Monday February 2, 2026
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SubscribeAlthough we’ve seen many warm fronts this winter with temperatures in the 60s just this past weekend, the water in our highland reservoirs is still cold.
Water temperatures are in the high 40s in Lake Cumberland, Dale Hollow and Laurel River Lake. Once water temperatures drop below 50 degrees for extended periods, threadfin shad begin to suffer from the cold water.
“Threadfin shad get thermally stressed by winter water temperatures, especially in late winter,” said Jeff Ross, assistant director of the Fisheries Division for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “They begin to twitch and spasm as they try to fight off death.”
Smallmouth bass, as well as spotted and largemouth bass, instinctually know to eat these weakened baitfish. The float-and-fly technique imitates stressed shad in cold water as good as anything.
“Many bass lures, such as jerkbait, use twitching movement to draw strikes,” Ross said. “The little fly twitching in place is irresistible to a smallmouth in the winter.”
Born in the deep, clear lakes of east Tennessee and inspired by crappie anglers complaining of big smallmouth bass breaking off tiny hair jigs fished deep in the winter months, the float-and-fly technique employs long, light to medium-light power spinning rods and 4-pound line to present small 1/16-ounce to 1/8-ounce jigs under a bobber.
The tiny jig is the “fly” in the float-and-fly technique. For generations, smallmouth anglers in Kentucky and Tennessee call hair jigs “flies.”
The long spinning rod, from 8 to 11 feet in length, is necessary as you suspend the diminutive jig 8 to 14 feet deep. Casting such a presentation on a rod shorter than 8 feet is nearly impossible. Fly anglers use 8-weight rods to suspend 1/32- to 1/48-ounce jigs under large strike indicators, employing light fluorocarbon line as the tippet. The lighter 1/48-ounce jig is much easier for a fly angler to cast with a leader and tippet running at least 8 feet long.
The “flies” are made of either craft hair or duck feathers or a combination of both. The float-and-fly technique has grown so popular that national outfitters carry rods designed for it. Tackle shops in the Lake Cumberland and Dale Hollow Lake region sell them as well. Float-and-fly rods also make excellent crappie and panfish rods.
All you do is load the spinning reel with 4-pound co-polymer or fluorocarbon line and clip on a 7/8-inch pear-shaped plastic bobber 8 feet above the fly. Adjust the depth of the fly until you get a “pull down” on the bobber from a fish. There are specially weighted foam bobbers designed for the float-and-fly technique that grant better casting distance. The internal weight in these bobbers makes them roll over on their side if a big smallmouth hits the fly and moves shallower.
Lake Cumberland presents an ideal opportunity to catch smallmouth bass, as well as fat, healthy spotted bass and even hand-sized bluegill on the float-and-fly right now. During the drawdown of Lake Cumberland to repair Wolf Creek Dam several years ago, trees grew on the exposed shoreline. Now with normal water levels, these trees are at the perfect depth to offer shelter for big smallmouth and spotted bass as they await a school of baitfish to ambush.
The quivering fly hovering just above the sunken trees pulls these fish out of their lairs to strike. Female smallmouth bass need to feed in late winter to power the development of the eggs in their abdomens they will drop into nests later this spring.
The best flies on Lake Cumberland are craft hair jigs in combinations of blue, chartreuse, grey or white. White, sky blue and pink craft hair jigs also work well on this lake.
Duck feather jigs with wisps of red or pink craft hair seem to draw more strikes on Dale Hollow. These colors work well at Laurel River Lake, too. Both Dale Hollow and Laurel hold trout and some anglers believe their presence makes these fly colors work better in these lakes.
Fish the float-and-fly near the main lake in winter on these reservoirs. The best fishing occurs when your back faces lots of big, deep water.
Remember to allow your fly to strike the water’s surface on the back cast. This provides resistance on the forward cast that loads the long spinning rod, leading to much improved casting distance.
Applying a petroleum jelly-based shad scent, called “fish dope,” improves the delectability of the fly to smallmouths. Tackle shops and retailers in the Lake Cumberland or Dale Hollow region sell fish dope, but any petroleum jelly-based shad scent will work. Those with glitter in them are best.
On bright days, trimming a fly to match the bend of the hook and heavily applying dope to where the fly resembles a small stick often makes the difference between being skunked or catching fish.
A month of good float-and-fly fishing awaits anglers until warming waters puts big smallmouth or spotted bass on the prowl and willing to chase lures. This technique also fools huge largemouth bass on farm ponds and small lakes in late winter.
Remember to buy your fishing license soon. Feb. 28 is the last day of the current license year in Kentucky.
