March is the Month for Big Bass
March 18, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
Frankfort, Ky. – Several decades ago, March brought out crusty, tough men who impaled several night crawlers on a large hook and dropped the bait around any stump, tree top, log or surface debris along the shoreline of a lake or pond for big bass. These anglers used a scull paddle to move their wooden boats quietly around the water, and fished stout cane poles with heavy black nylon line to haul their catch away from the cover. This fishing technique became known as jigging.
Although Herrington Lake receives credit as the birthplace of jigging, anglers discovered the same technique also worked well in other lakes for enormous female largemouth bass.
“They would drop the night crawlers right in front of the bass and haul them out of that cover,” said “Kentucky Afield” television Host Tim Farmer. “I was once a creel clerk on Elmer Davis Lake in Owen County and I would see some really big bass come from there at this time of year by jigging.”
While most anglers nowadays have switched to artificial lures and modern baitcasting rods, the basic technique still works at this time of year because the big female largemouth bass need to eat.
“They are spawning next month and feeding up to put nutrients in them they’ll need for spawning,” said Gerry Buynak, assistant director of fisheries for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “The best way to do that is to get up in the warm shallow water and feed as much as they can. This is the final push to get ready for the spawn.”
![[Digg]](http://kentuckyfishing.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Facebook]](http://kentuckyfishing.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[Feed Me Links]](http://kentuckyfishing.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/feedmelinks.png)
![[Google]](http://kentuckyfishing.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/google.png)
![[Twitter]](http://kentuckyfishing.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/twitter.png)
![[Email]](http://kentuckyfishing.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
Smallmouth fishing on Elkhorn Creek looks good this year
March 8, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
Lexington angler Billy Elkins lands a smallmouth bass from central Kentucky's Elkhorn Creek. Fishing for smallmouth bass in Elkhorn Creek and other Kentucky streams should improve in 2009. Photo by Lee McClellan
Frankfort, Ky. – Elkhorn Creek, one of the premier smallmouth streams in Kentucky, produced fantastic smallmouth bass fishing from 1998 to 2002. Anglers could expect to catch a few dozen smallmouth in a day’s fishing. A couple of these fish were usually longer than the 16-inch upper limit of the 12-16 inch protective slot limit in effect for largemouth and smallmouth bass in the creek.
Fishing flattened out on the Elkhorn in 2003 and the downward trend continued through 2006. It isn’t pollution, disease or development that caused this trend. It’s rain.
“When we have really wet years, it impacts the spawn in a negative way,” said Jim Axon, former assistant director of fisheries for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “Drought years are good years for smallmouth spawning on streams.”
Fishing on the Elkhorn flourished from 1998 to 2002 because drought years in the late 1980s and early 1990s encouraged great reproduction of smallmouth bass. The better smallmouth bass breed, the better the future fishing.
The same positive development that created the good fishing is taking shape again. Smallmouth fishing on the creek began to pick up in 2007 and improved again in 2008 until last summer’s drought made the fish lethargic. This coming year should be the best year for fishing on Elkhorn Creek since the 1998 to 2002 boom.
During the spawn, dam if dams aren’t good on the Ohio River
March 1, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
If you want to catch a sauger, now is the time. And the best fishing hole — whether you live in Louisville, Carrollton, Cannelton, Maysville or Smithland — is just outside your back door.”The best place to catch a sauger is in the Ohio River,” said Doug Henley, a fisheries biologist and Ohio River specialist for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.
“You can catch them other places. The Kentucky River has sauger; in fact, we’re continuing to stock above pool 3. The Tennessee River below Kentucky Lake and Cumberland River below Lake Barkley have good numbers of sauger, and some pretty good-size fish, too, I believe. And I would think any of the Ohio’s tributaries should have sauger in them.
“But the Ohio River is our best for sauger.”
To read more, check out Gary Garth’s story at The Courier-Journal by following the link below.
Reminder: Licenses expired Feb. 28!
March 1, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
This is a reminder from Kentuckyfishing.com that it’s time to renew your fishing license. To renew online, go to fw.ky.gov. You can also get a new license at most of your favorite bait and tackle shops.
Below is a KDFWR story we ran earlier detailing how and where to get a new license:
Kentucky’s current hunting and fishing licenses expire February 28. If you plan to fish the spring runs for white bass or turkey hunt this spring season, you’ll need to purchase a new license and permits.
The current tough economic times have folks thinking about saving money. For outdoors enthusiasts who love to fish and hunt, purchasing a Resident Sportsman’s License saves $50 over buying all of the licenses and permits it covers separately.
This license includes the combination hunting and fishing license, spring and fall turkey permits, statewide deer permit, state waterfowl permit and trout permit. Waterfowl hunters still need to purchase their federal duck stamp, however. The Resident Sportsman’s License does not cover user permits for Peabody Wildlife Management Area or the Land Between the Lakes, or any application fee or permit for elk hunting.
The resident combination hunting and fishing license is also a good deal. Both of these licenses cost $40 if bought separately. The resident combination license is only $30.
The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources depends on license sales to fund its operations. The department does not receive any General Fund state tax dollars.
These funds manage roughly 1 million acres of public land and waters for the benefit of all Kentuckians and the fish and wildlife that live on these lands or swim in those waters. It provides needed money to acquire more public lands for hunting, bird watching, fishing or hiking.
