishing these lures; their action draws strikes from trout. Keep them up off the bottom on the retrieve or they will get hung and lost. These lures will often produce rainbow trout as well as the other trout species in the Cumberland River.
Head to a farm pond at dark or the Cumberland tailwater on a weekend morning to escape this summer's heat and enjoy bountiful fishing.