Elmer Davis Lake, Owen County, KY

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Elmer Davis Lake, Owen County KY

by John Kirkland

I’ve been looking at this lake for a long time—I’m always looking  for small, easily accessible lakes that are within an hour or so from my  house.  It was a mostly sunny Sunday afternoon, mid-80s, light breeze.   A nice day for fishing. The night before, a pretty good storm had  passed through the area, quashing plans to wade the Elkhorn.  I packed  the kayak and headed up the road to check out this little lake.

In my research, I noted two public put-ins for the lake.  A small  dock with a pay ramp ($4 in 2009) is located on the north side of the  lake, at the end of highway 1670, which runs south from Owenton.  I  chose to launch from the dam, which has a small, free ramp and courtesy  dock.  There is adjacent parking for about 5-7 trucks with boat  trailers.  Other vehicles were parked along the road running across the  earthen dam. Elmer Davis Dam Road is a one-lane paved road that connects  to US 127, 21 miles north of Frankfort.

The lake is known for quality panfish and decent channel cats.  It  is currently undergoing bass restoration, with a 12-15 inch slot for  bass in place (all bass between 12 and 15 inches must be thrown back,  the rest may be kept).  There is also a 12 inch minimum on channel  catfish.  Boat speed is limited to slow, and idle only when passing  anyone fishing. 

I could see a few other small boats, and a couple of pontoons.  It  was very quiet, overall.  I started out throwing a small creek minnow  colored like a sunfish.  With a few casts, I hooked a decent  shellcracker, about 7-8 inches.  After that, the day was more of a boat  ride.  I changed to a shallow fry crank bait, no dice.  Thirty minutes  later, a black and chartreuse rooster tail-nothing.  After a couple of  hours of casting around the lake, fighting with a couple of tree  branches, and observing a dozen or so box turtles (lots of those in the  lake), I decided to give up and tie on a hook, bobber, and garden worm.   I tossed it under an overhanging branch, and quickly became distracted  by something else.  Then my line went taught-I figured that I was hung  up. I reeled once, and the line started to dance.  After a pretty good  fight on my ultra light, a 14 inch cat was in the boat, grunting away.  A  keeper—and he bent the hook (I’ve never actually seen that happen  before.)

Over the next hour, I hooked a number of small bluegill using the  worm and bobber rig.   At 8 PM it was time to go.  I was trying to hook  one more cat to make a “mess”.  It didn’t happen, so I let the one on  the stringer go.  Other fishermen reported similar catches—a slow day in  general.  One fellow told me he had caught seven cats, all in the weeds  on the shoreline, using chicken livers.  No reports of bass. 

 Elmer Davis is a pretty lake—quiet, with decent access, and low  traffic.  There is bank access and parking at the dam, and several  people were hunkered down with catfish rigs along the dam and adjacent  shore.  The KDFWR site has maps and more information available.