Lake Barkley Tour
An aerial look at Lake Barkley for this week's All-American
This week FLW is hosting two major tournaments on the sister reservoirs of Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. Barkley is the site of the FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) All-American, and Kentucky Lake will host the Walmart FLW Tour. First, let's tackle Lake Barkley and see what it has to offer for this week’s All-American qualifiers.
The All-American anglers will launch from Lake Barkley State Park on Thursday at 7 a.m. CT. The state park marina will be full of family and friends cheering on their favorite anglers as they take a shot at a life-changing win. The champion will join an illustrious list of anglers who've the All-American, including professionals Clark Wendlandt, Troy Morrow and Jacob Wheeler.
Even though Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake can be referred to as “twin lakes,” they are very different when it comes to water clarity and fishing styles. Throughout most of the year, Lake Barkley has a darker tint than Kentucky Lake. This allows for fish to be caught shallow for a good portion of the year.
Lake Barkley also has abundant shallow cover when the water level is at or above 359 feet, which is summer pool. Targets include flooded bushes, laydowns, docks, bank grass and stumps.
The structure on Lake Barkley is mostly created by the Cumberland River that winds through the middle of the lake. Anglers on the ledges will scan up and down the river channel looking for schools of postspawn bass feeding on gizzard shad. Even though Lake Barkley isn’t known for its winning bags of ledge fish, it could produce one this week with, warming conditions and big fish looking for an easy meal.
The south end of Lake Barkley is one of the most popular places to fish for many local anglers. The lake’s backwaters are good places to find flooded bushes that could hold a week's worth of winning fish.
Construction is taking place on Kentucky and Barkley to upgrade the bridges that carry Highway 68/80 over the lakes. Here on Lake Barkley, you can see the cranes from a long way down the lake.
Tomorrow, we'll visit Kentucky Lake and offer a glimpse at what the playing field will look like on "The South's Great Lake."