Thread: Kentucky Lake Question

No pole limits here.

mrdux is correct ... KY does not have a pole limit.

But, it may be of interest to you to know that KY/Barkley Lakes (within the borders of KY's waters & the reciprocal agreement waters) have a 20/day/person creel limit. The Possession limit is two days creel limit, after two or more days afield ... but, cleaned fish do not count towards your possession limit (from day three, forward).

What that means is ... you can catch 20/person/day on day one --- 20/person/day on day two --- and if those 40 fish are cleaned, you can then catch 20/person/day on day three ... and still be legal.

That's my interpretation of the law, anyway. Your best bet would be to contact Paul Rister ... West KY biologist for KDFWR 270-753-3886 and ask him for a legal interpretation. (and if he disagrees with my interpretation, I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know )

... luck2ya ... cp

Actually, you must abide by the creel limit for the state's waters that you are fishing in. So, even in the reciprocal area, if you are in TN waters your creel limit is 30. That's according to the wording in the KY fishing guide.

Originally Posted by noodledancer77

Actually, you must abide by the creel limit for the state's waters that you are fishing in. So, even in the reciprocal area, if you are in TN waters your creel limit is 30. That's according to the wording in the KY fishing guide.

My understanding is... If you are fishing in the Tn. portion of the reciprocal area and you are fishing on a Ky. Lic. you can only keep 20. Otherwise if you get checked you could just say you were fishing Tn. waters.

I'll have to look into that again. I may be wrong.

Originally Posted by noodledancer77

Actually, you must abide by the creel limit for the state's waters that you are fishing in. So, even in the reciprocal area, if you are in TN waters your creel limit is 30. That's according to the wording in the KY fishing guide.

... that you'd have to be fishing on a TN license & camping in TN, before the 30 per day limit would apply ?? Otherwise, why have a 20/day creel in KY ... if everyone could just say they were fishing in the reciprocal waters & caught a TN limit ??

I don't think it "means" what you think it "says". I think it means that your KY license (or TN license) ALLOWS you to FISH that portion of the lake ... rather than use the state borderline to mark the two sections of the lake. I think you would still have to obey the creel/possession limits of the state where you're temporarily residing (camping/lodging).

This might be another question to put to KDFWR for clarification. Even the reciprocal waters (KY Lake) law - KAR 1:220 (Section 4) does not clearly define this.

... cp

Originally Posted by prister

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.

.

I like to fish in the Tennessee portion of KY Lake.

I know from higway 79 south is considered Tennessee water. so all TN bag limits apply.

I love to fish from higway 79 south because there is usually less boaters, and there are a lot of shallow coves that warm faster in the spring time.

Blood River, Cypress cove, and Big Sandy are all great areas to fish.

Good Luck with your fishing season.