5-5-24 - Fish and Wildlife Conditions around the Region

Jim and Scott talk about fish and wildlife conditions around the region. They also keyed on upcoming spawning activity by bluegill, shellcrackers, catfish and bass.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
News Radio eight forty whas welcomes youto Jim Straighter Outdoors, the area's leading
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(00:26):
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(00:49):
eight hundred four four four eight foureight four outside the Metro. Now sit
back and relax and enjoy the nexttwo hours of Jim Straighter Outdoors on news
Radio eight forty WHAS. Good evening, everyone, demonstrator here with my co
host Scott Cronen and Scott, wegot a great show lined up for tonight
because we have so many things totalk about. Fishings, red hot turkey

(01:15):
hunting has been great across the regionin most respects. We've got spawning activity
by several breeds of fish. We'vegot some crazy weather patterns to talk about
that have contributed to some very unusualbehavior by several species of fish. We've
got oh my, I guess Scott, let's start with talking about what the

(01:42):
weather has done in terms of foliageand food for deer, turkeys, et
cetera, and then we'll merge intothe other It's well, your comment before
we went on on the air isvery very appropriate. It's Derby time.

(02:02):
Whether you watch the horse races ornot. I'm sure if you look around
you realize that this was the leastcolorful Derby period that we've seen in many,
many years. What I mean bythat is the dogwoods have already lost
their blooms. In mostly yards,red buds are long past, and it's

(02:24):
green and lush. It looks likeJune across the region. Well, when
you walk amongst your yard, ifyou don't have a very good management program
on it, you're probably seeing alot of white clover. Already pieces of

(02:47):
vegetation have any hen of yellow,purple or pink in it. So yeah,
Derby was definitely right here upon usat it looks like like we're coming
up on the first cut in thehay season instead of Derby weekend. It's
uh, we're really at about wheretypically Memorial Day weekend vegetation existing we are.

(03:16):
It's got you're breaking up a littlebit. I'm not sure whether the
signal or what have you, butthe thing that I've noticed in a big,
big way is the emergence of theclovers that you spoke to, the
growth of alfalfa. The food that'savailable for deer and turkeys right now is

(03:38):
extraordinary. And I'm just speaking tothose two species because they're kind of on
the top of my head. Butsquirrels are really really rambling a lot now.
There's already some little ones showing up, and there's just so many odd
things going on in some regards asmother nature. I want to lead off

(04:01):
with one that caught me totally offguard a week before last, and it
was so unusual that I can't helpbut comment on it. A dough dropped
two fawns that were so oversized bythat, I mean large for a normal

(04:24):
new born fawn that it took mybreath away and I came upon it.
There were vultures feeding on and thefawns were off to the side, their
midical cords were still there. Mylittle squirrel dog found it, and I've
never seen a fawn drop that early. You know, this was still in

(04:48):
April. So what we're looking atnow, of course, is the turn
of events where we got this newmoon coming this week. I believe it's
Wednesday of this week, so thefarm drop will definitely be upunished in a
big way and we'll escalate through therest of May. But that was just

(05:09):
an odd, odd occurrence to methat that pointed that there's some weird things
going on. I also have twoverified reports of polpes already on the ground
from Indiana and Kentucky, from youknow, individuals who I trusted. I
know they they recognize what they saw. In other words, it wasn't just

(05:32):
hearsay stuff, and that was veryvery early. So everything seems like it's
escalated. But then when we starttalking about the fishing, there's some stuff
that's going to other direction. Soit's really really odd one of the things

(05:55):
that we've been able to find bothof us in the last days, in
the last couple of weeks, though, is that what is odd is putting
a lot of fish in our inour lives well, and it's keeping our
lines pretty tight. Yeah, Buddy, fishing is wide open, and we're
going to talk a whole lot aboutthat this evening because there's some techniques that

(06:17):
are super effective right now and there'ssome unusual things happening that that anglers can
take advantage of. So it's it'sI don't know, it's just an odd
scenario. Our weather yo yo somuch during spring, and that's the best

(06:38):
way I can describe it. Andwhat I mean by that is we'd have
super warm days and then we dropout and be in the twenties and we've
had a lot of crazy wins.The wind continues to be a big factor
for fishermen. A lot of daysit's really tough to position your boat or
even you know, enjooy getting outand fish. But things just, uh,

(07:03):
we're tumultuous, and some of thethings we're going to talk about here,
uh through the rest of the program, are going to point that out.
Scott, you were also speaking tothe proliferation of poison ivy and some
other plants now that are ahead ofschedule. You want to speak to that.

(07:24):
Yeah, you know, it's gottento the point where we've all battled
with the with the tics. Alot of us have seen a huge influence
with mosquitoes, especially with how wateris uh purposely run off and detoured compared
to its natural pass of just habitatbeing destroyed in one aspect of you know,

(07:49):
urban development, urban sprawl, butanother hazard that's out there for some
of us, not all of us. It's just the good old fashioned rash
of poison ivy. And I haveseen more healthy populations of poison ivy plants.
Of course, as you study poisonivy, you'll realize that it will

(08:13):
it will grow on the sides oftrees and the roots can actually breathe and
keep the plant alive, you know, outside of of just growing outside of
the soil surface. But whether it'sground ivy or aerial ivy. There's been
a few friends of mine that havecome out of the Turkey Woods a little
bit more whelped up than what theywanted to and and just seeing a lot

(08:37):
of people getting out and starting tofish in and around the farm ponds,
and of course a lot of theearly season fishing on the stripper pits and
water access areas on the w mA's it's it's caused people to be in
and out of some territory that's putthem going to the doctor to get a
steroid shot or stopping at their localpharmacy to get a little lotion to put

(09:01):
on their skin. They've had somedermatology issues with good old fashioned poison ivying.
Like a lot of folks, Jim, I'm one of those people that
some days I can be around itand it doesn't bother me. In other
days, I can be around itand look like a person that's broke out
into measles. You know. Well, I'm one of those fortunes of people.

