Fly Tying Basics at Kentucky’s Salato Center August 1
July 28, 2009 by admin · 2 Comments
Frankfort, Ky. – Join members of the Frankfort Fly Fishing Club for a basic introduction to fly tying and techniques of fly fishing from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 1. Fly tying can be a challenging art, but few things are more rewarding than catching a fish on a lure you made yourself. Tying your own flies is fun and can save you money on your next fishing trip. All participants will take home the flies they make and get a chance to try their hand at casting a fly rod. The cost of the program is $35 and is open for ages 9 and older. Registration is required. Read more
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When taking kids fishing, it’s not about you
April 27, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
I love to fish so much that I’ve nearly trashed our van on Interstate 75 because I was gazing at South Elkhorn Creek instead of watching the road. I store fishing gear in my car, I’ve raised night crawlers in my kitchen, and I’ve stayed up for 24 hours straight because fish were biting.
I tell you this only because I want you to know that I’m serious when I offer one important piece of advice about taking kids fishing:
Leave your own rod at home.
If you don’t, it will be impossible to follow the second rule of fishing with a kid:
You only have 10 minutes.
Last-Minute Entry Lands Kentucky Auto Parts Production Worker $100,000 Prize in Fantasy Fishing Game
February 22, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
Berea's Terry Moberly decided at the last minute to enter the FLW Fantasy Fishing Game Contest. The decision won him $100,000.
To win FLW Fantasy Fishing, or any contest for that matter, you have to enter. And entering at the last minute counts just as much as if you entered days, weeks or even months before.
That’s what Terry Moberly, 45, a resident of Berea, Ky., a small town near Lexington, Ky., learned. Last Wednesday, Feb. 11, with less than four hours until the closing bell on FLW Fantasy Fishing picks for the first tournament, Moberly registered at fantasyfishing.com. Using Player’s Advantage, an online tool that provides “inside” information about FLW Tour bass pros, Moberly picked 10 bass pros from among a field of 157 that would be competing the very next morning in the first of six tournaments that make up the Walmart FLW Tour, professional bass fishing’s largest and most prestigious tournament circuit.
Annual Bluegrass TU banquet set for March 7, 6:30 p.m.
February 9, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
The annual banquet of Bluegrass Chapter Trout Unlimited helps raise money
for local, state and national programs that help to conserve, protect and restore cold water
fisheries and watersheds.
The banquet helps the Bluegrass Chapter tackle projects such as stocking streams in the Daniel Boone National Forest, keeping Rock Creek clean of trash and acid mine drainage and working with local schools to
implement Trout in the Classroom.
The banquet also helps fund speakers for the chapter’s monthly meetings.
This year’s banquet will be held at the Hillary J. Boone Center and will begin at 6:30 p.m. with drinks,
appetizers, “Bucket Raffles” and a preview of auction items along with a silent auction.
Dinner is at 7:30 followed by the live auction.
The price is $40.00 single or $75.00 couple. Call Gary Rose for information at 859-263-5889. Or email him at arosegrose@alltel.net.
The auction will include items of interest to anglers and non-anglers. Auction sponsors include Orvis,
Lamson, Frog Pond, Equus Run Vineyards, among others.
Please contact any board member for tickets. In some cases, TU might be able to drop your
ticket off to you. Tickets will not be sold the night of the banquet but if you buy your ticket before
Feb. 16 you will be registered for the special Early Bird Raffle. The Hillary J. Boone Center is
on the campus of the University of Kentucky at 510 Rose Street. The Center’s phone number is
859.257.3288 and more info can be found online at www.uky.edu/boonecenter
Don’t let high water scare you away from trout fishing
January 26, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
The author holds a fish caught in higher-than-usual water.
Standing shin-deep on a gravel bar that I had stood atop, bone dry, only a month earlier, I stared at the currents that whipped across the top of a normally placid pool. My hole was washed out. About that time my buddy popped through a gap in the thicket behind me and stepped out onto the gravel bar. “Mighty high today,” he said. “They should be concentrated.”
He pointed to an eddy no larger than my laptop on the far side of the river and asked whether I had hit it. I shook my head, so he snapped of a cast and placed his plug right against the bank. One crank of the rod handle, and a trout walloped my buddy’s offering. Impressed, I followed suit, and so did a trout that would turn out to be the twin of the one my friend was about to land.
Read more
Season catch-and-release trout streams help fight winter doldrums
January 18, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
Frankfort, Ky. – We are now in that long, hard slog of winter; the bleak period between New Year’s and the coming of warm weather in March. Hunting seasons are winding down and those without a boat can’t fish Lake Cumberland for striped bass or Laurel River Lake for smallmouth bass. It is the time of doldrums.
