Western Kentucky Fly Fishing — Farm Ponds and Strip Pits

I went back home to Western Kentucky over Memorial Day weekend.  I had a great visit with my family and a great fishing trip to boot!  Armed with my 5 wt. TFO Fly rod and a decent choice of bassin’ flies, I may not have caught any trophies but I made up for that with the number of fish I caught.

I used a brown muddler minnow with a red tail, a chartreuse muddler, a couple of different top water poppers, and a couple of streamers.  The muddlers (both colors) were definitely the productive flies of the weekend.

I promise the fish pictured here are NOT the same fish multiple times, every one pictured is different. There were some I didn’t photograph at all and several I didn’t even boat.  On Saturday I could have probably caught another twenty plus, but my family was having a cookout that evening.  I had to literally make myself quit fishing and even though I missed opportunities I wouldn’t trade them for the time spent with my family.  Chances for us to get together don’t happen often enough these days.

It had been about fifteen years since the last time I broke loose to go to Peabody Wildlife Management Area for some fishing.  I had forgotten what a true angler’s paradise that place is!  With almost 500 lakes and 60,000 acres , the place makes me giddy like a kid at Christmas as I drive through, surveying all the fishing spots and trying to make up my mind where to start.  It’s a perfect place for kayak fishing too. Many of the lakes are in groups that are somewhat close making it fairly easy to take your yak out and drop it in the next hole.

Now that I’ve been there and have been reminded of how much I love it, I plan on taking much more time to fish the area.  It’s a good opportunity to visit my folks plus take a fishing trip while doing so.