(09:22):
I suffered from it severely when Iwas a youngster up into my twenties
and thirties, and I'm not surewhether I've developed an immunity to it or
what, but I could walk throughit, i could be around it and
it doesn't affect me much anymore.It's always kind of been an oddity,
but I'm grateful for it. Idaythat. Hey, while we're speaking of

(09:48):
things, like that ticks, folks, you better prepare yourself before you get
out because they are really, reallyprevalent right now, Scott, you and
I talk to our audience about thatfrequently because we've got so many friends that
have been devastated by tick diseases andit's a real deal and you cannot take

(10:13):
it lightly. It's uh, it'sjust something you got to prepare for if
you're going to be outdoors, ifyou're going to hike, if you're going
to fish banks and ponds, likebecause Scott was talking about, if you're
gonna if you've been out hunting mushrooms, you know, any of the outdoor
activities you want to talk about.If you're in wooded environments where there's that

(10:35):
to be ticks, you better sprayup. And Sawyers is a great product.
They're tick repellent. You just putit on your boots and your clothing
and then you go about your businesswithout that fear of contacting one of those
deadly diseases. Yeah, and it'sit's a good time of year too to

(10:56):
use that product on your on yourdogs if you're getting out and doing some
walking. As we see just humannature in general being more drawn to living
in rural areas. A lot offolks that have a half acre lot or
a five acre lot, they backup to a neighborhood wood block, or
next to some areas that don't geta whole lot of mechanical maintenance as far

(11:18):
as mowing, and anywhere that yousee that big transition line between woodlines and
molt areas or power lines, thoseare all great places where those little ticks
can jump on, especially on thenept stage, and you'll have yourself covered
up in hundreds of thousands of thousandsof them if you know it. And

(11:39):
just paying particular attention to sprain yourclothes and using the right types of lotions
like Piccardian to apply to your skinis really important. Just remind folks not
to spray their cats with any typeof promethroun product because they have a totally
different reaction than the canine species ofanimals. But that promethrone is good for

(12:03):
both you and your dogs. Allright, very good, I'm gonna go
to break here. The break ispresented by SMI Marine. They're ready,
willing and able to take care ofall your boating needs. Go see them.
Tell them Jimbo sent you and rememberyou never get soaked by my friends
at SMI. It got right beforethe break. We were talking about a

(12:26):
variety of things. One of thethings that's on my mind, and it
has been on a lot of folksminds, has been the turkey season we
talked about. There's already some poltsstarting to appear. Of course that's gonna
escalate in a big way. Butboth of us enjoyed a fabulous season in

(12:50):
terms of interaction with the birds.Of course, fun in the field with
friends that we hunt with frequently,and it was an unusual season in several
respects, again to some oddities.The last bird eye harvested was in Indiana

(13:11):
and I was hunting with my goodbuddy Brad Graham, who was gracious enough
to scout and put me in anexcellent location from my hunt. But what
was odd was we called in twodifferent groups of gobblers. One was four
and I'm talking about mature gobblers now, not Jake's, and the other was

(13:31):
a group of two or a pair, I guess I should say. And
I heard this from a lot offolks, and you and I had discussed
this sum but it's you know,as the season's wounded down, in Kentucky
and Indiana. Trudge's on. Areyou hearing the same thing? Yeah?

(13:54):
What has happened? The reason whythe fishing is so good and people are
in those young poets is you knowspring this come on so quick this year.
We didn't have much of a winterturkey hunting, same way had phenomenal
hunting in Indiana. Those folks arestill chasing turkeys and have several days left

(14:18):
to get that done. Kentucky's comingto a close today. The heat that
has been beneficial for the fishermen hasbeen detrimental to the turkey hunters and the
styles of turkey hunting. Whether it'speople that just typically set with decoys or
do the running gun methods. Everybodyhas been all over the place. You

(14:41):
always get different reports, but havea lot of hunters that are talking about,
you know, birds acting better thanthey've ever you know, had a
act and responding to a call.Got people talking about how birds aren't responding
to calls at all. Got folkssaying birds are running the decoys. Got
other folks saying birds are spooking tothe decoys. So it's uh, my

(15:03):
reports from other people have really beenPeople have come out looking like a hero
if they feel the tagging and thenthey've got a little bit of a of
a low lip and pelt them alittle bit if if things haven't gone their
way, I will say that allthe states that I've hunted, and I'm
not done yet, it has justbeen a smorgasboard of experiences that people have

(15:28):
had. But there's one very consistentthing, and it sounds like a broken
record, I guess week after week. But the folks that are not seeing
turkeys are seeing more predators than they'veever seen before. And the folks that
are struggling a little bit with theturkeys have seen dramatic change and habitats.

(15:52):
So there's some things that are bigtakeaways from this season. And I can
tell you personally, after hunting turkeysfor many, many years and hopefully continue
to do so, I have gotto do a better job, Jim of
getting out and hunting turkeys. ButI also have to do a lot better

(16:15):
job of getting out and hunting predators. I mean, I'm not a perfect
turkey hunter. I've got areas andways that I need to improve, but
I also have the need to pickup my barnment rifle and try to go
out and work on these coyoats andbobcats. I'd shoot them if I could,
but I can't right now because they'renot in season. But trail camera

(16:37):
activity and just being out in thefield, there is no lack of raccoons
and coats and bobcats. Well toyour point right there, I have excellent
observations. I can't call it databecause it's not hard data, but I
have excellent observations on a bunch ofproperties that I help manage where we have

(17:03):
done extensive trapping and the landowners havedone extensive trapping in the last several years,
and there's been big dramatic benefits tothe turkey populations on every one of
those properties. Some folks may saythat's anecdotal, My mind is not,

(17:26):
because when the creatures aren't crawling dayand night trying to eat the eggs,
the poults and the full grown bird, it doesn't take a rocket scient tree
to figure out there's a better survivalchance for better survival, better reproduction,
you're going to have a better flockof bird. So it's something that we

(17:47):
promote heavily on the show. It'sa necessary component of wildlife management on private
properties. In this day and age, we've got too many predators. Got
to go to break your focus.This break is presented by Massil Properties part
Realty. Paul Thomas is the brokerthere. He will be delighted to help

(18:07):
you sell your farm, your vacationhole, your wildlife management property, or
help you find on the above givehim acall check out their listings. H
A R T realpeed dot com.A continue our discussion about the foliage and
the emergence of green growth and whathave you leads us down another path,

(18:33):
and that is mowing practices right nowand moving forward. The fact that there
are birds obviously nesting fawn drop isgoing to be upon us in a wave
here next week or so. Youwant to speak to that a little bit.

