Owsley Fork Lake

by John Abrams

Owsley Fork lake is a small 151 acre lake located in Berea, KY.   There is access to a gravel boat ramp and plenty of bank fishing areas.  When the water is low you can walk most of the way around the lake.  If  the water is high you can walk along trails through the woods to access  different areas of the lake.  Mid summer the lake gets fairly weedy  around the banks and your best bet is to fish from the dam or by  watercraft of some sort. On one side of the lake is a nice park area  that you can fish and launch canoes and kayaks from however this area is  shallow and quickly weeds over in the summer.  The lake itself is  trolling motor only and I have never seen more than three or four boats  on the lake at any given time.  This lake is perfect for kayaking and  canoeing.

I have caught plenty of largemouth bass here mostly under keeper size  but I have caught a few over 2 lbs.  The lake is full of bluegill, red  ear, and green sunfish. There is a fairly good population of crappie as  well most are smaller but good eating size.  There are also smallmouth  in the lake but the only place I have ever caught them was by the dam.    Channel catfish are in the lake, as well as tons of bullheads.   Catfishing is good if you use something the bullhead won’t eat.  I  personally like to catch a few smaller bullhead and use those for bait.

Most of my trips consist of bank fishing from the dam.  when you turn  onto the road to the boat ramp keep an eye on the right side of the  road.  you will notice a pull off that goes straight up a hill and  another small pull off on the left side of the road.  I pull off to the  left most of the time but the right side gets you farther off the road.   From the left side of the road you will notice a trail going through  the woods.  A short walk down the trail and you will come out of the  woods just behind the dam.  Walk towards the lake and you’re there.  The  entire walk from the car to the lake might take 3 or 4 minutes–it’s not  far.  I wouldn’t recommend this spot to anyone that is afraid of snakes  because the rocks are full of them during the spring and summer. The  rocks aren’t the most stable place to fish from either.  I mostly use 4  inch senkos in a natural color or small 1/8th or smaller maribou jigs.  You will get hung up in the rocks quite a bit, but you can catch  crappie, smallmouth, spotted and largemouth bass about every cast.  Like  I said earlier most are under keeper size, but you catch a good size  one here and there.

Directions From Richmond, KY:
Take US25 south towards Berea,  Turn right onto US 421( Battlefield  Memorial Highway).  You will come to a split in the road where you can  continue straight and go towards Berea, or veer to the left and continue  on 421.  Continue on 421 (the road gets pretty curvy at this point, so  be careful.)  Follow this road until you see a small gas station on your  right.  Just past the gas station take the next road on your left.   Follow that road out and you will see where you can turn right to get to  the boat ramp or continue going straight to get to the park area.

John Abrams lives in Berea and fishes the waters of South Central Kentucky throughout the year.