This kind of weather pattern usually pushes the sunfish spawn back a few weeks, but everything is on schedule so far this year.

“It is about ready to break open,” said Gerry Buynak, assistant director of fisheries for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “With the 80-degree temperatures coming, all heck is going to break loose on sunfish.”

Some lakes already show signs that bluegill and redear sunfish, or shellcrackers, are spawning in north-central Kentucky. Biologists report the sunfish already completed their spawning on small lakes in southern and western Kentucky.

“We saw some bluegill spawning while sampling for largemouth bass at Boltz Lake in Grant County and at Elmer Davis Lake in Owen County,” said Kathryn Emme, assistant central fisheries district biologist for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. “We saw lots of good bluegill.”

A sunfish tagging study on bluegill and redear sunfish is underway at 149-acre Elmer Davis Lake. Kentucky Fish and Wildlife’s fisheries division asks anglers on Elmer Davis Lake to participate in the study. If you catch a bluegill or redear sunfish from the lake with a white tubular tag toward the rear of the fish, please place the tag in a drop box at the boat ramp by the dam. Envelopes are provided at the drop box. Only one tag should be placed in each envelope. The tag may be clipped prior to release for those anglers practicing catch and release.

“We saw some redear sunfish up to 11 inches and bluegill up to nearly 9 inches at Elmer Davis,” said Jason Russell, fisheries technician for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. “We saw quite a few 10-inch redear sunfish.”

A 10-inch or longer redear sunfish qualifies for a trophy fish certificate in Kentucky Fish and Wildlife’s Trophy Fish program.

The bluegill and redear sunfish spawned already in small lakes in southern Kentucky such as 27-acre Spurlington Lake in Taylor County, 17-acre Briggs Lake in Logan County and 68-acre West Fork of Drakes Reservoir in Simpson County.

However, on bigger lakes such as Barren River Lake and Green River Lake, high water placed the sunfish spawn on hold for a time. “Barren is 11 feet above normal,” said Eric Cummins, southwestern fishery district biologist for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. “Green River is 8 feet above normal. The peak sunfish spawning activity on our larger lakes doesn’t look like it has occurred yet. They will be waiting until the water stabilizes.”

That doesn’t mean the sunfish aren’t biting. “Fishing will still be decent for them on those lakes,” Cummins said. “The bluegill and redear will be hanging around flooded brush and trees, but they will be more spread out.”

Cummins recommends Spurlington Lake and West Fork of Drakes Reservoir for large bluegill and redear sunfish although they are in a post spawn mode. “The redear sunfish in West Fork of Drakes are dinner plates, they are huge,” he said. “That lake next spring should be lights out. We saw a lot of 7- to 8-inch bluegill that will be 9 inches plus next year.”

The fisheries division stocked redear sunfish in Spurlington Lake in 2007 and again this year. “There’s redear sunfish in there now that are 8 inches and longer,” Cummins said. “Some of the bluegill in there approach 10 inches long.”

Spurlington Lake holds a healthy amount of aquatic vegetation that shields bluegill and redear sunfish from the largemouth bass that eat them. West Fork of Drakes Reservoir also possesses abundant aquatic weeds in its waters.

Target sunfish by drifting a 1/32- or 1/16-ounce feather jig tipped with a small minnow or mealworm over shallow flats, especially if the flat has whitish circles on it that reveal sunfish nests. You can fish this rig suspended under a small bobber or cast it without one.

One-inch tube jigs and curly-tailed grubs rigged on a 1/16-ounce leadhead jig also produce sunfish right now. Redworms fished across mud flats or down pea-gravel points on a size 6 or 8 Aberdeen hook with just a BB split shot crushes sunfish right now. You can add a bobber to this rig or fish it alone.

Grab an ultralight rod, a few feather jigs and a plastic container of mealworms or redworms and enjoy some of the best bluegill and redear fishing of the year. These fish bite willingly and provide as good a fight for their size as any fish that swims in Kentucky.

By KDFWR

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The proposed regulations would also apply to other department-owned lakes, including Beaver, Boltz, Carpenter, Corinth, Elmer Davis, Guist Creek, Kincaid and Kingfisher.

Local landowners around Lake Malone will soon receive an information packet from the department regarding recommendations made by a 14-member advisory committee. The recommendations include safety and construction standards for any new walkways or staircases along the shoreline under a new permitting system. The recommendations also address permanent structures such as sheds and gazebos built on department property.

Approximately 500 landowners around Lake Malone, where encroachment upon department-owned property is the most widespread, will receive a mailed summary of recommendations. Landowners around other department-owned lakes may see the recommendations online at fw.ky.gov. Residents without computer access may call the department to request a copy at 1-800-858-1549.

By KDFWR

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Like many farm ponds, the lake is loaded with bluegill and bass. The bass are generally small but healthy and feisty. Most of the bluegill easily provide a couple of serving-size fillets. A few will cover a man’s hand. Unlike many farm ponds, however, Duncan is closed from mid-October through mid-March as a federal waterfowl and eagle refuge. Even when it’s open, the fishing pressure is surprisingly light.

Read the rest of Gary Garth’s Duncan Lake story by following the link below:

Duncan Lake little but bluegills large | courier-journal.com | The Courier-Journal.

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Kentucky Fish and Wildlife employees recently inserted tags into more than 250 bluegill and 450 redear sunfish. More fish will be tagged in the coming weeks. Anglers who return tags from these fish are eligible for an award.

Researchers are trying to determine the angler catch of bluegill and redear sunfish. This information will be used in the future to improve panfish fishing in small lakes across the state.

Each tag consists of a piece of white tubing inserted into the back of the fish. Tags contain the department’s name, telephone number and a fish identification number. Each tagged fish will be 6 inches or longer.