(18:53):
As habitat improvement projects become more moreimportant to individuals, we need to
think about mowing practices for several differentreasons. It's just not about the deer
in the turkeys. Our rabbits willhave multiple litters. We have a lot

(19:14):
of pollinators that are still in theprocess of bouncing from plant to plant.
When we can reduce the mowing thatoccurs on property, we increase this survival
rate of young wildlife, and wepromote wildlife in so many different ways.

(19:34):
Diesel costs haven't gone down any.Fuel costs, the regular gasoline hasn't gone
down any It's a lot less workon equipment to mow once things have gone
dormant, and that will be laterin the year once the first or the
second frost occurs. Right now,natality has taken place, and natality is

(19:56):
the onset the new bursts and thewildlife population. What we don't want to
create is fatality during the time ofutility. And when you can alter your
mowing and put it off, that'sthe that's the best management practice that you
can do if you're habitat friendly andwildlife friendly. The other thing that's really

(20:21):
important about it, too, Jim, is just because you need to doesn't
have to all it all at onetime, and you can mow and stress.
That's a great practice. If youcan maybe mow around your outside edge
right now because you want it downto the pond, or you're wanting to
take it coming up here in themiddle of May, you want to do

(20:47):
some tree stand work on your property, or just wanting a walking path for
getting out and walking with your spouseor your family. Try to try to
stagger your mowing and not not doit all at one time. And that
edge, if you can strip mode, will actually create really good habitat as
well. Wildlife likes edge. Butbut wildlife is just at a very succeptible

(21:11):
part of their life when the youngis born that the mother mother will hold
very tight to her her new family, and a lot of times that leads
to not only destruction of hurky nestand the striking of a fawn. It's
it's very common for full size adultanimals not to get away in time as

(21:33):
well. It's it's not it's notas common as the young, but we
can negative impact on all ages andmultiple speechies of wildlife this time of year
because esthetically we like the way thatsomething's mold and it just does not benefit
wildlife. Yes, sir, Whilewe're on the wildlife subject again, we're

(21:56):
talking a lot about fishing here throughoutthe program. Mineral sites are extremely important
to be replenished right now. Thefawn drop escalates the nourishment needs of the
dos. And what folks need torealize is when you've got a healthy dough

(22:19):
and you'll have a healthy fetus andyou will in turn have a healthy faund,
and healthy faunds grow up to bebetter, stronger, more vigorous individuals,
which leads to down the road,bigger bucks, more fibrant dos in

(22:40):
the herd. And that's one ofthe things that's really really important. And
these mineral sites are going to gethammered, and I do mean hammered going
forward because of those nutritional needs thatthe dose will have. Yeah, they're
getting hammered right now period by whatmost people I think is the most important

(23:02):
reason they do mineral and that's theantler development of bucks. But those mineral
sites, what they do during thelactation period of that dough providing milk to
that fawn, it's taken so muchaway from her daily maintenance and her nutritional

(23:22):
her needs. And it's important priorto fawning that deer in a body condition
that they can carry on and havea pregnancy. But now that that birth
is fixing to occur, now thatthese doughs will be taken and providing that
milk and nutrition to the fawns,they're going to be basically responsible for themselves

(23:45):
and also those youngins, and thosemineral sites really allow for those secondary and
micro nutrients that a lot of usstill, no matter how much filled experience
or college degree education we have,none of us really truly know how important
mineral sites are. It's a verydebatable topic in white tail deer management.

(24:07):
But one thing about mineral sites isthey're cheap, they're easy, and we'll
give folks real quick a way tomake their own mineral jim. They can
go and buy just a regular fiftypound bag of white salt. They can
buy two bags of trace mineral salt, which will typically be the red salt
that folks know, and they canadd one fifty pound bag of Dick helsium

(24:30):
phosphate. That'll run them about seventyfive dollars. And if you add all
that up, that's two hundred poundsof mineral for seventy five bucks. I
honestly don't know, other than diskingand doing some management practices with your mowing,
I really don't know of a betterbang for your buck on the whitetail

(24:51):
deer herd than good established mineral sitesto help with that lactation in antler development.
Absolutely, and there's lots of commercialminerals obviously, and a lot of
them are good some of them notso much. Regularly, just pure salt
really doesn't accomplish what you're really wantingto do if you're serious about your management.

(25:17):
And that mix that you talked about, that dye calcium phosphate in particular,
is really really good for promoting antlergrowth. And these bucks are already
budding. You know they're on theirway. The antlers are already protruding and
will continue to do so throughout thesummer period, and this gives them a

(25:41):
tremendous boost. Repeat that recipe ifyou will, because it is an easy
one, and when it comes downto the economics, twenty pounds of that
at each site when you're creating thequantity you're talking about, goes a long
way. Yeah, what folks willwant to do. They can go to
a tractor supply real king, Theycan go to Bargetown Mills. Any place

(26:04):
that sells livestock feed and mineral willhave what you need. That's going to
be one bag of white salt bagson all these two bags of trace mineral
and one bag of dick helsium phosphate. And for the folks that are out
there that have a really simple smallconcrete mixer, in their garage or somebody

(26:30):
that you know that has one ofthese something that you would utilize around the
small home project a poor sidewalk,and honestly, Jim, they're worth the
investment to have to keep in yourshop or your garage. Just a mixture
mineral. That's been the easiest wayover the years that I found to put
all my ingredients into the mixture there. Let it agitate itself, stirn itself

(26:53):
into each other. It gets everythingdivided really well. And folks can take
a I've got one bucket and puta lid on it and stot. So
even if you do make up thattwo hundred pounds batch thinking that you're only
going to use twenty pounds a year, you've got a ten ten year supply
there on doing it. But it'sa great project to do with kids,

(27:15):
and it's a phenomenal way for youto get out there and get a lot
of return on that investment. Becauseyou're talking about the antler development with die
calcium phosphate. That calcium is abig part of milk nutrition. And anybody
that's got a background or a degreein dairy science, or anybody that understands

(27:37):
gestation and partruition with livestock, You'regoing to realize that that female is going
through a time period where her bodyis being asked to do more than just
a simple task of stand alive.That animal is supplying life to offspring.
And it's important too that folks understandand realize that these deer that we love

(28:03):
so much have got to have theupper edge and when it comes to our
tic management and our deer herd.And if you have noticed this yourself,
just by doing summer scouting or studyingyour trail camera pictures, it is amazing
how many ticks are getting in andon our deer and impacting the deer.

