He wants to know if he has to have a license to sell bait fish in the state of Kentucky.

This week on Kentucky Afield, we went live on social media to answer all of your spring fishing questions, and we're bringing you those answers right now.

It's all next on Kentucky Afield.

Hello and welcome to Kentucky Afield.

I'm your host, Chad Miles.

And tonight, you have tuned in to our annual fishing question and answer show.

I have a panel of experts here to answer all of your questions as it pertains to fishing, where to fish in Kentucky, as well as our law enforcement questions on what is legal and what's not here in the state of Kentucky.

We've been running a contest and we've got four questions we're going to ask here at the beginning.

Those individuals have won a free spool of Seaguar fishing line.

So thank you for getting your questions in early.

My panel of guests.

Let's get to them.

First up, we got to my immediate left.

We have Jeff Crosby, fisheries biologist right here in this area.

Correct?

Correct.

Next up, we have Jeff Ross, who's assistant fisheries director.

Nice to have you.

Great.

And then joining us in the first time being on the show tonight, we have Sergeant Robert Owens from Floyd County, Kentucky.

How are you doing?

I'm fine, sir.

Thanks for making the trip up here to join us today.

Thanks for having me.

Question number one is from Teddy Criswell.

What is the best best month of the year for all around Good fishing.

The best month, I would probably say, is May, but April, May, June or good months.

May kind of being in the middle of that I think May's a really good time.

We see that on our Creel surveys.

That's when, you know, bass are coming off the nest bluegill or in shell crackers getting up on the nest.

You know, you've got a lot of fishing going on that time of year.

So probably may would be a really good month.

One of the better.

A question like that, they did say for all around good fishing and I'd say May is great.

It really depend on what you█re fishing for doesn█t it?

Every different species, they kind of spawn and take turns and one will go in and spawn and then the next fish come in and spawn, and then they're using some of the same habitat?

Correct.

Yes.

So it kind of changes.

So if you're bass fishing, you'll probably be little earlier.

Right.

Yes.

And if you're into crappie, crappie and bass, and if you were catfish and probably a little later.

Maybe June?

it'd be June.

So you can't go wrong really from kind of now.

I mean fishing is getting pretty good, You been out yet?

I have not been out yet, but we've been on the water working.

We've seen people out fishing.

We've been seeing people catch fish.

So yeah, yeah, I'm ready to go.

I've been out a few times.

Fishing is actually pretty good, so I can't I can't complain.

You know, you get a week in February, a week where you start getting these 60 degree temperatures, it starts happening real fast.

And you know, we're going to get some good weather this week, too, So.

Next question.

AJ Huddleston, why aren't all the lakes in Kentucky stocked with the exact same fish?

Wow.

Now, that's a heck of a question, actually.

There's probably several reasons that we don't do that.

The probably the biggest reason is different species have different habitat requirements.

So, for example, you know, bass, bluegill, crappie, warm water.

Not a problem.

We find those in majority lakes, but when you're talking walleye or muskie or small mouth, they tend, and stripers, they tend to need cooler water that's oxygenated.

And a lot of our smaller lakes and such.

You don't find that you'll find the cold water, but there's no oxygen in it during the summer, you know, down deep.

So that's a big part, the habitat.

And then we also got to factor in predation and the amount of forage.

And, you know, every lake has a carrying capacity, how much you can hold.

So we don't want to overload predators in a lake and with not enough forage or everything's going to be under undernourished, you know, thinner.

So there's kind of a biological reason.

Then more of a, you know, sociological issue for what people want to fish for.

I mean, we take lakes right now throughout the state of Kentucky, and we have some that are considered trophy panfishing lakes.

We have trophy, trophy bass, fishing lakes.

They're just not arbitrarily picked there.

They're that way because they have the perfect conditions to be trophy lakes, correct?

Yeah.

And some of them are within native habitats, you know, that they existed in.

We may have to stock them now like the Muskie, but for the most part we can, even for bass and bluegill, we can, you know Jeff on his lakes can manipulate, you know, making a dense population of bass to try to grow bigger bluegill by thinning the bluegill out through predation and growing bigger bluegill.

So there's a lot of different things we can do, but a lot of it's habitat and and the amount of predators.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right, That's good answer.

Next question we have Brent Pomeroy, wants to know if he needs an Indiana fishing license to fish the falls of the Ohio.

He does not.

The department has a reciprocal agreement with Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.

Therefore, he could have a Kentucky fishing license and fish the mainstream of Ohio either by boat or from the bank.

Okay, so you could fish, stand in Indiana and fish as long as you're fishing the mainstream?

That is correct.

We do that quite often.

But now if you go back in the creeks, you need an Indian license, right?

Correct.

All right.

There you go.

Hey, your license will even take you into Indiana as long as you're still fish in the Ohio River.

Next question from Craig Banks.

Name me five great waterbodies to kayak fish for small mouth or crappie.

Wow.

There you go.

Waterbodies.

I don't know if he wants streams as waterbodies or if he means reservoirs, but we'll see what we get here.

We've got some really good streams, opportunities.

Elkhorn Creek, of course, is a great smallmouth stream.

You've got South Fork, Kentucky, you got Eagle Creek, you've got Buckcreek now down south of us from here.

Those are some really good streams.

Upper part of Cumberland.

The Upper Cumberland is really good for smallmouth, and probably Green River is probably one of the better ones.

Yeah, the Green River proper.

You know, below the lake has some really, really good smallmouth in it.

So we've got some great opportunities for small mouth and these streams, especially if you're kayaking.

Crappie wise, you probably look in a small lake or, you know, upper portions of one of our bigger lakes where you can kind of get away from the boaters.

