Memorial Day is a week out and Kentucky Lake guide Brandon Hunter says the bass are coming, they just haven't done what they usually do yet. In his May 15 video update from the lake, Hunter painted a picture of a fishery sitting on the cusp of its big offshore push but stuck waiting on water.
"The wind has blown its butt off this spring," Hunter said. "Every single day it is blown like 20 to 25 out of the north or south, one of the two, which the way this lake runs, it just blows right up the middle of it. And it's kind of made it for an interesting spring."
The bigger story is drought. Tennessee Valley Authority has been "slow to bring it up this year," Hunter said, with rain mostly missing the watershed until last week's bump that finally pushed the level near 360, just above the 359 summer pool. "Water did finally shoot up," he said, "but it wasn't enough to mount anything." Without flow, the offshore bait and bass that ordinarily stack on ledges by mid-May haven't grouped up the way they should.
That has not stopped the lake from holding fish. "The lake is slap full of fish," Hunter said, citing a string of good spawns over the past few seasons that have rebuilt the system after some lean years. He believes 2026 has produced another strong spawn, helped by the gradual rather than flood-pulse rise this spring. Smallmouth bags at recent tournaments have been "really good," he said, and largemouth fry are visible in the willow- and cypress-lined shallows that the higher water has flooded.
Shallow patterns are still producing fish, just not many giants. Hunter is flipping a new 6th Sense Bodega Craw on a 5/16-ounce head into bushes and reeling a 3.2-inch Divine swimbait on a 5/16 head across shallow bars for smallmouth. "Some of the most fun a guy can have is flipping bushes on Kentucky Lake," he said, while warning that the average length-class has been around 13 to 14 inches. Topwater frogs around willows and cypress trees are picking off fry-guarders too, with the Vega Frog his pick.
For finesse fishermen and live-scope users targeting the few schools that have moved out, Hunter is leaning hard on a drop-shot. "If you've watched any of my stuff, that I'm telling you, that is the only bait you need on a drop shot out here," he said of the Glitch in morning dawn on a 1/4-ounce weight. He pairs it with a 3.8-inch Bounce Worm on a 1/8- or 3/16-ounce shaky head for lead-in banks with gravel and a Neko-rigged Bamboos for those same little pockets.
The classic Kentucky Lake offshore baits, the Crush 300 in chartreuse-blue and the 3/4-ounce Ignite or 6-inch Whale swimbait, are still going in the boat, but Hunter said the fish he has found offshore have been small, scattered and unaggressive. "When you do idle over them with that lack of current, these fish will kind of scatter out," he said. He expects warmer nights and any rain that gets the TVA pulling water again to flip a switch by Memorial Day. "It's coming. It's going to happen. Fish are going to get out there schooled up."
For anglers planning to spend Memorial Day weekend on the lake, Hunter's read is simple: bring shallow flipping gear for the willows and cypresses, keep a drop-shot and Neko set-up tied on for the inside lead-in banks with gravel, and watch for a current pulse that may finally make the offshore schools fishable. "It's early," he said. "We're still a week away from Memorial Day, so it's coming."