Yesterday, Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) Superintendent Dr. Donna Hargens announced a $65,000 grant from GE Appliances, a Haier company, to support a project manager that will work to accelerate the Talent Development Academy initiative already underway at JCPS and facilitate alignment between high schools, higher education, workforce development, and industry.
JCPS Talent Development Academies are small learning communities organized around career themes that show students links between their academic subjects and real-world applications and career experience. The academies involve employers and higher education institutions in preparing students for college and careers.
“These academies will offer career pathways from healthcare to manufacturing and engineering, and students will be able to see what they are learning in English, math and science come alive in ways that apply to their career themes,” Dr. Hargens said. “This is exciting, and I appreciate GE Appliances’ generous gift through the Jefferson County Public Education Foundation to help kick start this project.”
The academies differ from traditional academic and vocational education models because they prepare high school students for both college and careers. The JCPS Talent Development Academies will align with the identified industry clusters for our region – healthcare, advanced manufacturing/engineering, business services, information technology, hospitality & tourism, and skilled trades. The integrated curriculum will provide broad information about a field and weave this theme into an academic curriculum that prepares students for postsecondary enrollment. Many students will also graduate from high school with career certifications and/or college credit. Studies have found that students in college and career academies perform better in high school and are more likely to continue into postsecondary education.
The project manager position will focus on supporting the execution of a comprehensive project plan that aligns industry focus with school curriculums. In partnership with KentuckianaWorks, Greater Louisville Inc. (GLI), and JCPS, the project manager will work to develop career roadmaps that detail education, skills, and training for progression in careers across the six identified industries. The project manager will also work to develop and coordinate an approach, processes, tools and systems that will facilitate the ongoing engagement of employers in the JCPS Talent Development Academies.
The academies are created with input from local business and economic development leaders. The idea is to create a workforce with skills currently needed by local employers and to align resources with growing career opportunities for students.
“The JCPS Talent Development Academies will inspire, engage and educate students in a way that helps them better prepare for relevant careers in today’s economy,” said GE Appliances President & CEO Chip Blankenship. “We’re thrilled to provide this grant to help accelerate the initiative for the benefit of students, their parents, employers and our community. This is another step in the journey GE Appliances is on with our great partners at JCPS to educate and excite students about careers in manufacturing. Education is not one size fits all. This is a program that will encourage every student to follow a track that will best apply their talents so they can enter college or the workplace ready for the opportunities that await them.”
Supported by the Ford Next Generation Learning Network, which has more than 35 partner communities across the United States, JCPS is leveraging best practices to implement the academy model. All 23 comprehensive and magnet high schools in JCPS were eligible to submit a proposal to join the initiative. After a review process, 11 JCPS high schools will begin transformation to the academy model in the fall of 2017, pending a $2.7 million budget request and approval from the JCPS Board of Education. The transformation would occur over a three-year period. By 2020, the goal is that 100 percent of JCPS graduates are college or career ready.
Through a partnership of KentuckianaWorks, GLI, and Jefferson County Public Schools, community engagement in this process is being driven by a local launch team and a guiding team comprised of business/industry, community, and education leaders. The launch team, convened by Tom Quick of GE Appliances, a Haier company, focuses on aligning the transitions between education and workforce, as well as ensuring curriculum aligns with skills desired by employers. The guiding team sets the overall community engagement objectives for the work and is setting up a structure to ensure that all programs have business/industry partners advising them and providing experiential learning opportunities for students, such as field trips, job shadowing, real-world projects, and internships.
JCPS envisions that all graduates of Talent Development Academies will be prepared, empowered, and inspired, as stated in the JCPS strategic plan, Vision 2020.
“They will be prepared by graduating with a high school diploma, an industry recognized credential, and six to nine hours of college credit,” said Dr. Hargens. “They will be empowered because they will have built workplace skills through team projects and experiential learning. They will be inspired because they know what their next steps are and are passionate about future educational and career opportunities.”
With the impending arrival of street sweeping season, Mayor Greg Fischer today reminded Louisville residents to sign up to receive an automatic notice, via text or email, when their street is scheduled to be swept by Metro Public Works.
The alerts system was introduced last year as a way to notify residents in advance that they must find alternate parking on street sweeping day. No parking is allowed on affected streets during street sweeping, and violators are subject to citation and/or towing.
About 6,000 people signed up for the alerts last year. As a result, the number of parking tickets issued for street sweeping violations dropped from 12,938 in 2015, to 7,493 in 2016. “This year, we want to build on that success and get even more people to sign up for electronic street sweeping alerts,” the Mayor said.
“The people of Louisville deserve clean streets. And we want to work with citizens to make sure they know when sweeping is happening so our streets get cleaned, and nobody has to get towed or ticketed.”