Anglers who catch tagged fish should return the tag to Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. For convenience, tags and fish information may be turned in at the lake using the envelopes located at a drop box at the ramp at the lake’s dam.

Anglers practicing catch-and-release may clip the tag from the fish before releasing it. Only one envelope should be used for each tag.

Last year, researchers ran a similar tagging study at Beaver Lake in Anderson County.

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It’s the Poor Richard’s Almanack of Kentucky fishing, and to many pent-up anglers, it’s a must-read before spring fishing begins in earnest. Simply pick your favorite lake or species, find it in the forecast, and you can get the state’s best guess for what your fishing success might be this year.

Here’s what the forecast can predict for certain:
Click FOR FORECAST

Follow link below for the rest of this story.
Which water bodies have good fish populations. Biologists figure this out by interviewing anglers while they’re fishing, assessing stocking figures, gill netting and electrofishing, in which they send a small shock into the water and count fish that float to the top temporarily.

Here’s what the forecast can’t predict:

An angler’s skill. The weather. How much the fish have already had to eat. The moods of fish. The moods of anglers. In other words, it can’t predict any of the things that drove humans to call this sport “fishing” instead of “catching.”

But who cares?

In early February, if you can’t be out fishing, you might as well be reading about it.

The forecast, which the state will post on the Internet and begin distributing at boating and fishing shows this month, can be tough on the ego, especially when it predicts the potential for good fishing in a lake where you haven’t had any. But if the forecast is good or excellent for the body of water you’re interested in, that means the fish are there.

“If fishermen could see what we see, they would be humbled,” said Jeff Crosby, a state fisheries biologist who does a lot of sampling in streams and reservoirs in Central Kentucky.

Virtually all fisheries biologists tell stories of being on a lake or river and having anglers tell them there are too few fish in the lake. The biologists will pull up and do some electrofishing on the bank or in the cove near the anglers and fish will float up everywhere.

“Whether we see them and whether they catch them are two different things,” said Jeff Ross, assistant fisheries director.

Kincaid Lake in northern Kentucky illustrates how the forecast often can differ from anglers’ experiences. Every year, biologists see a lot of big largemouth bass in sampling. But every year, anglers report that they have a tough time catching them.

Reasons exist for the disparity. Ross guesses it is because there is an abundance of baitfish in the lake for bass to eat. By the time they see an angler’s lure, they’re already satisfied.

Flooding or drought can also wreak havoc on a body of water and mess up fishing.

Otherwise, one year’s forecast often can sound like another’s. That’s because fish populations don’t necessarily change much from year to year, Ross said.

“Only if you watch them over time will you start to see the changes,” he said.

Still, every few years either an experiment with stocking, a natural change in a body of water, or the introduction of an invasive species will change a water body’s fish population for better or worse.

In 1997, a flood washed over pools at the Frankfort Fish Hatchery on Elkhorn Creek in Franklin County. Hundreds of fingerling catfish spilled into the creek. Catfishing was rated excellent for years after that.

In another instance, someone introduced shad into Corinth Lake in Grant County. The shad, a rapidly growing baitfish, competed for food with shellcrackers, or redear sunfish, which the lake had been known for. The number and quality of fish has decreased ever since despite an unsuccessful attempt to kill off the shad.

Crappie fishing always has been legendary in Kentucky Lake. But a few years back, anglers started reporting that they were catching fewer fish.

After testing, biologists found that the lake’s crappie population was switching from being predominantly white crappie to having a significant number of black crappie, which prefer clearer water and gravel bottoms.

Kentucky Lake has become clearer as it has aged. The problem is that black crappie move in different patterns than white ones.

Biologists have produced a number of studies and have conducted several campaigns to try to educate anglers on the different fishing methods needed to catch black crappie.

The big difference the studies found is that black crappie moved shallower sooner in spring, and many anglers were still fishing deeper. They also stay in shallower water longer and spook easily. Anglers should cast instead of fishing vertically below or near the boat.

This year’s report notes a number of significant changes.

Blue catfish at Taylorsville Lake (Spencer/Nelson/Anderson counties): Taylorsville has an enormous shad population and always has had good numbers of largemouth bass and channel catfish.

Biologists guessed that the shad population would be perfect for blue catfish, which prefer shad. A stocking program started several years ago has taken off. Twenty-pound fish have been caught and sampled in the lake after just six years of stocking. Biologists also anticipate that the first blue cats stocked will begin to reproduce soon.

Channel catfish at Lake Cumberland (Clinton/Russell/Wayne/Pulaski/Whitley/Laurel counties): Cumberland is known for smallmouth and striped bass. But more and more, anglers and biologists are reporting good numbers of nice channel cats. John Williams, the biologist for the district that includes Cumberland, loves to fish for walleye using a bottom bouncing worm rig. But he says he is pulling up nice channel cats in the process.

Crappie and largemouth bass on the Kentucky River: In years when the Kentucky River is flowing more, largemouth and crappie don’t do as well because they prefer calmer waters. But after several years of drought, crappie and largemouth have been able to thrive in the river, and anglers are reporting more catches. A big shad population also helps.

Largemouth bass at Bullock Pen Lake (Grant County): This lake is beginning to rival Kincaid for numbers of big bass. The lake has lots of shoreline without cover. Avoid those areas, biologists say. The larger fish are camping out on banks and in coves that have lots of cover.

Smallmouth bass on Green and Barren rivers: Neither stream has been known for great smallmouth fishing in the past. But portions of each stream have begun to see more and more smallmouth. Check the forecast for the most productive sections of streams.

Largemouth on Yatesville Lake (Lawrence County): For three years in a row, biologists have noted good reproduction among largemouth. The largemouth fishing is still rated as good, but it’s improving rapidly.

Click FOR FORECAST

By Chris Poore, Kentuckyfishing.com

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