JOHNSON CREEL
We took our vacation time to see some family, and I had a very good time visiting and seeing some new country. One day I got a chance to fish Kentucky Lake and as I headed to the lake I crossed the bridge on Johnson Creek.
This area looked as good as any to me. I was looking at more water than I see in a whole fishing season. I did not want to rent a boat as I would spend too much time running from spot to spot because it looked better than concentrating on the place where I was already.
There was a boat launch on the east side of the road, so I went down there and fished that area. Fishing down toward the shoreline I found a spot where I picked up a few nice gills. When I could get the fly near the shadow of the trees and let it drop a fish would take it.
There was not a lot of room for the back cast and about 18 inches to drop the fly into the shadow. If I cast too far either way and I had a big one, a tree that is. I kept on casting to this place, even though I lost some flies to the trees. More flies in the trees in front of me than those behind. But I save so much money tying flies that it is affordable to do this.
The wind came up a little more and I had to move. I decided to head down to the bridge and fish the pilings. This area is a narrows, and it was my hope that some fish might be moving through this area. I changed flies to fish this area. I tied on a black fur tailed leech tied with a tungsten bead head, and I had a popper on the other rod.
I cast the leech out past the piling and let it drop since I hoped to find fish near the pilings. It took a few tries and then found the piling where the fish were, and I got some nice gills in this area.
Decided to cast the popper out and see what might happen. The fly had just hit the water and a fish took it. I did not know that flying fish were in this lake. The fish was always out of the water. Got it in and had a small Kentucky bass. It was about a foot long. Another fisherman identified it for me.
I made a few more casts and had another fish take the popper. This fish stayed down. It took a while to get this fish in. This was another Kentucky bass that weighed about three pounds. It sure was fun to have it on the line. I picked up another small bass on the popper. Then the fishing slowed down.
A few other folks came down to the area and started fishing. I had to watch where I cast so no one would get hooked on the back cast.
It had been getting cloudier as the day went on. As I was making a cast a tree hit by lightning about half a mile away. That was WAY to close to where I was, so I reeled the line in and gather my stuff up.
I was headed back across the bride when the downpour started. A few minutes later the sound of thunder was present all the time. I was sure glad I was not around the water then.
I fished for just less than three hours, and I had a ball. The part of the lake that I saw was beautiful.
Hope you can get out on the water.
Rick