(28:27):
And like we talked about before theshow, all through the Northeast, we're
realizing that tics have such an impactthat it can actually kill, you know,
a calf moose. There's no doubtin my mind that the same thing's
happening with our deer herd and thestate of Kentucky and Indiana and surrounding states.
I can tell you, Jim,I don't have the magic cure to

(28:48):
get rid of ticks, but Ican tell you that a lot of deer,
for whatever reason, around the areasthat have well established mineral sites seem
to be able to fight off thetick situation a little bit better. They're
not tick free by no means,but I have noticed over the last few

(29:10):
years that these mineral sites seem tobe doing something that I can't put my
finger on yet that's helping reduce themout of ticks and tick infestation that they're
having. Okay, all right,got to go to break here. It's
presented by SMI Marine. Go seethem that take great care of all your
voting needs. And remember you neverget soaked at SMI Scott. Talking about

(29:36):
mowing practices, there's another wildlife habitat, manipulation that is on everyone's minds this
time of year in that spring foreither unwanted grasses in clover, indoor alfalfa
or the other types of summer plotsthat we plant for wildlife and the need

(30:00):
for pertalyizer lime, which probably shouldhave been done before now. But a
lot of folks are behind an eightball because if they utilize commercial facilities to
do it farm, they're inundated bythe amount of farming folks that have those
needs. You want to speak tothat a little bit. Yeah, most

(30:22):
importantly before we talk to those,it would be people's summer schedule gets busy.
I can't stress enough about how importantmowing is. If folks will take
more control of their mowing, they'llsee that they have to use less pesticides

(30:42):
and the former herbicides there and itkeeps that clover coming on. Now a
lot of folks are getting ready todeal with plots as well as far as
dove season. You know, weare in prime time, you know,
sunfowre planting window. I mean,folks just need to realize and understand that

(31:03):
you're right now. If you're inthe food plot in business there either getting
ready to mix up your first batchof selective herbicide to go over your pure
stands of clover to deal with someof that grass. If you're wanting to
figure out when to plant those sunflowerfields, you know, mix with other
things, mile old millet, whathave you. Right now, I mean,

(31:26):
it's go time. I can't expressit. It's caught up to people,
Jim that they have forgotten about theimportance of Clinton sunflower fields for great
Duff hunts because we've had a fewseasons here that things have been off a
little bit and people have not harvestedas many does. And at the other

(31:47):
part of considering food plots, thosefolks that listen and only show up to
the dove field just to shoot onopening day, please pick up the phone
and call your buddy that you hunton and ask if you can throw a
little bit his or her way forsome fertilizer or lime or a little chemical.
It is just that time of yearwhere folks that are truly engaged with

(32:13):
management practices for wildlife. They've gottheir sprayers going, fertilizer buggies or broadcasting
as fast as they can go.Moors are getting run and herbicides being sprayed,
and that all happens to the benefitof so many folks that just show
up on opening day, and forall those folks that are out there like

(32:34):
yourself and medium that are trying tomanage and keep it all straight. The
week ahead looks like it's full ofa lot of thunderstorms and clouds, and
unfortunately, not only has the windaffected fishing and getting out on the water,
the wind has had a tremendous impacton people being able to get out
and spray plots. So start payingattention to that this wind it's not going

(33:00):
away in the state of Kentucky andIndiana anytime soon. We've been dealing with
it, and it's important for folksif you're going to be spraying and doing
your plot maintenance to make sure you'renot getting any drift and you want to
have a good, good application,you may even look at changing out your
nozzles and getting a little bit higherPSI out of them to get down and

(33:24):
not deal with the little wind driftsthat we've been having because of this constant
seems like six to ten mine hourwinds that are more common now than a
calm evening, if you get whatI'm saying, Jim, Absolutely, in
the last couple of years, becauseof these winds, most of our spring
operations have been done. Is itin the morning or late in the evening.

(33:49):
It gives the chemicals time to fixon the plant, and it's just
been frustrating. As you've mentioned,I mean, we've had a lot more
windy days than not. That's avery fair assessment of the situation. And
to your point, I was lookingat the forecast going ahead and there is

(34:12):
a lot of rain this week,so folks need to pay attention to those
weather fronts and take their shot asbest they can, because things are not
what's the right word here, Patternsthat we're seeing are not as predictable or
prolonged. Maybe it's the right wordin terms of dryer weather or less when

(34:37):
than we're accustomed to seeing. AndI don't look for that to change very
much going forward. Quite frankly,you better take your shot when you can.
It's not going to and folks askme every year when should I plant
my sunflowers? Starting right now,for the next ten to fourteen days,
you're in the window, figure outwhich variety you're going to plant. Look

(34:59):
at how along that variety takes tomature and grow. If you don't know
how to do that, talk toyour extension agent or find a local salesman
that's working in your co oth oryour store, and let them tell you
what's right to buy and want toget it in the ground. Very good
advice, sir, I always telleverybody when you hear people talking about those

(35:20):
racehorses at sunflower plant time, babytime to roll. So for those of
you who are in that business,just a heads up because it's gonna be
a window of opportunity situation. Lookingat the weather going ahead, you better
get on. Well, good,all right, folks, we got to