But, a spinning or fly rod and a few lures will get a trout wiggling in your landing net and lift your spirits during this time of cold weather and short days. Kentucky has 13 seasonal catch-and-release trout streams scattered throughout the state that offer outstanding fishing throughout the winter months.
“I caught 19 trout standing in the same place recently on Big Bone Creek,” said John Guthrie, an expert trout angler and member of the Northern Kentucky Fly Fishers. “The fish are in the deeper holes and bigger pools. I didn’t catch any in pocket water or runs.”
The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources implemented the seasonal catch-and-release trout streams program in 1999. Under seasonal catch-and-release regulations, all trout caught from October 1 through March 31 in specially designated streams must be released immediately.
Only artificial baits may be used for trout in these streams during the catch and release season. Anglers may not use organic baits such as PowerBait, corn, cheese or salmon eggs, or live baits such as worms or minnows.
“The goal of the program is to delay the harvest so the trout stay in the stream longer,” said Dave Dreves, fishery research biologist for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. “In a lot of these streams, a lot of the freshly stocked hatchery fish are caught out quickly during spring and summer. Most are gone in a few days. They haven’t gotten stream wise yet and bite about anything. The catch-and-release season gives them time to acclimate and grow.”
Anglers can carry all the lures needed to catch winter trout in a plastic sandwich bag. “I’ve had good luck with in-line spinners,” Dreves said. “They also hit Trout Magnets and small crankbaits.”
Fly anglers should carry some nymph patterns in their fly box. “I caught them on a bead head pheasant tail nymph in sizes 12 and 14,” said Guthrie. “I started with Clouser minnows and wooly buggers with no luck, but started hammering them when I switched to nymphs.”
Dreves also prefers nymphs. Those that imitate mayflies, such as the hare’s ear nymph, are his favorites for winter fishing, but he also casts a more generalist pattern, such as the Prince nymph.
Stonefly imitations also produce in winter. “A lot of winter stoneflies are small,” Dreves said. “You’ll want to cast smaller stonefly imitations.”
A shorter, 3- to 4-weight fly rod is the best choice to cast nymphs and stoneflies. “For creeks as small as Big Bone, I like a shorter fly rod, between 6½ to 8 feet,” Guthrie said. “Longer rods are harder to cast with the limited space. Plus, casts don’t need to be very long.”
The best of the 13 seasonal catch-and-release streams is Rock Creek in McCreary County. “East Fork of Indian Creek in the Red River Gorge Geologic Area is probably second and then Swift Camp Creek,” Dreves said. “Swift Camp Creek is in the Clifty Wilderness Area of Red River Gorge. It is a unique fishing experience.”
Unlike the other 12 specially designated streams, the catch-and-release trout season on Swift Camp Creek runs until May 31.
Shake off the winter blues with a jumping trout. Get out and take advantage of a unique fishing opportunity. Spring will be here before you know it.
Seasonal Catch and Release Trout Streams:
Bark Camp Creek – Whitley County
Beaver Creek – Wayne County
Big Bone Creek – Boone County
Cane Creek – Laurel County
Casey Creek – Trigg County
Clear Creek – Bell County
East Fork, Indian Creek – Menifee County
Elk Spring Creek – Wayne County
Left Fork, Beaver Creek – Floyd County
Middle Fork, Red River – Powell, Wolfe counties
Otter Creek – Meade County (Otter Creek Park is temporarily closed to public access)
Rock Creek – McCreary County
Swift Camp Creek – Wolfe County (season closes May 31)
Author Lee McClellan is an award-winning associate editor for Kentucky Afield magazine, the official publication of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. He is a life-long hunter and angler, with a passion for smallmouth bass fishing.
A Connecticut Yankee on a Kentucky Trout Stream
August 23, 2008 by admin · Comments Off
Stephen Wrinn hooks into a trout during his first trip on the Cumberland River tailwater.
First published in the Kentucky Fishing Journal August 2002. This essay has also been published in Of Woods and Waters
By Stephen Wrinn
Among the many myths that outsiders have come to believe about Kentucky is that it has no outstanding trout fishing. Despite 13,000 miles of rivers and streams, and more navigable waterways than any other state except Alaska, it is still widely believed that only bass, catfish, panfish, and the occasional musky lurk in the Commonwealth’s depths. Until very recently, I too shared this fiction.
This is the story of my enlightenment, and of the knowledge I gained after one trip to the Cumberland River. I now believe that Kentucky is home to a river that ranks as one of the best trout fisheries on the continent, period. Not just in the South, or in the midwest, or west of the Appalachians, or east of the Mississippi. Period. Below the Wolf Creek Dam, the Cumberland is a river that, in both natural beauty and trout population, rivals any I’ve encountered. And I’ve encountered more than my fair share.