But, you know, upper part of Taylorsville would probably be an option for crappie, you know, some small lakes like Elmer or Beaver, you know, and I'm sure we got a lot of other little lakes around the state, not sure exactly where he's calling from or sending a text from, but those are really good opportunities for catching a few crappie this time of year, this time of year.

Anything down your way for crappie?

Where do you see people that are small body of water that they can potentially go out and catch crappie?

The north Fork at times can be good.

I typically fish that every now and then, you know, wade fish and, but Elkhorn Creek man the big one it's, it's really good water.

Yeah I know you really like to stream fish so I thought we'd get your take on that.

So we were talking earlier you, you're a small mouth fisherman and you really enjoy that type of thing.

Next question.

What is the best lake in Kentucky to hook into a muskie Green River Lake as good, of course, cave run.

You know, those are really two really good lakes that you could probably hook into a muskie.

You've got Buckhorn.

Buckhorn and Dewey's up and coming.

Yeah.

So the Dewey Lake, how long have they been in there now?

Is this about a year, seven, six or seven?

Probably right in that range.

I know they're starting to see they, they sampled for them this last year and they saw some really nice fish.

Okay.

So what is the regs on Dewey for keeping a muskie?

It█s 1, 40 inches.

Okay.

Yeah.

So I know for a while there was Muskie there, but there weren't any reaching that point, not that I'd probably keep a muskie, a predator fish like that, I'd probably release it.

But if you did want to keep one, they're probably that size now.

There are over 40 inches, right?

Yeah, I think they're right there.

Yeah, I'm sure there's some over that we haven't even seen, but they're all kind of, you know, the first the early stockings are up at that size.

I tell you what, if you ever want to make a trip down in Floyd County, Dewey Lake is a beautiful place to be isn█t it?

Yeah, that's Jenny Wiley State Park is right on that, right?

Yes, sir.

Looking for a spring getaway trip.

There you go.

Next question here is coming from a texter.

This is can you use rainbow trout as bait in the Cumberland River below Wolf Creek Dam?

This is an interesting question.

Go ahead.

You cannot.

You can't use any type of sport fish for bait while fishing in Kentucky.

And I get this question asked to me a lot of times because I do think that Tennessee has different rules and regulations that does allow that.

And there are some guide services down there, completely legal if they're in Tennessee waters, that are that are using trout, and they post these big picture they catch these fish.

So I get asked that question a lot.

But if you're a Kentucky waters, no sportfish can be used as bait.

Not a trout for sure.

Yeah.

All right.

Next question is from this from Steve.

Are the spotted bass in Lake Cumberland in decline?

Any any thoughts on Lake Cumberland Spotted bass population?

I don't think they are.

I mean, a couple of years ago, we actually saw some of the highest numbers we've seen.

So you know, they're going to vary here and there, but our data doesn't show they're in decline at all.

I think the black spotted bass made up like 51% of the black bass that was sampled in Cumberland in 2022.

I believe I was looking at it made up a pretty good portion of the.

So I think it goes back to what Jeff was saying.

51% of Lake Cumberland when you got three black bass species really prevalent there.

That's a lot.

It's a whole lot of them.

All right.

Next question is from James Meade Where is the best crappie lake close to Richmond?

I don't think Reba is a big crappie lake, and willgreen█s okay.

Yeah.

Maybe going up your way or?

Herrington, you know, we're doing we're doing some stocking in Herrington right now of black nose crappie, which we're getting some really interesting comments about these fish with racing stripes.

Yeah, but, you know, we're starting to see some of those fish that we've been stocking coming into the fishery.

So I mean, that's an option.

I think Cumberland down the road is not to bad.

Cumberland and Laurel, on the upper end of Laurel because it's the lower end is a little oligotrophic as well, but it actually changes the higher up in the lake you get.

What about Linville?

Does that have crappie in it at all?

I'd say there's crappie but it█s probably limited.

Limited crappie, okay.

I'm trying to think of something else close by.

So there you go.

So you got big waters, you█ve given big waters if you want to go to Cumberland, you're not that far away if you want smaller, smaller places.

Herrington, which is deep, but it's the smaller body of water.

And what other ones you say?

I was just like about the Cumberland.

Laurel Yeah, Cedar Creek Lake.

Yeah Cdar Creek may not be a bad option.

yeah, yeah, yeah.

I've got some big crappie at Cedar Creek Bass fishing.

They'll.

They'll sure hit a little swim bait or a crank bait there.

So you got any suggestions on that?

The ones close to me would probably be Dewey or Yatesville Lake.

Okay.

Next question█s from Berry.

What is the current situation with invasive carp throughout the state, more specifically in the Salt River and the Ohio River around the Louisville area?

So first off, what's the overall what do we found out about the carp?

They're definitely in that area.

The mouth of the salt gets a ton of them and they're all the way up, you know, several pools up as well.

So they█re there.

We█re, on the Ohio, most of our work is further up trying to slow down the progression upriver.

We do have contract fishermen out that are trying to get as many as they can and slow that down.

One of the biggest issues is, you know, the big lakes, Barkley and Kentucky and and that area as well.

But the good news is state wide, I think in 2023, they brought in close to 12.5 million pounds, the commercial fishermen.

Oh my gosh.

So, I mean, we're we're hitting them hard, are we getting any data down on the lakes where some of the programs put in place.

Obviously, this is one of the programs for taking the fish out, but the bio fence.

Are we getting any data on that because some of the guys I talked to down there say the fishing at Kentucky and Barkley Lake is on the on the increase.

Yeah I think the the bio acoustical fish fence, they call it the BAFF.

Yeah.