Residents can subscribe to the alerts by going to 
https://louisvilleky.gov/city-services/mylouisville and entering their address in the MyLouisville box and following the brief instructions for choosing email and/or text alerts (Note: You must at least enter an email address). They are also able to subscribe to reminders for Project Pickup junk collection dates.
Subscribers are alerted one week in advance that street sweeping is scheduled for their general area. A second alert goes out the day before street sweeping to tell residents that their particular block is to be swept. The alerts are in addition to signs that are posted on affected streets on the business day preceding street sweeping.
Street cleaning is scheduled from March through November. During that time, curbed neighborhood streets are generally cleaned three times.
- Street cleaning signs are posted prior to 5 p.m. on the business day before sweeping occurs. They alert residents that there is No Parking between the hours of 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. on sweeping day.
- Sweeping is conducted each day on east/west streets only, or north/south streets only, to make it easier for residents to find alternate parking.
- Vehicles parked in No Parking areas are subject to citation and/or towing.
- Residents should not park in affected areas until after 5 p.m., even if it appears an area has been swept, as sweepers may return before that time.
- The No Parking zone covers both sides of the street, though signs may only be posted on one side.
The MyLouisville online tool also provides information on garbage and recycling collection dates, emergency services and political representation, in addition to the alerts.
Last week, joined by legislators and officials from local government, education and business associations, Gov. Matt Bevin ceremonially signed House Bill 3, which repeals the state law requiring payment of a set hourly base (prevailing) wage to workers on public works construction projects.
The prevailing wage is the wage set by government, which contractors and subcontractors must pay workers hired for public works projects (such as roads, buildings and sewers) that cost more than $250,000.
“This is one of those win-wins,” said Gov. Bevin. “We want to be good stewards of the limited resources we have, and this is going to be transformative in terms of just the financial impact alone on the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Studies estimate that, conservatively, it will result in somewhere between $125 and $135 million dollars a year in savings.”
A 2014 study by the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission found that the prevailing wage law inflated labor cost by 24 percent and increased the total project cost by 10 to 16 percent on average.
Experts note that prevailing wage regulations create a financial strain on local governments and school districts. In fact, the Kentucky Department of Education estimates that prevailing wage regulations have cost the Commonwealth at least $100 million since 1996.
“Without artificial, and often inflated, wage rates set by antiquated prevailing wage laws, Kentucky is now positioned to complete necessary construction projects at lower costs,” said Rep. Adam Koenig. “We are committed to spending every single tax payer dollar wisely, and Kentucky cities are already saving money due to the swift passage of the prevailing wage repeal by the House and Senate, and Governor Bevin’s prompt signing.”
“As a sponsor of similar legislation last Session, I applaud the efforts of Governor Bevin and my colleagues in the legislature who helped make this prevailing wage repeal bill become law in 2017,” said Sen. Wil Schroder. “This measure will provide more money for construction in our school districts, ultimately putting taxpayer dollars to better use.”
Attorney General Andy Beshear today announced that the Child Victims’ Trust Fund helped pay for nearly 400 child sexual abuse forensic exams in 2016.
Beshear is encouraging Kentuckians to support the Fund through private donations, proceeds from the purchase of “I Care About Kids” license plates or donations made through the state income tax refund check-off program.
“One of the core missions of my office is to prevent and prosecute child abuse,” Beshear said. “We can only hope to end child abuse through the collaborative efforts of advocacy groups, government agencies, community leaders and by engaging families and Kentucky’s business community. The prevention activities and child advocacy programs supported by the Fund are critical to make children safer and to openly discuss abuse and the ways in which we can prevent it. And we must continue to impress upon everyone that it is their legal and moral duty to report abuse.”
Beshear created an Office of Child Abuse and Exploitation Prevention when he entered office in 2016.
The Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Prevention Board, which is administered by the Office of the Attorney General, is responsible for allocating funding from the Child Victims’ Trust Fund. It is statutorily created under Kentucky law as a 170(c)(1) nonprofit organization.
Last year, the Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Prevention Board approved $160,000 in statewide grants aimed at teaching parents how to discuss child sexual abuse with children and how to keep children safe on the Internet. The Fund helped support 394 children’s medical exams in 2016.
The Fund also helped support Beshear’s 2016 partnership to provide the most comprehensive statewide child abuse prevention training ever offered, training over a thousand law enforcement officers, county prosecutors, parents and child advocates on how to recognize the signs of sexual predators and intervene to protect a child.
To support victims of child sexual abuse, Kentuckians may visit their county clerk’s office and request an “I Care About Kids” license plate or check the box on their tax returns to designate a portion to the CVTF.
The Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) announced last week that it has received reaccreditation as the state regulator of banks, credit unions, and mortgages. The department began the joint reaccreditation process in November of last year with the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, the National Association of State Credit Union Supervisors, and the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators.
