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Photo from KDF
February days in the 60s make for crowded boat ramps and golf courses during a time of year usually spent indoors.
Everything, nature wise, seems a couple of weeks ahead of schedule. Buds show on lilac bushes, green grass already grows in bunches and the sound of lawn mowers permeates an afternoon backyard barbecue.
The rare winter temperatures may alter white bass spawning runs as well.
“With the weather pattern so far, I would be looking at the white bass getting going a little earlier than usual,” said Rob Rold, Northwestern Fisheries District biologist for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “When we’ve had consecutive warm days, the white bass run up a bit into the headwaters above Nolin River Lake, but when it cools they go back down in the lake. They will do false runs until it gets right.”
Water temperatures are in the low 50s on Nolin River Lake, while other lakes such as Taylorsville Lake are flirting with water temperatures in the mid 50s.
“It should be getting close,” said David Baker, Central Fisheries District biologist for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. “We are doing a creel survey on Herrington and the white bass are staging in the upper one-third of the lake, waiting for the next temperature spike. A good warm front with water temperatures getting into the upper 50s, they will start moving to the shoals in the upper lake of both Herrington and Taylorsville.”
Baker said Herrington gets the nod for size of white bass. “There are a lot of really big white bass in Herrington, many up to 14 inches long. For catching a big white bass, Herrington is better than Taylorsville,” he said. Taylorsville Lake produces numbers of white bass, but less size.
Anglers may access the upper section of Herrington Lake and Dix River via Bryants Camp Boat Ramp in Garrard County. Bank anglers may access the Salt River above Taylorsville Lake via River Road on the Taylorsville Lake Wildlife Management Area until the opening of spring turkey season April 15. Boaters use Van Buren Boat Ramp on Taylorsville Lake.
Nolin River Lake holds arguably the best white bass population in Kentucky.
Rold said the Cane Run area, known to locals as the “Three Fingers,” in the upper lake upstream to Broad Ford at the KY 1214 Bridge is usually where the white bass runs begin.
“The length of day really dictates when they will run, even if it is not the preferred water temperature,” Rold said. “They start staging around Cane Run. It is a bit early, but they will come on soon.”
Rold said bank anglers use the access at Bacon Creek for productive white bass fishing. “Go to Bacon Creek ramp and walk the bank up or down,” he said. “The Corps property goes all the way up past Broad Ford. At winter pool, Broad Ford is the first shoal on Nolin River upstream of the lake.”
The tailwaters downstream of the locks and dams on the lower Green River also provide excellent white bass fishing. “The water below Lock and Dam 1 at Spottsville, Lock and Dam 2 at Calhoun and Lock and Dam 3 at Rochester all have decent white bass,” Rold said. “The mouth of Pond River downstream of Calhoun at Jewel City has a big white bass fishery. They run up into Pond River.”
Anglers may access the mouth via a public boat ramp at Jewel City. The tailwater below Lock and Dam 2 has a boat ramp and limited bank access at the end of Second Street in Rumsey, across the river from Calhoun. The tailwaters below Lock and Dam 3 at Rochester offer excellent bank access just west of town on Boat Ramp Road via KY 70.
The smaller male white bass make the initial runs. You will catch many fish during this time, but most will be of similar size. You often catch fish on consecutive casts when the males are running.
“By the first weeks of April, the females show up and it is prime,” Baker said. “This is the best fishing of spring runs.”
Running white bass hit anything that resembles baitfish with abandon, one of the keys to their enduring popularity. When the spring white bass runs peak, nothing else compares to the furious fishing.
White, chartreuse or gray in-line spinners are hard to beat during the runs, but 2-inch white curly tailed grubs rigged on 1/16-ounce leadheads also produce many white bass. Anglers also suspend 1/32-ounce white and red, pink or yellow feather jigs from 18 to 24 inches deep under small bobbers and allow them to drift in the current. Some anglers tip the feather jigs with small crappie minnows to make them more attractive to white bass.
As the runs peak, small topwater propeller baits draw vicious strikes, but you get more consistent action with subsurface presentations.
The next long sustained warm front will get the white bass running. It is time for the most exciting fishing of the year. Remember to buy your fishing license. The new license year began March 1.
The Home, Garden & Remodeling Show opened this morning at the Kentucky Exposition Center. The show features home improvement and landscaping exhibitors from all over the nation, but the majority are from right here in Kentucky. The more than 300 exhibitors will showcase their products and services, which include everything from hot tubs and roofing materials to fire places, landscaping and deck furniture.
The show also features many information sessions that will cover gardening and landscaping tips, insect control (as well as what not to control), and cooking classes. L&N Federal Credit Union will be sponsoring a tree giveaway: 4,000 saplings of several varieties will be given to show guests who stop by their booth.