It's effective you know obviously it's not 100% effective but I think right now through the testing phase, it's showing that it can it can limit the amount going through into the big lakes.

So if we can limit and then increase the commercial harvest, you should be able to knock down the total numbers in the lake.

It seems like some of the most of.

The people are saying they're not seeing them quite as much jumping and fishing.

Fishing on the big lakes is actually really good.

Yeah, I've heard that the fishing is really picking up.

Yeah, Probably the best thing that happened is we're not really sure exactly what caused it is when is when they come up and they stress out and we get massive die offs.

Yeah down in the tailwaters?

Have we seen any of that?

That█s usually in the spring sometimes.

So it's probably coming in a month or two.

Yeah.

So if you're down there in that neck of the woods and you see a massive die off, that's not necessarily a bad thing, is it?

Yeah, but yeah, the invasion carp are all through the Louisville area.

Not much we can do about I don't think there is the density that's going to offset fishing or anything.

I recently was on the Ohio River.

We were doing some catfishing and the fishing was was really good.

So that opportunity down there below the falls where he's asking is a great place to go spend an afternoon or morning fishing, that's for sure.

Next, questions from Zach Smith says he's having a hard time finding ten inch crappie on Taylorsville Lake.

Could it be due to the high pressure?

Well, I think right now we we were seeing good numbers of fish in the lake and we actually are seeing the growth rates drop off a little bit because we are getting a little bit of a build up there.

But we're still seeing those big fish numbers being very stable, too.

It's just we've got a lot of a build up of the smaller fish that the growth has slowed down a little bit.

Our goal with going to that 10” was we had a lot of fish that were blowing through and getting caught before they had a chance to spawn.

So this was our chance to try to keep some in there, maybe get some better spawns.

And we have.

But again, that's led to a little bit of a build up of the smaller fish and that slowing of growth.

We'd really like to see that growth stay what it was and we'd see those fish moving into that ten inch a lot faster.

But we're not seeing that.

We're just slow a little bit, but we're still seeing good numbers of those bigger fish they're out there.

Interesting thing, and I think a lot of fish do this, but fish tend to group kind of by size, right?

So if you're in there and you're catching crappie and they're all 6 to 8 inches long.

You either have a good time and sit there and enjoy catching those or change.

You know, if you're in a creek, go to the main lake.

If you're in the main lake, maybe check a deeper, more current.

Because when you start finding bigger fish, you're probably going to find a lot bigger, a lot more bigger fish.

They're going to be not always, but they a lot of times group by size don█t they?

Yes, I always feel like at Taylorsville, you want to keep moving, but even when you're crappie fishing because you'll you know, you'll you'll be those schools with those little bit smaller ones, but you'll hit those smaller schools but bigger fish and you know, you can, you know, catch several and then you'll just have to keep moving till you find that next school.

I experienced this earlier this month.

I mean, we went up there and caught 50 or 60, but I don't know how many we had to catch to find our first keeper, but when we did find a keeper they were all in that similar class where they were bigger like ten in a row that we're keepers.

We're like, Hey, this is we finally found them.

So keep moving, keep giving it a try because they're in there.

But when you find them, you probably have found a bunch of them.

The next question is from J. Coats.

He says that he can find the FINs lake trout stocking on the website, but he was wondering if they post the catfish stocking schedule?

On the stocking schedule, what all is on there and available?

I think it gets updated on the FINs page, which is on our main fishing page.

You can go to the Fins page and it has the trout and the catfish.

I think the catfish start in March.

Okay, so we haven't seen any, but they haven't started stocking at this point.

They're still they're still stocking trout.

In fact, they'll start this month and next month.

Okay.

So if you're looking for a catfish stocking, come back here in a month or two and that.

Yeah, that'll be on.

And then they'll actually put the dates that they stocked.

They don't like announce them ahead of time.

I think they put, well no they do put them on there.

I think a little bit early of what when they plan.

But people always got to remember when you're raising and stocking fish, there can be a hiccup that will put our trucks off a day or something like that.

So we have people that, you know, get upset that the fish didn't show up that day.

And sometimes it's just something happened at the hatchery and we didn't want to kill them.

So we had to wait a day and then then bring them.

Yeah.

So keep checking because the the trout stocking is currently going on and on there and then the catfish stocking will start in March, March timeframe.

All right.

Next question from Tyler Logsdon How are the walleye doing in the Nolin and Nolin River lake?

So, I don't know if he's asking about the river or the actual lake, but what do you find in about walleye there?

You, Nolin and Green are just a mystery to us because we we stock a lot of walleye in there and that we we don't see the returns and it's something that we need to try to investigate a little bit more whether it's habitat or something.

But you know, or maybe the effort is just not really heavy on them.

But you do hear from anglers that are trying to catch them.

They just can't find them.

But we put, we stock a lot in those lakes.

They're in there and you can catch them.

But I think the densities are okay.

So if you were going to target Walleye, what month would you go and what would your approach be?

I guess, you know, you can go throughout the year, even in a middle of summer at like Cumberland, you know, we've gone and use a worm harness rig and bottom bounce.

You just got to find the temperature like right at the thermocline where there's still oxygen in and cool.

If, if they find their spot, they're all going to be like right there.

When you█ve found them you█ve found them, huh?

Yeah, but I think you can catch them definitely in the spring and other, other times of the year.

You know, they're going to make a run, you know, in the springtime, up in the river, you know, And I think that's been popular in the past in some of these lakes.

But, you know, Jeff█s right, you know, you get into June and July you can, that bottom bouncer█s fun to catch a few.

They probably concentrate and it may make it actually a little easier because it concentrates them They all want to be in a certain layer of the lake instead of spread throughout, you know, and when it's cooler water.