(35:40):
go to break here. This breakis presented by Boss Heel Properties part Realty.
Check out the listings at MLP hR Trealty dot com. God,
we've been talking about weather, Ihad to teas and things that pertain to
it. We're gonna change gears hereand talk about the fishing scene. And

(36:01):
what I want to do for thefolks is we're going to talk about species
by species roundup of what we're seeing, what our network of folks have reported
to us. And I know thissounds like a mantra or like we're being

(36:22):
repetitive, but there's a lot ofreally odd things going on with fish and
spawning behaviors right now. And honoris good. Well, it is in
the regard that the fish are veryactive and they're feeding heavily, but I've

(36:44):
got some concerns about the long termeffects of it. Let me, I
guess, talk to a couple ofthings that are very glaring examples that I
would point to. I want tostart with white bass. The last two
years, I have been catching whitebass at several of the lakes Kentucky,

(37:07):
Barkley and No wind Rough other placeswhere the females are still holding eggs way
up into May and June. Andwhen I say holy eggs, I'm not
talking about you know, vestigio orsmall amounts. I'm talking about full eggsacked.

(37:28):
I just put the knife to somereally nice white bass that I caught
it No Lind this afternoon prior togoing on the air, and I mean
they were chucked full of eggs,and the eggs weren't overly bloody. And
I'm really not sure what to makeof that. And this is the second

(37:50):
year that I've seen that. Now, my good buddy Larry the lines down
to western Kentucky fished Lake Barkley yesterday. Fish the drops out in the mouth
of the bays caught and it's caughtsuccessive numbers of white bass through the week
and they're still hold nakes. Youknow, white bass normally drop their eggs,

(38:15):
as we all know, in lateMarch and early April. You know,
by mid April, that's usually done. They're leaving the rivers and areas
where they spawn and heading out tothe lake to start to feed. And
this is an extremely odd situation.I'm not on par with, or havn't

(38:37):
talked to folks at some of theother white bass haunts, but I can
tell you at some of the majorones Kentucky Lake, Barkley Lake, Noel
Lynn Rough River. This is arecurrent situation for the second year, and
I really honestly don't know what tomake of it. I have of them.

(39:00):
You know, I'm a white bassguy. I love fishing for whites.
Well, I like, I'm justa multi species guy, as you
all know. But uh, tosee this in the white bass again this
year has me really scratching my head. And there's a lot of factors we

(39:20):
could point to. Probably those temperaturesthat fluctuated. We did have some high
water, but white bass coped withthat pretty well on average year after year.
I just I'm really scratching my headabout what the white bass are doing.
Now, let me take it astep further. These fish are gained

(39:40):
up and engaging in shallow water,feeding in a way that's unusual for this
time of year. As well,they're still in the bays. I encountered
several small jumps down at no Endover this past week and it's it's uh,

(40:00):
it's so unusual. It's very veryunusual. Scott. If your buddies
the fish for whites spoken to thisor have you heard other reports around the
region. Yeah, And and myfishing's been the same way. You know,
over the past couple of years anywherefrom honestly mid March up into June,

(40:28):
been flaying fish that have had whitebass that have had eggs in them.
And in these white bass they makethese runs. Everybody has a different
experience. I know that the watertemperatures seem to be what most biologists and
fishermen go off of when things shouldhappen and when things should occur. I

(40:49):
just I think, honestly, betweenthe population of different species of fish,
so and we got so many differentwaterways and types of water that we can
fish for white bass species, whetherthat's river channels that have been dammed up,
turned into lakes, core properties,main lakes on state parks. I

(41:13):
just, honestly, I can't putmy finger on it either. As far
as what's going on. I dobelieve that there's something changing with the white
bass in general and regarding to theirrespawning season. And we off air,
we talked a lot last year.A species of fish that probably most anglers

(41:37):
don't after is white bass, andI think sometimes people confuse a lot of
the different types of fish that theyhave available to them as a resources,
as far as hybrids and different things. But seeing fishing that jumps this early
gym is it's not traditional. Youknow. I'm always thinking more like towards

(42:04):
June when that starts to happen ona consistent basis. And it's not that
it's you just locked up and gotinto one set of jumps. It's you,
it's me, and it's everybody elsethat's going are catching fish that are
just absolutely attack and fry, andthey're they're getting in the shad and when
you put a knife to them.There's a few other things you can do

(42:25):
too. You can just open upthe hatch and look down in it and
you're going to realize these fish whenyou're catching them, they're either they're full
of food or they're full of eggs. And so it's it's made for that
oddity that you were speaking of.It is made for some phenomenal fishing.
And we're reporting on this today.But Jim, you know as well as

(42:46):
I do, this has been it'stwo weeks. This is not something that
just popped up this Wednesday or Thursday. And all of a sudden we're reporting
about it. No, absolutely not. I'm always a little to at about,
you know, jumping out of thegate reporting something like that, that
said odd when I just initially seeit. But your spot on with what

(43:09):
you're saying there. It's it's beena recurrent thing over the last couple of
weeks. And I was talking toseveral other anglers at no End and you
know, guys that lived there,folks that fishing a lot, and their

(43:29):
remarks were right on spot with mine. I said, last year, did
you see jumps in late June andJuly like normal? No? Last year,
did you see jump activity and whitemass feeding at the surface and running
shed in May late April May?Yes, sir, did you notice that

(43:52):
they were carrying eggs? Yes,it's weird. I have I wish I
had an answer. You know,at times you run into things in nature
that make you really scratch your head, and by golly, there's one of
them right there. So there's someother oddities about spawning behavior we'll talk about

(44:13):
here after this break, because it'sit's been a weird year in several regards,
and we'll continue that conversation. Thebreak's presented by SMI Marine that are
located at eleven four hundred Westport Road, just north of the Snider, easy
to find. They'll take great careof all your boating needs, have all
kinds of lines of boats for sale, and remember you never get soaked at

(44:37):
SMI. All right, we're talkingabout some spawning behaviors that have been pretty
weird. I want to talk alittle bit about croppie fishing and croppie fishing
scott has been phenomenal this year.I think in most regards, folks have