The Kids Craft Area for children up to 10 years of age provides the opportunity to take home a flower that they planted themselves, and a bug house that will feature tropical insects. If you need a break from all of the information, there will also be multiple performances each day that will feature performing Frisbee dogs.
The show exhibits occupy the Kentucky Exposition Centers’s south wing halls B & C all weekend. Show hours today and Saturday are from 10 AM to 9 PM and Sunday from 10 AM until 5 PM.
Pets, excluding service animals, will not be allowed into the show area. Admission is $10 per person (16 and older) with free admission for children accompanied by an adult. Those with a military ID will be admitted free and seniors will receive a discount. Credit cards will not be accepted at the Ticket Gate. Advanced tickets are available online through Facebook with a Buy 1, Get 1 Offer or through the show page with a $2 discount along with a one year subscription to one of four magazines. Kentucky Exposition Center parking is $8 per car.
Follow Louisville Dispatch on Facebook for more details and additional photos from the 2017 Louisville Home, Garden, and Remodeling Show. Continue reading
Five new lakes enrolled in the Fishing in Neighborhoods Program (FINs) will receive stockings of trout in February, a boon to anglers tired of being house bound.
Flemingsburg Old Reservoir, an 11-acre lake in Fleming County, gets 900 trout while Leary Lake, a 5-acre lake on Lloyd Wildlife Management Area in Grant County, gets the same amount of trout. The 9-acre Logan-Hubble Park Lake just south of Lancaster in Garrard County will receive 900 trout as well.
The 2-acre Kess Creek Park Lake in Mayfield in Graves County will get 500 trout as will the Clinton Rotary Park Lake in Clinton in Hickman County. Both of these lakes are in the Purchase Region.
“We are stocking a larger-sized trout in all of our FINs lakes for 2017,” said Dane Balsman, coordinator of the FINs program for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “The larger trout now average about 10 to 11 inches long and one-half pound in weight.”
Kentucky Fish and Wildlife formerly stocked its traditional “stocker” trout of 9 to 10 inches in the FINs lakes. “We wanted to improve angler satisfaction and utilization as well as reducing hooking and handling mortality. These fish won’t be caught as many times and anglers are more likely to harvest a larger trout.”
Balsman cautions anglers fishing on a FINs lake to practice beneficial catch and release tactics when they catch a trout, especially as the water warms. Anglers can purchase inexpensive fish grabbers to prevent touching or squeezing a trout when removing the hook. These devices prove valuable when handling fish that may cause injury, such as a catfish or fish with teeth, such as a muskellunge.
Forty-three lakes across Kentucky are in the FINs program. They offer fantastic fishing for trout, but also excellent fishing for catfish and largemouth bass.
“We will start in March with the catfish stockings in FINs lakes,” Balsman said. “Due to hatchery expansion, we now have the capabilities to raise all of the FINs catfish in house. We will stock about 125,000 catfish in our FINs lakes.”
Largemouth bass anglers usually turn to waters such as Kentucky Lake, Barren River Lake or state-owned lakes, such as Lake Malone or Lake Kincaid, for a chance at a trophy fish.
“We see exceptional largemouth bass in the FINs lakes, many of them big bass,” Balsman said. “We saw a 9.7-pound largemouth bass from Mike Miller Park Lake this past year, my personal best I’ve seen in a FINs lake. We routinely see 6- to 8-pound bass in the spring.” Four-acre Mike Miller Park Lake lies near Draffenville in Marshall County.
Balsman recommends early spring as the time to catch these bruisers. “We stock these lakes with trout and the bass eat them and grow big,” he said. A white spinnerbait with a silver Colorado blade works well for trophy pre-spawn largemouth bass in small lakes, especially when rains colored the water a touch. A large soft-plastic swimbait in trout colors may also work well in these lakes.
Many anglers flock to Kentucky Lake or Lake Barkley each May for the redear sunfish spawn. Anglers do not need to go that far.
“Some of these lakes have really good redear sunfish in them,” Balsman said. “Three Springs Park Lake near Bowling Green and Madisonville City Park Lake South have great populations of redear sunfish. Both lakes offer trophy potential of 10-inch and longer redear sunfish.”
Lake Mingo in Nicholasville, just south of Lexington has moderate numbers of redear sunfish, commonly called shellcrackers. However, Balsman said some of them are true trophies, running 12 inches or more.
“The trout and catfish are for put and take fishing,” Balsman said. “There is trophy potential for redear sunfish and some of these lakes are great bluegill lakes as well.”
The main point of the FINs program is providing a place close to home for folks to go and have a reasonable expectation of catching fish.
“We want people to be able to go fish the FINs lakes after work in spring and summer or take the kids and fish for an hour or two on the weekends and catch fish,” Balsman said. “The convenience factor is whole point of the FINs program.”
Remember, current fishing licenses expire Feb. 28. It is a good idea to buy your fishing license soon.