I tell you what, once that thermocline hits and once it's in place, knowing the depth that's in in the body of water you█re fishing may be one of the best pieces of information that you can possibly have, especially when you're targeting a fish that prefers cooler water like a walleye, because they're going to be as low as they can possibly go, the coolest water they can possibly find, but still has a sufficient amount of oxygen.

Mark my words, that's where they're going to be.

So that, knowing that thermocline and that information is pretty easily available.

So people can even, you can see it on certain electronic, you can locate it on there.

If you see a line on there, you're like, What in the world is that?

It's all it.

If at Taylorsville lake, it's 12 to 13 feet, at maximum.

Other lakes, it might be deeper than that, but that's that's probably what that is.

But you can also go and get that information through the Army Corps of Engineers on a daily basis When they update that info, check out that Thermocline because if you're fishing for Walleye at Taylorsville or excuse me, at Nolin or Green River in the summertime once thermocline hits, know where it's at and fish just a foot or so above it, right or right in that, right in that thermocline or a little above it.

That's where you're going to want to be.

I know at like Nolin they see some really big walleye way up in the in the river.

If you can get access up in there.

They see some really nice ones up there.

Okay.

I think the bigger ones are seen up upriver.

And I think that tends to happen right before the white bass run, which could be starting up pretty soon.

Could be kind of now, Right.

Like we're getting pretty close to where I'm talking about the walleye run that takes place beforehand.

It wouldn't be bad idea to start checking some of those waterways, right?

I would say yes.

Next question is from Josh, What lakes offer for good fishing in the summer with low population of recreational boaters?

Man, That's a good question.

And the first one comes to mind is one that doesn't allow a whole lot of recreational boating, right?

That's Cedar Creek.

Cedar Creek, Yes.

Give me some other other ones.

I mean a lot of the smaller Lakes, Department owned lakes, would probably be good options.

Most of those lakes you can at least idle, but you're not going to be dealing with the water ski, water skiers or jet skis.

But, you know, that would be some options.

A lot of small department of lakes, but.

You█ve got a lot of lakes that have just if you go to our guide in the boating section, it lists like what lakes are trolling motor only.

Those lakes are probably going to be nice.

I think Reba's an example that, trolling motor only, and there's a bunch of them.

Yeah.

If you're trying to get away from people blowing around the lake and whatever, that's a good choice.

And they're all listed under trolling motor only.

I tell you what, any time you get a chance to fish during the week.

I mean weekends obviously, and holiday weekends are going to have a lot more of that.

And if you can get away during the week, that's always a good option.

Any lakes that you see where it's got just less pressure than you think, man, it'd be a beautiful day to be out here fishing.

Probably Pambo Lake in Brethett County and maybe Fish Pond in Jenkins.

Okay, Next questions.

Chad Cooper, Where can someone find saugeye on Taylorsville lake during the summer months?

Oh wow, summer months, I'd still say.

You know, they really seem to like those mudflats where you would find white bass seems to be, you know, great places to target those saugeye.

So I mean that upper Lake, you know, there's a lot of those big mudflats.

Shad get out on that.

You know you've got a lot of the hybrids, the white bass and the saugeye in there also after those schools of shad.

So those are the areas I would kind of key-on.

You know, I still think there probably be some up toward the river, not quite up in the river per se, but that upper section I think is going to be a really good section to key on, in that Van Buren and Chowning Lane area, is definitely where I would stay.

And, you know, it's they've been difficult, you know, except during the spring run, and they seem to have a run which should be starting up here in about a month or so.

And they've been very, people have done a very good job catching them during that time.

But as they move back out in the lake they get a little bit tougher.

So, you know, it's interesting you say that kind of fish in areas where you would catch white bass.

It seems like when I've gone up there to target saugeye, that I've, any day I've called saugeye I've mixed them in with a mixed bag of white bass and some hybrids as well.

So it seems to be that that's kind of where they tend to be.

They're probably forging on some of the same same type of fish.

They both get the same kind of cooler oxygenated water.

It just kind of makes sense that that's why they're all there together.

But when I target one or the other, it seems like it's not like you can't just catch saugeye.

Even if the bass get a little bigger, the white bass are aggressive, they'll hit them, you know?

So it seems like that's a good tip.

Next question is coming from Charles.

What is the most reliable source to know if a stream is open to the public for wading?

Man, that's a good question.

You got any tips or trades to know if a stream is open for public wade fishing?

The department website would be probably the first place that I would check.

It█s probably a getting to know your area type of question.

Now, we do have a couple of resources.

I know that Lee McClellan is a is a writer for the Kentucky Afield Magazine that loves to stream fish.

I mean, that's kind of his passion.

He puts out blue water trails, and blue water trails talks a lot about input and take out locations and where we have agreements to fish.

So that might be a really good resource.

You mentioned the department website.

I'm pretty sure that all the blue water trails information, including maps like say, put in, take out fishing tips.

We fished a bunch of them here on Kentucky Afield.

That might be a really good plac if there's a resource available with the stream run through some property, just know if you can and can't fish it probably going to need to start knocking on some doors and asking permission in that sense?

Yes, I would just personally, I would treat it as you would hunting.

Yeah.

Knock on a door.

Just make sure.

Be on the safe side.

Yeah, yeah.

All right, that's a good tip.

Next question.

Greg, Does the Dix River and Harrington tailwaters still have a good number of trout?

We are stocking them, annually.

The problem we are seeing right now is that we're not seeing a lot of hold overs.

So it's staying pretty much, you know, stockable trout, you know, and we're just not getting that hold over.

