Sign jmartin56 up for the Kentucky Tourism Commissioner job,lol....We all hope it turns around. I heard they were stocking Florida strain bass down near Paris?
Sign jmartin56 up for the Kentucky Tourism Commissioner job,lol....We all hope it turns around. I heard they were stocking Florida strain bass down near Paris?
lol okay buddy.
Yes they stocked florida strains in the big sandy area. Research would point that's too far north for them to work and will most likely grow at a slower rate than our native northern strain bass. Not the way to turn the lake around IMO
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2005 Mercury Verado 250
I actually went catfishing up north twice lately to ensure sure we caught some fish.Originally Posted by RangerRodney
There is a reason we all used to run to New Johnsonville. It was the stocked Florida strain bass...
As i said above, the Big Sandy is too far north. New J and south has better odds of those Florida strain fish to grow at a normal rate, but I'd bet a decent amount of $$ that if you call your local biologist, who actually work on KY/Barkley lake, and they would say stocking fish in a fishery this large would take an exponential amount of fish to have much of an impact and they'd point more towards habitat to grow a fishery.
2005 Ranger Z21
2005 Mercury Verado 250
Think about what you are saying. Do you really think the climate is any different 10 miles up the river? Or in Chickamauga versus Paris? Of course not. The only possible difference would be Chick's higher elevation making their weather colder. I know of a lake in that area with Florida's in it. They got large very quickly.
Per usclimatedata.com:
Big Sandy yearly avg temp = 59.5
Dayton, tn avg yearly temp = 58.35
Last edited by mjkoutdoors; 06-04-2020 at 01:02 PM.
IMO the biggest and best thing they could do to improve Ky.Lake bass fishing is to re-introduce the grass. Improved habitat is the key, aided by reducing the Asian carp problem. More habitat=more fish, period.
Agree. Without grass coming back, we won’t see it comeback. Lots of grass led to the best years of the fishery.
Not to be rude, but you are looking at the wrong climate data between to two areas to compare. So to answer your question on if i think its different, yes, it is different. Here's an article that shows the line I was referring to from TWRA that shows the very southern end of KY lake included as a viable zone and explains the climate differences. https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/tw...MBstocking.pdf
I'm not trying to upset anyone, just to educate. Stocking isn't always the answer. I agree with MoStratos in that habitat is the way to go for most of KY lake.
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2005 Mercury Verado 250
So, a Florida bass in Johnsonville swims 10 miles north and crosses a line drawn on a map by TWRA, he won't any longer be able to survive or grow as large even though temperature data says it's warmer up there on average. Sorry, I am going to believe nationally published climate data and that which can be clearly observed over that. If the bass in Chick survived but didn't do all that well, then you could make the argument that we are on the precipice of the limits of their range. To assert that the Florida's exploded like they did in Chick and Johnsonville but will fail in Big Sandy, just makes no sense to me. Maybe I'm not educated though so I will not argue further.
Regarding the grass, I'm pretty sure you will never, ever get TWRA to proactively work to establish it. And, it is not coming back on its own as long as the carp are such a problem. There have been a few spots pop up but the carp quickly wallow it away and also keep the shallows too muddy for light penetration. Write off KY lake then or stock the bass like they did at Chick.
Florida strain bass were also released in New Johnsonville the same day they released them up near Paris.
Hopefully with the high lake levels we had, those fish had a higher than normal survival rate. My personal opinion, is that we desperately need more habitat. Plant more cypress trees, add more brush piles, add more stake beds, and the biggest one is plant some grass! We all know grass is the key, and until that happens this lake is going to suffer the consequences. I've heard rumours that fish and wildlife is working on planting more native grasses in the lake, but we all know how rumours are.
We need a winter where we dont have to pull 200k in current for 7 months. Tough on Kentucky lake because we are the last lake in the chain. Everything has to run through it. So even though the lake may not receive rain we still have to run water through if a lot of rain falls in Northern AL or East TN. Need a damn winter drought in the worst way.
Agreed. The last 3 to 4 years have been high muddy water in the winter with strong current. Those grass seeds don't stand a chance.
One observation I have made is regarding the lack of frye guarders seen during trips
on the lake. I have been out there atleast 2 days a week for the last 7-8 weeks and I have spooked very few wads of frye and can’t count of many bites from males guarding them.. while this may be a short sighted concern. I think it’s very much an issue when you consider the lake levels throughout the spawn. While we did dip below 359 for a while we saw a fair amount of days above 359.5..I wonder what others have seen or think on this..
Weighing in on solutions, I see the carp and habitat as the two subjects needing addressed. We need to continue to commend the excellent job the commercial fisherman are doing in removing them. They are removing a lot of weight from the lakes and anything we can do to support them only helps us. The lack of habitat in this lake is often unrealized and understated. Simply put, there isn’t a better habitat improvement that can be made that compares to the impact a bed of hydroplane or milfoil can have on a fishery..I’m not talking bank to bank mats just let it grow to a point to create some habitat before calling the spray boats..the solution to this isn’t rocket science unfortunately is become political and that’s bad for all of us..but I will keep fishing it and looking forward to the fishing like we had in 2000-2015..I had some great days then..
I agree with the lack of fry guarders. I haven't seen or caught that many so far this year. In years past I could crush some good size fry guarders on a swim jig up shallow, but it was like a ghost town this spring.
As to fry guarders, just an observation from two weeks ago. South of big Richland, the eastern secondary channel, where it swings near the bank. I went close to 400 yards and the entire shallows were nothing but bass fry (popped a few out with dip net to confirm). That being said, in that stretch I only caught 3 fry guarders swimming a jig, and all three were slightly short (14-14.75). But that was a significant mass of fry, and left me hopeful for future years if a reasonable percentage of them make it through the year.
It does seem not much of a ledge bite, but I have found some decent schools in the 12+\- range humps/shell beds just outside big embayments. Not big schools, and not big fish, but enough for a couple/few 2.5–3 lb’ers on each stop with crankbaits and biffle bugs. of course this is AFTER the co-op tourney where I spent all day on main ledges! In any event, it’s much nicer on the elbows to crank 13-15 foot divers than the 20+ footers all day long!
Lake Fork stocks more than this each year and is 1/5th the size....
THIS! I don't know why more states don't model their management after Texas'. I was born and raised there, grew up fishing Rayburn and Toledo Bend. While they were great fisheries even then, they were numbers lakes by today's standards, a 5 lb bass was considered a lunker and 8 lbs was considered huge. This was the late 60's through early 80's. They first experimented with what they called the "superbass" in the mid 70's, which was a cross between the Florida and Texas strains, but that did not pan out. But they kept working at it, and eventually came up with hands down the best system in the country. There are now double didget fish in lakes we didn't even bother fishing back then.
What does the research say down there for the amount of fish that are just reproduced by natural spawning vs fish that are stocked?
And that would coincide with what I was saying, that for stocking to work in KY lake it would need to be a much larger amount of fish.
Last edited by jmartin56; 06-22-2020 at 08:15 AM.
2005 Ranger Z21
2005 Mercury Verado 250
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