The beauty of May fishing on Barkley is that the bass tend to be in all the places that look like they should hold fish. An angler doesn't need a lot of special knowledge. He simply needs to work from bay to bay, moving along the banks and casting at everything that looks "bassy."

Keep several rods handy and switch often, paying close attention to where the hits come from and what kinds of baits and presentations attract the most strikes. By day's end, veteran anglers are zipping past a lot of good-looking stuff to key on certain types of cover that produce the bulk of the bites.

FOLLOW THE FOOD
Part of what makes Kentucky and Barkley outstanding lakes for bass year after year is a super-abundance of shad. No matter which lake you're fishing, which species you're targeting and whether you're fishing shallow, deep or in between, locating concentrations of shad is always a good move.

Shad locations actually tell anglers a couple of things. Most obviously, they reveal potentially productive areas. If a hump has shad all over it, bass are almost certainly nearby. If a creek is loaded with baitfish, the bass are probably holding around nearby cover.

Along with specific spots, baitfish reveal information about depths. Any time a baitfish school shows up on the graph 8 to 10 feet beneath the surface, an angler can count on there being plenty of bass in the same depth range. When that occurs, your next step is to search for points, humps and other structure that offer good bass habitat in those depth ranges. Likewise, if baitfish are flipping on the surface of a creek and are visible to fishermen, there's no reason to fish more than a few feet deep.

THE NIGHT BITE
Many anglers on Kentucky and Barkley lakes begin abandoning daytime fishing and looking for the night bite beginning some time in May each year. The biggest surge of night-fishermen begin showing up on Memorial Day weekend, when crowds of pleasure boaters begin increasing for the summer. However, night bass fishing heats up before then and can be very good for the few anglers who opt to go out at night during early May.

Smallmouth specialists are especially fond of the after-hours approach. But fishing under the stars can produce very good action for both major species. The upper ends of major points, the tops of humps that rise fairly close to the surface, and ditches close to main channel breaks offer good nighttime prospects. Most night-fishermen concentrate on the Tennessee and Cumberland River channels, but structural features that front channels of significant creeks also can be very productive.

Probably the most popular -- and arguably the most effective -- style of bait for night-fishing on Kentucky Lake is a big, dark-colored "thumper" spinnerbait with a single, oversized Colorado blade. Anglers will slow-roll big blades over structural features and hold on tight.