(44:57):
commented about it in a very positivefashion. Two of the real bright spots
or Kentucky and Barkley Lake, theywent through a pretty tough period to it
great part, I think to theAsian cart situation down there, and I'm

(45:20):
not sure all the factors that ledto it, but I think the good
spawns that occurred in the last allthree four or five years have really caught
up because the quality of the fish, the amount of fish that rushed to
the banks here in early to lateApril were really significant. Now water wasn't

(45:47):
fluctuating as much as either, temperatureswere more on a consistent pattern. I
guess you could say because of whatwe've been talking about on this this warm
up, the use and utilization oflife scope, the ability of people starting

(46:09):
to share a little bit. AndI want to talk about that sharing for
just a second, because we weretalking about almost being a little reserved on
what we share. There's really twotypes of people who fish in the spring.
There's the people that go once everybodyelse says it's time to get out

(46:30):
there, and then there's the peoplethat go every chance they can get.
And the whole point of tonight's showand the whole point of every week's show
is we want to give people reallygood, accurate information to hunting and fishing
report and there's just things even asI've looked up to you as a mentor

(46:51):
over the years and listen to youas a young child, there's just things
that we're seeing with the fishing thisyear that I can't and my years of
fishing seeing it be this way,and the inconsistency of what fish have done
over the last couple of years havereally it's got people that are trying to

(47:13):
advocate, to inspire people to goout and fish and give them techniques to
go fish. It really has thisreserve because if you look at what traditionally
has been working and what fish shouldbe doing. If people read a book
about fishing and they listen to whatour reports would be this spring, they
would think that we wouldn't have aclue on what we were doing, and

(47:34):
that we were a little bit onthe on the excited side about a fishing.
But we're there right now, andthese crappie are in the exact same
position with the white beasts. They'redoing things that are a little bit odd,
but it's been phenomenal fishing, phenomenalfishing for cropping, and there's still
a lot of good crappy being caught. It's just for whatever reason. You've

(47:59):
got folks like me and you thatwill share information. You got oats that
they don't ship formation because they wantto keep it to themselves. But don't
don't kid yourself. You can stillget out there and catch quite a few
fish from twelve to fourteen foot ofwater, and they're still cropper to be
caught on the bank. And don'tbe surprised as well. If you're thrunt

(48:21):
in, a lot of people throwsome grubs and some crank baits. Smaller
crank baits, especially on ourkan KentuckyLake. I'll spawn activity. Don't be
surprised to pick that mom up herethere with some of the techniques too.
As they's fished it back in thetwelve to fourteen foot of water. Sixteen

(48:42):
foot probably be more consistent as therains come this week and on levels need
you to come up to the summerpool. And let's not forget about Green
River Lake Gym that it has hada phenomenal year of not this issuear,
but the last couple of years.It just seems like any time you start

(49:04):
getting around the start of the Kentuckyturkey season, there's just as many people
going over there for the turkey huntingas there is people going over there for
some of the phenomenal crappie fishing.Absolutely, Green River is holding a tremendous
population of crappie right now. Andto ring another bell white bass as well.

(49:28):
Green's really in great shape as afishery. Some of the other lakes
that they came into play, therewas really good waves of fish that came
up at several lakes. Now I'vegot one and we talked about it before,
and it's odd. There's something oddgoing on at no land with the

(49:50):
crappie. Here's what I mean bythat. And this is not you know,
just me talking. This is folksthat fish in the lake a lot
to know what they're talking out.There's nice quality to the fish, that's
number one, but there's not numbersof small fish. And I think it
points to a spawn failure in thelast year or two that's becoming evident now.

(50:20):
And again I'm not sure why.I don't know if that correlates to
what we've talked about with the whitebass and they're holding their eggs and acting
nod and don't win or what thesituation is. But it's a very evident
situation. And the numbers there arenot what we've traditionally seen, and that's

(50:42):
unusual because it's your part of thestate, Barkley and Kentucky. Man,
it's been gangbusters, barons, gangbustersthis year. That's another red hot lake
for crappie that we probably better throwin there. And the numbers that greens
are sleeper, Yes, is sucha sleeper, and it's you really need

(51:02):
to understand how to catch fish moreon a deep water pattern. But when
those fish come up and spawn,it's phenomenal and to speak to the point
of no Lin No Lin in general. And I'm not sure if this is
a good or a bad thing.Most people looking at it on the short

(51:23):
end of it would think it's agood thing. But the water quality,
when I talk about clarity over atNo Lin the last two or three years
have just been substantially better as well. No Linn is in my opinion,
it's clearing up. Have you seenthe same thing I have? The thing

(51:44):
that shocked me at no End Andthis plays into this conversation. When I
launched the boat, the water tempturewas eighty degrees. Eighty degrees the first
day of money. I'm going totell you folks on I have fish for
many, many decades, and I'ma guy that pays attention to these things.

(52:07):
I don't recall ever in my life. And I had this conversation with
Coach Redmond, who's my age,and several people in my age that have
fish these places. I've never seeneighty degree water the first of May.
That's crazy. And for it toescalate that rapidly is is well, here

(52:30):
here I go. Yet it's veryvery odd, and it's produced some odd
things that have got to scratching ourheads a lot. Eighty degree water this
early. I've got a lot ofconcerns about it. You know, how
early is the lake and the thermerclimb. How well will the fish acclibate
going forward? And it's something wewon't know until we get, you know,

(52:53):
into the throat of it as wemove into Maine June. But we're
looking at water temperatures in May thatare late June and July, and that's
weird. That's a weird scenario.Rough was seventy six reporting I've had at
Berkley and Kentucky. It's in thehigh seventies already. These are pretty unusual

(53:15):
conditions. And it rolls over intosome other stuff we're going to talk about.
I'm really yelling the basketball, etc. Coming back from breaks, so
we'll be back after break. Thisbreak is presented by Paul Thomas at Montiel
Property's Heart Realty. Check them outm p h r Trealty dot com.

