Thread: creel limits on ky lake

I suspect the CO that checks you and your proximity to TN waters is going to have a lot to do with whether you receive a ticket.

If a CO checks you at KY dam and you have 30 crappie in your livewell, I would pretty well bet that you are going to get a ticket and can have your day in court.

At Kentucky and Barkley Lakes, the daily creel for crappie is 20. The possession limit is 40 crappie. The possession limit is two times the daily limit and excludes processes fish. Example. You are camping, on Monday you harvest 20 crappie and take them back to camp and clean them, freeze them or eat them. Legally you can not harvest any more crappie on Monday, because you have reached your daily limit. On tuesday, you harvest another 20 crappie, take them back to camp and clean them. Again, you can't harvest anymore crappie that day. On Wednesday you can do it again. The key is the word "cleaned or processed". Where you would be illegal of over possession is if you did not clean the fish. So you caught 20 on Monday and left them in the cooler at camp and then caugth 20 more on Tuesday and did not clean them. Then on Wednesday you could not harvest anymore crappie, because you already have your possession of 40 unprocessed fish. The key again, is just process your daily catch.

The recipical agree on Kentucky Lake is from Highway 68 in KY to the Highway 79 bridge in TN. However the way the agreement is written is that you go by the fishing regulations for the state's waters you are fishing in. So technically you could launch at Blood River, cross the lake an fish in TN waters and keep 30 crappie. As long as you don't stop to fish in KY on your way back to the ramp you will be legal. If you get checked at the ramp with 30 crappie, you need to be ready to prove that you caught them in TN and had not fished in KY waters.

I did check with TWRA on their possession law in TN waters, and their possession law is differnet than KY. You can not possess over double their daily limit, processed or not. So even if you process them, you can not have over 60 in more than a two day period.

One last comment. Don't go out and catch your limit every day or a lot of days, brag about how many crappie you catch, and then complain that the populations are declining. Enjoy the fishery, catch what you need, but leave a few for seed. Not to preach catch and release, but look at the bass fisheries, they do exceptionally well because bass anlgers don't harvest everything they catch. And don't catch your limit of crappie in the morning, clean them and go back to catch more in the afternoon. That is illgeal, and we are watching you.

Originally Posted by noodledancer77

Here's the thing,

It's not illegal to possess more than twenty crappie in KY. So, if you have 30 crappie that were caught in TN waters in your boat on your way back through KY waters technically you are legal and the burden of proof is on the LEO to prove where the fish came from. It is illegal to keep more than 20 crappie from Ky waters, but they would have to know where the fish came from.

You're correct that it's not illegal to possess more than 20 Crappie in KY ..... IF you've been fishing for two days. IF you're alone in your boat, you're daily creel limit is 20 Crappie ... so if you had 30 in your boat ANYWHERE on KY's portion of the lakes, you'd be in violation ... regardless of where/when you caught them. IMHO
You certainly don't want to catch 40 Crappie in KY waters & then go to TN, banking on telling them that you have a KY Posession Limit (2days creel) :p

Regardless of whether or not you fought it in court & won ... you'd still be out some money & time. That in itself is reason enough for me to abide by the 20/day creel rule.

... cp

for clearing that up for us. Appreciate it !!

... cp

ps ... if you have the time, could you also address the questions in the thread titled "Kentucky Lake Question". It's similar to this, but refers to the reciprocal waters area.

Who's running from Hillman's to Big Sandy and back? That is a heck of a run in my book.

Originally Posted by smashdn

Who's running from Hillman's to Big Sandy and back? That is a heck of a run in my book.

Hillman's to Big Sandy to KY Dam and then back to Hillman's.

The fuel bill will be twice the cost of the ticket for being over the creel limit. :D