Your license dollars provide technical assistance to approximately 2,000 Kentucky landowners each year for wildlife habitat improvement projects and advice.
The fisheries division of Kentucky Fish and Wildlife stocks more than 4 million fish annually in our state’s waters with these funds. When you buy a license, you are funding the management of our state’s fish populations that provide good fishing for all to enjoy. You also pay to restore species such as lake sturgeon to the upper regions of Lake Cumberland.
You provide concrete, bulldozers, gravel and manpower to build new boat ramps, bank fishing areas, fishing piers and canoe access sites. License dollars help repair boat ramps impacted by flooding or renovate aging ones.
When you put down your hard-earned money for a new license, you fund education and outreach programs that reach 400,000 children and adults each year to help ensure our hunting and fishing heritage continues.
There is a lot more than meets the eye when you plunk down the money for your Resident Sportsman’s License, combination hunting and fishing license, annual hunting and fishing license, trout permit or spring turkey permit. You fund a broad spectrum of activities that improve the quality of life for all Kentuckians.
To purchase your license and permits on-line, go to fw.ky.gov. You may also purchase them over the phone by calling toll-free 1-877-598-2401. Licenses are also available at many tackle shops, sporting good stores, gun stores and in the sporting goods section of department stores.
Switch methods to catch crappie in Kentucky, Barkley lakes
March 1, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
Frankfort, Ky. – For years, anglers at Kentucky and Barkley lakes sought crappie in spring by jigging baits around drop-offs, fishing with minnows in shallow brush and probing stake beds with grubs. While these traditional methods worked well for white crappie, they are not nearly as effective nowadays because of the growing population of black crappie in both lakes.
Anglers who want to catch more fish from Kentucky’s most popular crappie fishing lakes this spring need to change their techniques.
“People are still looking for white crappie,” said Gerry Buynak, assistant director of fisheries for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “According to our data, there are more 10-inch crappie in Kentucky Lake right now than we’ve seen since 1985. But 97 percent of the ones we collected in our trap nets are black crappie.”
While white crappie still dominate Lake Barkley, black crappie now make up nearly 40 percent of the population. Buynak says anglers will find fish if they put away their white crappie techniques and target the many black crappie the lakes have to offer.
“Black and white crappie differ quite a bit overall,” he explained. “Black crappie move shallow earlier and stay longer. They also prefer clearer water. People don’t usually cast to rocky shorelines when fishing for crappie, and this is where the black crappie are in the spring.”
Western District Fishery Biologist Paul Rister says fishing for black crappie is starting to heat up as the days turn warmer.
“On warm, sunny days in late February and early March, black crappie are up on those rocky shorelines taking advantage of clear water and warmer temperatures,” he said. “You’ve got to key in on the western shorelines that get sun early in the morning.”
Anglers should try curly-tailed jigs with 1/16-ounce jigheads, Rooster Tails and other small in-line spinners. Good jig colors include white, white with chartreuse, white with red, lime-green, chartreuse, blue and pink.
“You need something really light,” said Rister. “The old standard is a minnow fished underneath a bobber, using a slow retrieve. Let it sit for several seconds, give it a bump, let it sit there, and continue to work it slowly.”
Anglers fishing from boats should cast toward shallow, rocky shorelines. Both lakes possess this type of shoreline on the sides bordering Land Between the Lakes, although Barkley Lake is less rocky than Kentucky Lake overall. The lakes’ shorelines are rockier towards the mouths of embayments.
Bank fishing in these areas is also productive. However, anglers must be careful not to spook fish in the shallow, clear water. “If you are fishing from a boat, you must stay back away from the bank and cast,” Buynak said. “If you get too close to the bank, you’re going to spook the fish.”
As cold winter days give way to early spring, the time is right to target black crappie at Kentucky’s two largest lakes. Anglers willing to update their fishing methods will find good prospects this year.
Kentucky and Barkley lakes have a 20-fish daily creel limit, 10-inch minimum size limit for both species of crappie. For complete fishing regulations, pick up a copy of the 2009-10 Kentucky Fishing and Boating Guide, available wherever fishing licenses are sold.
—KDFWR
State wants your opinion on alligator gar
March 1, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
The fisheries division of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources invites the public to take a confidential, online survey to provide their opinions on the restoration of alligator gar in western Kentucky.
“They were once native to Kentucky, but are no longer here,” said Ryan Oster, federal aid coordinator for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. “The focus is solely directed at stocking the alligator gar in its original habitat in the sloughs of the Mississippi River and lower Ohio.”
In southern states, alligator gar may grow to nearly 10 feet and weigh 300 pounds. They are highly sought by anglers wanting to catch one of the biggest freshwater fishes in the United States.
This species of gar hasn’t been documented in Kentucky for nearly 50 years. Federal funds will pay for half of the restoration costs.
The survey is located on Kentucky Fish and Wildlife’s homepage at http://fw.ky.gov/App/Survey5_Gar.aspx. It takes less than five minutes to answer the questions.
Kentucky Fish and Wildlife plans to stock sloughs and oxbows on department-owned property in western Kentucky. Many of these waters no longer offer good fishing for bass, crappie and catfish because they have been taken over by Asian carp.
“The alligator gar would also be a predator on those Asian carp,” said Gerry Buynak, assistant director of fisheries for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife.
The survey will be online for approximately two weeks.