The five-day review was conducted by an in-person team representing the three agencies. The group examined DFI’s financial documents, records, and regulatory processes to determine the department’s ability to supervise the industry in each accreditation area.
“One of the department’s goals is to ‘lead in developing and advancing effective financial services regulation in Kentucky,’ and I believe the accreditation team recognized our commitment to that goal,” stated DFI Commissioner Charles Vice. “The accrediting agencies determined that DFI not only implemented the recommended industry best practices, but that our team also served as the standard bearer in many categories.”
This is the first year that all three reviews have taken place at once, and DFI pursued a simultaneous accreditation to make the process more efficient for the department and the accrediting team. The department undergoes reaccreditation every five years, and the final assessment scores are confidential.
“DFI’s staff recognizes that the appropriate regulation of the financial services industry contributes to economic growth throughout our state,” said Vice. “Our team works hard to implement industry standards that both protect consumers and encourage banks, credit unions, and mortgage companies to do business in Kentucky.”
DFI’s bank and credit union examination areas have been accredited since 1992. Kentucky was the third state mortgage regulator to achieve accreditation when the program began in 2010. All three programs aim to promote excellence in regulation with minimal regulatory burden and cost, as well as to apply national standards of performance.
Kentucky’s exports broke an all-time record in 2016 with $29.24 billion in goods and services shipped abroad from the Commonwealth, a 5.8-percent increase from 2015, Gov. Matt Bevin recently announced.
Aerospace products and parts led all categories with more than $10.85 billion in goods exported internationally, an increase of more than 24 percent over 2015. Kentucky ranked second nationally for 2016 in aerospace-related exports.
“Kentucky is headed in the right direction and the business community is taking notice. This new record is unequivocal proof of our positive trajectory,” said Gov. Bevin. “As we improve our business climate, global demand for our brands and expertise continues to grow, attracting new companies while at the same time strengthening existing partnerships. Together, we are moving forward. The economic future in Kentucky is very bright, indeed!”
Overall, the state’s 2016 exports increased $1.6 billion over the 2015 total. That placed Kentucky eighth among all U.S. states by percentage increase, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau Foreign Trade Division and WISERTrade.
Kentucky’s strong showing in exports – ranking 17th nationally by dollar amount – continued its years-long trend of punching above its weight. As a state with 4.4 million people, Kentucky ranks 26th nationally in size.
As well, Kentucky’s positive numbers stand in contrast to a 3.3 percent decline nationally in exports during 2016. Additionally, the fact Kentucky is not along a coast speaks volumes about the state’s logistics industry – which includes air cargo, rail, barge and ship, and trucking capacities – and its ever-increasing ability to quickly send products across the world.
Kentucky exported to 199 nations in 2016, with Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Mexico and Brazil as the state’s top five trade partners. The Commonwealth sold nearly $7.5 billion in products and services to Canada last year, nearly three times as much as the next destination, the U.K.
Among the state’s largest percentage increases by destination in 2016 were France (59.8 percent), Malaysia (31.8 percent), the Republic of Korea (28.2 percent), Hong Kong (26.8 percent) and Brazil (17.6 percent).
By industry category, following aerospace were motor vehicles ($3.32 billion), pharmaceuticals and medicines ($1.81 billion), motor vehicle parts ($1.76 billion), resin and synthetic rubber, artificial and synthetic fiber and filament ($1.1 billion) and basic chemicals ($741 million). Those categories are established under the North American Industry Classification System.
Aerospace saw the highest percentage increase in 2016 (24.3 percent), followed by motor vehicle parts (12 percent) and pharmaceuticals and medicines (9 percent).
The Commonwealth ranks sixth nationally in motor vehicle exports for 2016. In total, Kentucky’s automotive industry – with parts, bodies, trailers and whole vehicles combined – exported nearly $5.5 billion in products throughout 2016.
The state’s horses, live, purebred breeding industry ranked first in the nation in 2016, with $195.2 million exported, a 33.1 percent increase over the previous year. Kentucky also exported whisky to Cuba, wine to France and beer to Ireland during 2016.
For more information on Kentucky exports, visit www.kyexports.com.
The state helps businesses learn about and connect with exporting opportunities through the Kentucky Export Initiative. KEI brings together a coalition of business organizations, trade experts and government entities including the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development with a focus on increasing Kentucky exports to create new jobs and diversified markets for the state’s products.
Information on Kentucky’s economic development efforts and programs is available at ThinkKentucky.com. Fans of the Cabinet for Economic Development can also join the discussion on Facebook or follow on Twitter. Watch the Cabinet’s “This is My Kentucky” video on YouTube.