And that's probably a function of some of the when we get some flooding, the Kentucky River will back up into there, and it causes some water quality issues and doesn't allow those fish the ability to hold over as well.

And that's what we've seen especially in the last decade.

It's been wetter and they just haven't held over very well.

But we are stocking them annually.

There should, there's trout in there, you know, because they're getting stocked every couple of months.

Okay.

So next question is from Wendell.

He wants to know if he has to have a license to sell baitfish in the state of Kentucky.

Interesting question.

Yes, you would a commercial license would be the appropriate license to have to be able to sell live bait.

You kind of need know what you're doing, even if you have a license to because transporting any type of bait can be a major, major issue.

Right, Right, right?

Correct.

Yeah.

The application for that requires you to list everything you're selling because we need to see what you're selling, make sure we're okay with it.

So all those applications, if you go to the commercial fishing link on our website, there's all the applications are right there and you can pick that one and you'll see that you got, that one in the transportation license both make you put down all the species that you're planning on selling or transporting.

And a lot of that is to make sure we don't get, you know, invasive species or non-native fish coming in that we don't want.

Yeah, I mean, we've kind of seen what the Asian carp have done and there are other, there are other invasive species out there across the country that that we don't want.

So we we've kind of got the Asian carp there here, but we want to make sure that you know, the best of intentions.

When a fish is that big, it looks pretty harmless, but it's hard to tell some of these minnow species from other game fish species.

And you don't want to get caught accidentally bringing in an invasive fish and you don't want to get caught accidentally selling a sport fish and people use it for bait.

Right.

That█s all around a bad deal, right?

So they're on the website and you go you go on there.

Commercial fishing.

If you go to the fishing page down at the bottom, there's a green box that has a bunch of links.

Look for commercial fishing.

I think it's on the right side and all the applications are there.

Well, I love seeing Bait Shops, so I hope I hope Wendell pursues that option and goes on there and does it the right way and opens him a bait shop.

That would be great.

All right.

Next question is from a texter, has the department used artificial habitat structures anywhere in Kentucky, and if so, have they proven to be effective in maintaining and increasing numbers?

This is an interesting question.

I know the answer.

Tell me a little bit about what he could be talking about when he says artificial habitat structures.

Yeah, I'm guessing that's like your shelby cubes and your moss backs, which is more of not natural materials.

So we we, we put out we do put out some,, we'll call them plastic structures, artificial structures.

When kind of mixed with a little bit of natural, you know.

Yeah, they do pretty well.

They do okay.

I mean they█ll hold some fish.

I like the natural personally better because I think they do hold fish better than the the plastics.

But people like to fish those plastics, you don't get hung up on them as much and but there's areas yes they do well in the okay in and there's others that don't do as well so, and it's like our natural too.

So the great thing about them is that they last for a long, long time.

And you can pull you can pull a hook through without being hung every single time.

The natural, like you say, is always going to be best when it comes to holding baitfish, right?

I'm guessing that when that matter, whatever it may be, cedar trees tends to be one that we use a lot or a decaying tree.

They've got bugs and things in them, and when they decay, they probably are putting oxygen and things into the water.

Or it could make who knows, there's a host of reasons that could be better, right?

Yeah, it's it just creates that cover that the fish need.

It allows the, where the natural has a better ability to a lot of that up those allergies and those insects to colonize on a little bit better, you still can do that with the plastic you know over time, the longer you're in there they colonize a little bit better.

You know, with those allergies which draw those bugs, which draw the small fish, which draw in the bigger fish.

And so, yeah, it's the habitats pretty important.

We've I think across the state, you know, there's there's a whole lot more effort being put into doing habitat work.

You know, we've, we've been able to acquire some really good equipment over the last, well say over the last decade, and which allows us to get a lot of this done.

I mean efficiently, quickly, and it's beneficial to the fish and the sportsmen.

We've got some good partners, too.

I know we've we're working with the Army Corps of Engineers in some of our lakes, and well, also to build some shoreline stabilization, which turns into fish habitat.

I know we went to Cave Run and they were putting in some big structures out there for fishing for for fishing, and to hold fish.

So they're definitely out there.

And if you want to locate those, again, go to the website or download the app, because any time we put one of those in within a week or two, they're on the website and available to go fish.

And you can get, you know, you can upload all that GPX data to your depth finder.

You know, if you can't figure it out, go to YouTube.

There's things that show you how to do it.

But the other thing is a lot most of the things are on Google Maps just to see a picture of where they're at and if that person's interested in fishing the artificial stuff, we actually have different icons based on whether it's brush or plastic or other things.

So he can, if he really wants to do go after a certain kind, you can actually find where those are out on the lake.

Oh yeah.

On the Google Maps.

Or if you're into some a pattern where they tend to be holding tight to whatever, tell me some of the icons you can see on there.

It's anything from like like a Christmas tree.

There's there's pallet structures.

We'll use pallets, you know, like a teepee form creates a really nice little crib that the fish like to use.

There may be moss specs, shelby cubes, you know, different stuff like that.

But there's a lot of icons, maybe a rock pile.

I mean, we've done that in the past, so but, you know, you can go through the app that we've been talking about, and I've done that before on my phone on the lake and pull that up and be on the lake and hey, I'm over top one.

You know, it's so it's it's really nice.

There's a lot of information, a lot of different ways to get to that information and use it as a fisherman.

You know, there's so much information on our website and it seems like that about everything you want█s probably there.

It's how to access it.

And I do think that the app does a good job of making it easier to access what information you might be looking for.

If you can't figure it out and you've tried and tried, you can call any of our district offices, call Frankfort and somebody will get you where you need to go.

Yeah, even we have at times have trouble, like, where is this at?

