It's early summer on Kentucky Lake, the absolute textbook situation for going offshore and wielding a big crankbait, swimbait or 10-inch worm, and Chad Morgenthaler has his back to them all. He’s tight to the bank, flipping a jig to shoreline cover.
“Those lakes famous for ledge fishing have a supernatural control over fishermen,” he said. “From the first time an angler catches a fish in more than 10 feet of water and more than 20 feet away from the bank, no one fishes the bank. Of course there are some fantastic stringers caught out there, but it absolutely alleviates the pressure on those shallow fish.”
The phenomenon has become more pronounced in recent years.
A generation ago, there was a sizeable number of anglers who stayed shallow year-round, but with the substantial improvements in electronics and mapping technology, the offshore learning curve has been accelerated. Anyone with an inclination to learn and the proper tools can go to a new lake and find the “juice” in a hurry.
That’s left a substantial number of shallow fish comparatively untouched when conventional wisdom says they’re all offshore. “Despite that popular opinion, there are a number of fish that never go deep on every system,” Morgenthaler added. “That’s what they’re born and bred to do.”
