Fishing Report For Nolin River Lake, KY

By Rick Seaman

April 16, 2025

Popular Fish Species Reports
Nolin River Lake Fishing Video
Available Fish Species
Today's Weather & Forecast
Fishing Boat Rentals
Boat Launch Ramps
Marinas
Fishing License
Map
Contact Info

Fishing Report Nolin River Lake, KY

Fishing Reports

Popular Fish Species Nolin River Lake, KY

Black Crappie - White Crappie

Uncle Buck's Panfish Creatures Curly Tail Minnow Rigged

Current Report: Good To Very Good
Outlook: Very Good To Excellent

Reported to be one of the top crappie lakes in the state by the Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources, Nolin River Lake is living up to its reputation and delivering some nice, fat slabs. All indications are for excellent crappie fishing this year. Spring is the premiere time to be on the water as crappie move into shallow coves to spawn. Bridge pilings, docks, boat houses, brush, wood and deep vegetation are all good places to cast small crappie jigs or live minnows. Long, light-action rods with 4 lb to 8 lb line is ideal. Anglers are reporting good success using fish finders and forward facing sonar to locate schools of crappie, which tend to stack vertically around cover.

White Bass

Current Report: Good
Outlook: Good To Very Good

Now is the time to be on the water chasing the white bass spawning run up river into the Nolin and Green Rivers, plus other tributaries. White bass tend to start their spawn run once the water temperature gets into the mid 50's by moving upstream into the river areas, where they congregate for several weeks. This is a prime time to fill the livewells with some fat white bass. Swimbaits, curly-tail jigs, underspins, small crankbaits, small jerkbaits, and most any lure that looks like baitfish are catching plenty of fish. You can use live bait, only if it is caught in Nolin River Lake proper. During Summer, Fall and Winter these white bass migrate back to the main lake areas, following schools of blueback herring, and gizzard shad.

Largemouth Bass

Current Report: Good
Outlook: Good To Very Good

Nolin River Lake is not considered to be a trophy bass lake, and the general fish run a few ounces lighter than the top bass lakes in the state. Anglers are however reporting decent catches, in fairly good numbers. And, it still takes over a 3-pound average to win most bass tournaments here. An array of lures are all catching largemouth bass here, but many tournament anglers are throwing jigs and vibrating jigs as primary baits. Jerkbaits, crankbaits and spinnerbaits are also catching fish, especially on windy days. During slow times, when the bass are finicky, a stick worm, rigged wacky style, has been a good choice.

Fishing Video

Fish species to fish for...

Guide to fishing for largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, black crappie, white crappie, walleye, bluegill and white bass at Nolin River Lake in Kentucky.

Nolin River Lake is a 5,800-acre lake with over 170 miles of shoreline. The lake is well known for its populations of largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, white bass, crappie, walleye, and bluegill. There are plenty of areas around the lake for bank fishing

Primary fish species to catch

Click images for fishing tips and details about each species.

Today's Weather & Forecast

Fishing Boat Rentals

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Public Boat Launch Ramps & Landings

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Marinas

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Fishing License

Click here for a Kentucky Fishing License.

Map - Fishing & Access

Rick Seaman is a fishing enthusiast with over five decades of fishing experience, a retired tournament fisherman, author of numerous published articles on fishing, and co-author of the book "Bass Fishing - It's not WHAT you throw, It's WHERE you throw it".