Yeah.

You know, on the website and on the app.

So yeah, so that's a that's a good that's a good tip.

I mean, all of our district offices are listed on the web page, if you can█t find those to get that to ask that question, then you can always call our info line.

Our info line has a has a whole host of very great information specialists that can answer all your questions about hunting and fishing.

You can always reach them at 1-800-858-1549.

So make sure you reach out to them and ask them any questions you may have.

Next question is from a texter.

What is your favorite fish to eat from Kentucky?

Wants to know from each of us your favorite fish species to eat.

Man, this is kind of a tough one because there are some that I prefer, and then there's just several that I won't turn down for any reason.

So.

All right, Jeff, what do you think?

Crappie.

Crappie?

That's a very good one to go with.

It's a pan fish.

They come in good numbers, they█re usually make a really good fillet and usually catch them in good numbers.

And they're mild.

For me, I mean, you could throw the pan fish as bluegill and shell cracker to that too, but crappie are, I think, our family's favorite.

Yeah, there you go.

That's a great choice.

I think well, walleye is really good, but of course I'm not very good at catching them.

So usually I drawback to crappie.

But walleye is also a really mild kind of a rich tasting fish.

Yeah.

Sauger and saugeye would be the same.

Okay, so that's, that's a good fish to take home if you can.

And they get really big.

So it doesn█t take a whole lot of them.

You catch a couple of you're in good shape.

Mine will probably be catfish, catfish or crappie, you know, that's probably my top two favorite.

And those are excellent choices as well.

We've got a plenty of fisheries across the state that offers access to catfish and there's a lot of resources out there on how to fillet all these species.

Or if you want to go take one of our classes, our field to Fork or hook and cook style classes.

Those are great resources to show you exactly how to go from catching a fish to making a meal out of it.

And I think for me, I mean, none of the ones you said are bad.

They're all fantastic choices.

I really think that I like one that I can grill and that takes a fish that's very firm fleshed.

For me, If you know how to how to fillet a striper or a or a hybrid and get all the red meat out of it, you just get big firm pieces of flesh.

And those are really good on the grill.

So I think that we all want something different and none of them are bad choices.

I'll take any any of them tonight for dinner, actually.

So those are great choices.

Good question.

Next question is, Samantha.

wants to ask Sergeant Owens, what is the most common fishing violation that you come across in the field?

Would probably be the license violations.

Okay.

So probably second would be size, size and krill, but most importantly, probably the license violation itself, not having one either resident or nonresident.

Okay.

The fishing license are if you had a fishing license all last year, it expires at the end of this month.

So if that's most common violation, make sure that you hop either online or go to your local retailer that may carry those licenses and pick that up.

If you do get one, either way, you can go and you can look that up.

And I know that your phone is not a printed signed copy, but there's ways you can save it on the app where you at least have that there.

But now you're at the now you got your phone and you're if it goes dead or you lose your phone or whatever, you don't have your license.

So make sure you print a copy of it off as well.

Correct.

And if you just do the electronic copy on your phone, it is also required that you have an ID.

Some type of identification.

Okay, So you need your ID, but print off a copy and now it's it's been free for several years.

Go to your go to your my profile in there and you can print off as many copies as you need.

Put one in your boat, but one in your pocket.

But it's free to do that.

Go in there and print that off.

So right now is the time.

The license expired- This year we get an extra day, right?

Yeah, it goes February the 29th because the leap year, but March one, you need your new license.

That'll be your 2024-25 license year for fishing.

So next question, how is the Kentucky River recovering since the most recent whiskey spill?

It's doing pretty well, actually.

I█ve been getting a lot of good reports from the guys that I know that fish it.

Any thing from small mouth, they have some pretty good small mouth trips.

You know, we've been stocking, you know, sauger, we stock hybrids striped bass annually.

We do a lot quite a bit of musky stocking throughout the river.

After that kill, we did some couple of years of stocking channels and blues, blue catfish back into the river.

And so actually it's it's coming coming back pretty well, you know, through natural reproduction but also a little bit of stocking along with it.

What pool was the spill in?

the spill was actually in pool 4 This last one.

Okay.

And it hit three pretty hard and a little bit of two.

Okay.

So but I got to deal with both of them and I hope I never see it again the second time.

But but, you know, it's it's recovered pretty well.

So obviously, if you're upriver from that, you're going to have very little to no evidence.

Right, correct.

You get up into pool five, six, seven and up, then.

Yeah, that that wasn't an issue for those pools.

So any, any from four down- pretty much the lower part of four and you know, three to maybe a little bit of one.

But yeah, but the stocking is going well and the the fishing is is coming back.

Yes.

All right.

We have a texting question here.

Which lakes are the best to fish and catch flathead catfish?

All right.

What do you think here?

Tips on catching flathead catfish.

It█s a unique fish, isn't it?

Yeah, I know Barren does well.

I think Nolin does pretty well.

I think Dewey.

Davis.

Yeah.

You know, those are the ones that stand out.

But a lot of the bigger reservoirs.

Yeah we█re starting to see quite a few at Taylorsville in my district and so I've caught a few myself kind of get surprised Think you get a big bass on or something it ends up being a flathead but you know, shocking and we█re seeing lots of little ones.

And so you know there's there's a few in Taylorsville these days that you can catch.

More of a live bait type catfish versus channels or something.

Yeah you would think that a flathead would be one of those fish are kind of set on the bottom that would be just be waiting for something to come by.

But when I have accidentally caught flatheads, its been on a moving bait and so they they will apparently chase a bait down and take it off.

But they like the live bait is what I've what I've heard from people who catch them quite a bit that they tend to use a live stuff.