(53:36):
We were talking about croppy and croppyspawn and your remarker observation about that depth
is very, very important because that'swhat I'm hearing from everybody. The real
big action now not that you can'tstill catch so shallow is in that just

(54:00):
eighteen foot level. Fifteen seems tobe the magic mark from most of the
folks I've talked to. And they'rebig gangs of croppy on brush piles now.
I mean they've definitely backed out andthey're ganged up and they're catching some
really nice fish. Yeah, northand east of Louisville. I still wouldn't

(54:22):
be surprised if people got into abig mess of crappie up on the bank.
But for the western section of KentuckyTennessee getting into southern Indiana, you
know the I mean, we hadthe glory days, I guess you could
say. But Jim, the goodthing about it moving forward is the red

(54:45):
ear and the bluegill are. Imean, they're not getting ready to step
up. They have stepped up,and that fishing has been nothing but remarkable.
We had that full moon, itoccurred back here in April. We
got their next full moon coming upMay the twenty third. And when I

(55:07):
think about pan fishing, I thinkabout frying pans as well, and it's
my absolute most favorite type of fishingthat there is to do in the state
of Kentucky and Indiana. For alot of different reasons, And the main
reason is I always find weeks uponweeks of phenomenal hours spent on the bank

(55:30):
and in the boat with older andyounger people that I love and I trust
that are basically either genetically related tome or they're related to me being you
know, just so close of friendsthat I consider them family. And we're
in that mecca right now of puttingbig bluegill and be readier to the fleay

(55:55):
knife. I don't believe much incutch and release when it comes to my
panfish species of readier and bluegill,Well, I'm right there with you all
the time. As I bring oneof them over the over the side of
the boat, I say, yeah, buddy, I'm going to release you,
all right, I'm going to releaseyou in Lake Lard l r D

(56:20):
or when we've got a You know, we've got so many fisheries, and
we've got so many different ways inwhich people fish, And I think the
reason why bluegill fishing and readier fishingis so appealing and so important to understand
how to get good at it isyou can do it sitting on the back

(56:42):
of your tailgate, pulling down tothe pond bank. You can do it
in a canoe and a kayak.You can get into some phenomenal fishing from
an aluminum or fiberglass boat. Imean, I've got a lot of my
buddies that drive seventy thousand dollars bassboats that don't they look over the left
shoulder of the right shoulder and thenspin around their whole boat to make sure
no one sees them putting down ananchor in their fancy bass fishing boat.

(57:07):
But they do it too. They'rekind of the hidden attics of bluegill fishing.
But right now, if folks arewondering when the bluegill are going to
go on bed, they're on bed. The readier kicked it off. And
if folks want to learn how tofish for bluegill and be more effective about
it, I'd be glad to bringthem some ways in which they can do

(57:30):
that. Tonight, I want youto do that first. However, I
want to talk about the importance ofmoon phases and water temperatures in regard to
those two species of fish, becauseit's so predictable on average, and you

(57:51):
mentioned a bit of it. Theycame up, they got shallow. The
red ear did indeed start to bedon this last moon. But folks,
we've got a dark moon coming thisweek, this week, the week after,
and then pointing towards Memorial Day,when the full moon comes, these

(58:12):
panfish will be on fire. They'llbe on the beds, they'll be in
the shallow water habit tasks where they'reeasy to find them, and there's no
more fun. To your point,there, it's got really for taking kids,
family members, you know, buddiesof any type out and catching a

(58:36):
lot of fish that are so goodto eat. I personally would put a
blue gill, especially a big bluedeal that can be filayed on a dinner
plate, against any fresh water fishin terms of food value. Those jokers
are really really good to eat.And to your point, it is game

(58:58):
on. It is. The textureof a blue gill fill a is just
a little bit more solid and crappy. H It's a little different than a
catfish. So, you know,folks, a lot of times, I
guess the electric pile at Knife isprobably to be responsible for murdering more blue
gill than any fisherman ever, becauseyou know, on the on the reality

(59:24):
of what has changed bluegill fishing overthe years. I remember the very first
time I got a hold of anelectric knife and it I mean, I'm
surprised blue gil didn't go on theendangered species list, but you know,
you can zip through them really fast. A lot of lakes have got cleaning
stations and and it's a great wayto learn how to flay fish, because

(59:45):
honestly, if you can play ablue gill, you can just about filay
anything. And we don't want towaste anything. But they're plentiful enough that
you can afford to teach kids andand anglers who don't know how to play
their own fish pretty easily because ofthe volume of fish that you can put
in a boat. But probably morethan anything, what bluegill and readier allow

(01:00:12):
it allows for all the debates tobe put aside on whether or not you
should use spinning equipment or if youshould use a little zip co or four
pound test or six pound tests.When the bluegill are hitting, you're going
to find that you catch a lotof different species of fish too. You'll
have the occasional catfish, and ofcourse you'll pick up a crappie here and

(01:00:34):
there. But what's the real highlightof blue gill fishing is it goes back
to what we were saying. There'sso many different places, whether it's a
farm pond or a big lake,that you can just get into a whole
mess of fish. I mean whenpeople talk about that's a mess, I
mean, that's what bluegill fishing isall about to me. And there's so

(01:00:57):
many different ways to fish for bluegillthat you can really turn it into a
sport besides just fishing. I mean, and where I'm getting at there is
you can take a popeye g youcan take a fly rod. You can
take a crawler and basically rig itwithout a bobber and drag it like a
Carolina rig. And you can fishdeeper water. You can fish shallow water,

(01:01:22):
and when the bluegill, or wherethey're at right now, they're going
to continue to give us a goodbite. It doesn't take but search in
a few areas you can not havethe first electronic in your boat. You
can fish from the bank and basicallythe blue gill will tell you where they're

(01:01:44):
at because you can pick up yourfeet and move fifty yards down the bank,
or you can move with your trollingmotor and until you get into a
big batch of them, you don'thave to anchor down on your five gallon
bucket or put your anchor out yourboat to you find them. But it
doesn't take long to find them.You can find them early in the morning

(01:02:04):
this time of year, even whenthe sun's up. You can get into
a good batch of them because thesun doesn't have as much of an impact
right now as it will as weget closer to June. That bite will
stay on most definitely the best earlyin the morning and late in the day,
but you can catch them all daylong. You can catch them at
night, and there's just so manydifferent methods and ways to the madness.