Not cut bait, actual bait that's- Bluegill or whatever.

Yeah.

So that that's an interesting thing.

And I know that people do a lot of rock fishing, noodle fishing.

Nolin, you guys talked about Barren but Kentucky Lake and has quite a few of those as well.

So I know when we were down there hand grabbing fish that█s where we were at, we saw quite few, quite a few flathead.

I think cave runs got them too at least I know there's hand grabbing that goes on there.

Okay.

So the next question is from Sophie from Fleming County wants to know where the best streams and creeks for trout fishing.

This is an interesting question.

Yeah.

So a lot of it.

I mean, we can put trout in almost any stream when it's cold, when it gets over 70 degrees, they█re not going to make it.

So a lot of our streams are put what we call put and take.

We'll put them in and you go catch them because by June or you know, later in June, they're probably going to not be there anymore because it's too warm.

The Cumberland Tail water is a big one.

It struggled recently.

I think a lot of the changes in flow in it have caused some issues.

But, you know, Trammel is good, Jennings Creek's good.

You've got Gunpowder maybe.

Yeah, we've got Big Bone, Floyd█s Fork, gunpowder or, you know, to name a few, but you know, like they got the Dix tailwater, you know, those are some areas that trout go into and you have an opportunity to catch a few.

Yeah.

So obviously below the, below the big dams and the tail waters.

You've got opportunities because they're pulling that water from deep enough that it's cool enough to support them even in the summertime.

Any other streams that we had that are big enough that come up out of the ground where the water is still pretty cool for the first few miles for trout year round?

Yeah.

Trammel and Jennings definitely those are down southwest and that cave like area what other ones we have I'm trying to think if there's there are some different ones we're going to start stocking Blacklick Creek in Auburn, Kentucky, which is like right in the park.

But I think there's a spring that starts right above it.

So that's another example.

You know, we'll we'll find these places and you know, if we've got enough trout through production, we'll stock them.

But the tail waters that are good, I mean out east we got Paintsville for sure.

Yeah.

Tail waters and Lake.

Yeah.

Paintsville.

I tell you what, cool water trout fishing is is great because they they're pretty readily accessible, but they want to eat and they, they bite pretty well, don't they?

Southeast Looney Creek█s another one, that comes out of like a mine or something so it's keeping it cool as it travels through there I guess.

But it's got good trout fishing in it too.

So typically you're trout fishing in the streams and you wanting to target trout specifically.

If it's comfortable for you to be standing in that water, it's probably it's probably, you know, without waders on bare feet or shoes on and you're getting wet and that water is touching your skin.

If that's comfortable to you, it's probably too warm for trout, right?

Yeah, it's 60 degrees, 70 degrees, 70.

They start dying off.

Yeah and their stressing even before you get to that a little bit.

But so if it if that water temperature is up over 70, then it's probably a put and take resource.

Even if we highlight it as a trout fishery, if it's below that temperature, it's probably time to fish for a different species Right?

Next question here is from a texter on our text line wanting to know if there are any studies on cormorant effects on fish populations in Kentucky.

If you don't know what a cormorant is, explain to me what a cormorant is.

And we I see them throughout the state and places.

Yeah, out west they deal with them a lot.

And there was a study out there where they looked into what they're eating because there was a lot of thought that they were eating all the crappie and and such.

But really the percentage of crappie and sport fish in their stomachs was not that high.

There was a lot of shad and actually at one point they were getting the- one year that we had a natural spawn of invasive carp in those lakes.

I think they found that they're feeding on those as well.

Okay.

But they're I don't know how to explain them.

They're fish eaters.

They tend to, you know, dive down into the water.

You'll see, you know, around.

But it seems like out west we've had the biggest issues with them.

It's, you know, it's a bird that can dive and describe what a cormorant looks like for someone who sees them.

it's kind of a black bird, kind of a long neck.

I mean, pretty ugly.

But coming from a fishery biologist, you█re like “they█re eating fish!” So you're saying that typically all the studies have shown that they're not necessarily targeting specific species?

Well, at least out West, I mean, there's been a lot of studies up in Minnesota and in the northern states.

And I you know, I can't speak to those.

But, yeah, I think, you know, there is some preying on sport fish.

I know that up there.

A lot of times I've seen pictures when that when cormorants come in there, sometimes it's big, big, big numbers.

Yeah.

Do we see that in Kentucky where all of a sudden it's two, three, 500 birds or is it usually 20 or 30 birds?

Well, in our area we'll see 20 or 30 birds.

Yeah.

We haven't seen big ones.

Probably higher density out west.

I think maybe a little bit different.

But we don█t have a wildlife person on this show.

Yeah, Yeah, of course.

Fish guys, we have no idea.

If it flies It's not necessarily your cup of tea, but.

All right, But you know, there are definitely fish eating birds.

I mean, it's a species of bird.

And they they're going to go where fish is readily available and they're going to probably eat what they can get, get their hands on.

But if when the shad spawn takes place, then that's about the sized fish nice and easy for them I guessing that's what they're going to take.

Yeah, we do have to deal with them a little bit.

Our hatcheries too I think.

They're going after what's most abundant and that's that's shad.

Next question is a text question.

Any tips on his son Jack Guffey, who likes to fish Lake Cumberland for stripers So might want to tell him about the night bite.

Hey, that's a secret along fishing circles they don't like talking about the Cumberland night bite the the Cumberland night bite is typically in May right?

Yeah I think it runs you know until it starts getting around 70 or so and then it starts dying down a little bit.

It can be April, May and June early June.

The ale wives are up spawning against the bank.

No stripers have figured that out and they're easy prey right there so the stripers will be hanging below them and you'll if you're sitting out there at night, you can hear it.

It's like somebody hitting a two by four on the water, slapping it, and you throw, you know, Redfin, their jointed thunder sticks and those type things or slivers just under the surface and having those things blow up, you know, ten, 15 pound striper blowing up in the dark on your top water, It's kind of Crazy.

The darker the better.

Yeah.

You don't want to have lights on.

If there's a moon out, then fish in the shadows of the moon.

It's dark, dark, dark, close to the bank.

A lot of times on the surface or barely subsurface and hold on, right?

That's another that's another surprising way that you can catch walleye at Lake Cumberland.

Yeah.

I don't know how many walleye I caught fishing for stripers that way.

But if you're an adrenaline junkie, it's is when you when you have one blow up in the dark and then take off, it's it's fun.

yeah.

All right.

Next question here is from Brian Livers: is a permit required to place fish habitat on the banks of rough river lake during the drawdown?

Good question.

Do you need a permit to do that?

I've never had that question.

Yeah, you probably need to speak with the Corps of Engineers and see how they go about handling being able to place stuff out, you know, just without speaking with them.

I would, I would consider that as littering.

Yeah.

Without having their permission to do so then.

Yeah, it's their body of water.

So putting out habitat, you might want to talk to the Corps of Engineers.

I will tell you this.

If you're a person who likes to fish in the summer months or throughout the year, I had a buddy call me up, said he went down to Nolin and unfortunately he didn't have a really good fishing day.

But he told me, You won't believe all the spots I'm marked going out on these reservoirs before the water comes out.

It's absolutely perfect to mark good later on in the year fishing spots because a lot of times if you'll take your boat and you'll get right up on the edge of the water, in shallow water, and you see a fishing structure that might be two feet out of the water where you mark that right there is where you want to park your boat fish that.

Yeah.

So a lot of times I'll go on to these reservoirs.

I may spend half of the day in the middle of the day with the fishing lull kind of hits marking spots that I want to come back and hit later on in the year.

Great time to get out on a 60 degree day.

If the fishing's not great, make your fishing trips later in the year better by marking all those structures.

Some of them are natural, some of them are on our website.

You can go on there and pick them up off the app.

Some of these are natural structures that it's just good to know where they're at.

Was that about rough or is that what they were asking about, they were asking about Rough River lake.

So Roughs going to be down five feet probably for the next eight years.

So we'll be doing some work for sure.

You'll get a lot of natural stuff starting to grow like it did at Cumberland too, So they may not necessarily have to put out a whole lot.

You know, I wouldn't work real hard on Rough River because it's not going to be efficient for several years right?

And then a lot of the new stuff is going to come up on its own.

So Rough River Lake is going to have tons of habitat.

We have another question here from a texter.

What kind of fish are each of you most looking forward to fish for in the coming months?

man.

All of them.

Yeah.

You ask a bunch of fish junkies what they're looking forward to catching is like, man.

I mean, I mean, I enjoy the crappie in the spring.

Also enjoy the bass fishing, getting into some bluegill fishing, but the one I probably enjoy the most would probably be bass fishing.

Yeah, yeah, probably a bass for sure.

And then sunfish.

Bluegill.

Red ear.

Okay.

What are you looking forward to?

I'm a small mouth guy.

Creek fishing.

But any more, I've got to where I just I let my kids fish, so whatever they want to catch, I'm happy.

Hey, that's a good point.

You know, I tell you what, take a kid fishing or to introduce someone that's new to fishing.

Take them out this year and get them out on the waters.

If you know somebody that might be struggling in life and have something going on that needs a little time out, introduce someone to fishing.

It's a great way to give them a natural release to be able to get out and enjoy everything we have here to offer in the state of Kentucky.

So please consider doing that.

I know I've got two kids that both enjoy fishing and I love to be able to get them out on the water and and let them fish.

What kind of fishing am I looking forward to?

Well, I like them all as well.

But to me, that white bass run is something that I'll always look forward to because it kind of kicks off the year for fishing.

But I'm one of those weird guys that fish all year round.

I like the winter months.

Right now.

February and March is great for me.

I like to get out and chase these walleye, I like to get out and small mouth fish.

And for me that's some my favorite fishing.

I'm one of those guys that don't like that July and August when you can't beat the heat without getting in the water.

My fishing tends to slow down.

So right now is a great time to be getting out and doing some fishing.

If you want to catch crappie, you want to catch small mouth, you want to catch walleye?

Right now.

February, March for me is some of my favorite time to go fishing.

And then when that white bass run hits, it doesn't get any better than that.

And some of the biggest fish that are caught during the year, are caught during this time.

yeah, that's true.

February, March.

February, March is sometimes some of the biggest fish that are caught.

Hey, a couple other things to consider doing over the next few months.

Camp registration is now open.

If you have a kid that you want to introduce them to the outdoors, go online, sign them up for camp.

Camp registration is now open.

We've got three camps across the state of Kentucky.

We got one in Grayson Lake, Camp Webb, We got one Camp Wallace located on Lake Cumberland, and then out west we have Camp Curry, which is located on Kentucky Lake.

So if you got a fourth, fifth or sixth grader, want to get them involved in the outdoors?

Camp Curry, Camp Webb, Camp Wallace are great locations for that.

Hopefully you learned something tonight on our fishing question and answer show.

But if we didn't get to your question or if you have a question in the future, our info lines are always open Monday through Friday.

You can reach them at 1-800-858-1549.

And remember hunting a fishing on private property is a privilege.

Always ask permission and thank the landowner.

Until next time, I'm your host, Chad Miles, and I hope to see you in the woods or on the water.