(01:02:30):
And I love it, absolutely lovemy bluegill fishing well, as you know,
I'm a fanatic about them. Youknow, years ago I caught a
huge blue yellow that really kind ofkept my career. But it hasn't dampened
my enthusiasm one bit. Fortunate enoughto catch a two pound ten outs blue

(01:02:53):
yield its yeah, well you've seenit, you know, and that's that's
that. This week if people havegot the you know, we've we talked
about watching the weather, you knowthose I mean, and it's it's pretty
common to catch some pretty good size. You know, blue gill readier especially

(01:03:15):
and you get you get ultra lightequipment involved, and I use I'm pretty
much all ultra light spinning equipment.I love being able to catch blue gill
without a bobber. That's my that'smy favorite way to fish for blue gill.
Other people like to fish with afly ride, and some people like

(01:03:36):
to fish with a jig. Ilike to take a small hook anywhere from
a four to six with some typeof barb stam like bait holder on it.
I love using that darkest part ofthe night crawler. That's my go
to bait. I can slam oncrickets, I can slam on waxworms,
but I like it when I cancatch fifteen twenty big you know what.

(01:03:59):
I all bull sized bluegill where youcan barely get your hand around them,
and you don't have to bait andrebate so much, and and you don't
go through so much of an expensecompared to waxworms. Night collars are still
something that's very easily and readily availableto find in a lot of places at
night, just going out and gettingyour own bait, and I encourage people

(01:04:21):
to do that, but man,it is I mean, it's I don't
is there any better time of theyear than when turkey season and squirrel season,
you know, early spring season andbluegill fishing are all I mean it's.
I mean, it's right there withOctober and November, you know,
and you put a blowoni and cheesesandwich in the boat and a couple of

(01:04:44):
packs of peanut butter crackers, anda man don't even have to go home
at night. I heard that.Uh. I do want to add something
to this conversation because a lot offolks are your dates that I saying something
that isn't true. But it's becausethey have not done it. If you

(01:05:04):
want to catch the giant blue hillor the giant shell crackers, it's the
females of the species. Most peopleare mesmerized by those big adult males that
come up and get on the bed. But I will tell you, folks
something, right at daylight and righttowards dark, if you will fish the

(01:05:30):
outside edges of those beds, youwon't believe the size of some of those
females you'll catch. And it's atime of day deal. You know,
it doesn't work all the time,But I will tell you if you do
that again. You know, fromoh gosh, Scott, before sun up
to true sun up, and thenagain in the evening at sunset till dark.

(01:05:55):
You won't believe the size of someof those big females you can fish
in. Those methods that you weretalking about are deadly. They're deadly.
All right, Gon go break,we'll come back from break. Hold your
thought there, Scott, if youwill, and this break is presented by
SMI Marine. Go see them andtake great care of you. Remember you

(01:06:17):
never get soaked at SMI. Scott. We were talking about fight and place
the fish for bluegil which lead toand or red ear shell crackers. I
always call them shell crackers. Beingread that what you had some other thoughts

(01:06:39):
you wanted to share there. Yeah, no doubt that transition areas are really
important for bluegill fishing. And I'msure most folks know traditional events. But
tonight's show, Jim, our mainthing is we're trying to help people put
fish either on the table or whateverit is. Live all right, Scott,

(01:07:10):
we lost you there, but hewas pulling out the fact that we're
trying to tell folks win to target, and now's the time to target blue
gill and shell pracker in a big, big way. This is honest.
I mean it's not coming, it'shonest, and it's going to stay this
way for the next several weeks goingforward. Another thing we probably need to

(01:07:36):
talk about, and if this isa bit unusual too, the catfish are
moving up. The channel cats areon the move, the blue cats are
following them up, and this isbeing driven by these unusual warm temperatures.
It's again a crazy situation. Butwhen you got upper seventy and eighty green

(01:08:00):
water temperatures in the bays and thebacks of the cols this time of year,
these fish are gonna respond and thesemoon faces some are gonna pull them
up and get them super active.So while you're fishing for blue yellow shell
cracker, my prediction is this yearyou're a lot a channel catfish that are

(01:08:21):
coming up at the same time,a much more unusual activity than you normally
see it at this time of year. And catfish again, there's a meat
fish that I really appreciate it andare definitely worth targeting, and they're coming,

(01:08:41):
they're coming fast. The bass biteis really good right now. We
haven't talked a lot about bass aswe did bass feature last week, but
I can tell you the top waterbike right now is about as good as
it gets. And it doesn't matterwhether you're talking about buzz baits, prop

(01:09:05):
baits, or splash baits. Splashbaits for me this week have been extremely
effective. What I mean by asplash bait a popper, a pop ar,
a chug bug, splash it.There's all kinds of different types of
those baits, but all three speciesof bass are hitting them right now.

(01:09:27):
It's a shallow water bite. Thetrick here is to cover a lot of
water and do a lot of parallelcasting instead of casting to the bank and
any little dark place. What Imean by that a spot where shaded or
where there's some vertical wood. Seemsto producing extremely well right now, and

(01:09:49):
that's those are always key targets.But I can tell you that bite is
on fire. The bass or invarious stages now. The small mouth is
pretty well done, they finished spawning. The spotted bass are still in the
spawn wards. Mouths are in variousdegrees of spawn and postspawn, and that's

(01:10:13):
going to be very evident over thenext week or two. But this is
why if you're like me, ifyou're a top water guy that loves to
see bass come up and hit thebait, this is the time to get
in that boat and get on thewater because it is very very very much
on final right now. So thoseare some things I wanted to mention going

(01:10:35):
forward, Remember that all these speciesof fish we mentioned tonight are going to
be readily available in shallow water environmentsright now. When fish or shallow,
it's easy to catch them. Asyou all have heard me say so many
times through the years, hey baby, it's May. If you can't catch

(01:10:58):
them in May, you probably cancatch them all right, folks, get
out there, have your fun.God bless everybody.