Thread: Kentucky Fish and Wildlife information

[QUOTE=Amartinbio;3940824]We found good numbers of young-of-year white crappie and decent numbers of young-of-year black crappie. They still have to survive the winter, but so far all signs have pointed to a good to above average spawn for white crappie. Particularly in lake barkley. White crappie tend to spawn better during high rainfall years, while black crappie tend to spawn better during droughts. It will certainly be interesting to see what kind of weather we will have this spring.[/QUO

read post wrong

So is it fair to say Kentucky has more age 5 and 6 fish than Barkley right now but those fish may not be growing as fast as Barkley fish?

Originally Posted by pab1981

So is it fair to say Kentucky has more age 5 and 6 fish than Barkley right now but those fish may not be growing as fast as Barkley fish?

Thats correct. Barkley fish tend to grow a little faster anyway, but this year was very good. The 5 and 6 year old fish are primarily black crappie in kentucky lake, so they have a little bit better chance of surviving to older ages since they are harder to catch than the white crappie which predominate in lake barkley.

However, trapnets are notorious for being good at catching small fish, but not as good at catching the largest fish. So even though we set a lot of nets and caught a lot of crappie, there is still some variation in the catch rates of older fish that we might have missed. Its also the case that older isn't always better. Some 6 year old fish can be 10 inches and some 1 year olds can be over 12 inches.

Amartinbio, many thanks for the detailed report. Hopefully, the crappie fishing will significantly improve in 2021. Awaiting for our 2021 fishing forecast for all the lakes in our state. Slightly concerned about one part of the report, 'Most of the fish from 2018 should be keepers come this spring, but it could be tough fishing'. Hopefully for all the businesses depending on fishermen coming to catch fish do have a good year on crappie catching in 2021. If not, it will be bad for All of them if there is not much success.

Adam, any thoughts on replanting/restoring the buck willows that used to ring every island and back of the bays? Some bays had acres of it in the backs. I know that the survival/proliferation has a lot to do with water level and timing of water on them.

I did see where some cypress trees were planted in a cove or two. Any plan to get some cypress out on the main lake islands (or rip rap) to help hold them? Cormorants seem to be killing off the vegetation that holds them in place.

Originally Posted by smashdn

Adam, any thoughts on replanting/restoring the buck willows that used to ring every island and back of the bays? Some bays had acres of it in the backs. I know that the survival/proliferation has a lot to do with water level and timing of water on them.

I did see where some cypress trees were planted in a cove or two. Any plan to get some cypress out on the main lake islands (or rip rap) to help hold them? Cormorants seem to be killing off the vegetation that holds them in place.

There was an old TVA study which showed that the button bushes (buck brush) could not survive if their root crowns were underwater for too many days. The current and best theory for why the button bushes have died back is that when the drawdown schedule was changed in 1980, it left too much water on the button bushes in the summer. In 1980, the drawdown was changed from a june 15 start date to a july 5th start date to allow more water for boaters on 4th of july weekend. I am not aware of anyone who predicted the negative consequences, but it certainly seems like it has caused the bushes to die back to an elevation of 358 or so instead of extending out to 357 or more. Additionally, the initial water level schedule for kentucky lake in the 40's and 50's likely helped out a lot with getting those bushed established. Back then they used to drop the water level a lot more erratically during the spring and summer to kill mosquitoes in an effort to control malaria. When malaria was no longer a problem here, they switched to more stable water levels. planting more bushes is very unlikely to help since it killed the ones growing there naturally.

The department has indeed been planting some cypress trees. This is because they can survive in deeper water than the button bushes and still provides good cover for fish spawning and juvenile fish. (if the redear are spawning I would not pass up an opportunity to cast the base of a cypress tree). TVA helped us out with a 5,000 dollar grant which we used to create a growing system and purchase trunk guards and fertilizer. By growing the trees out to 5 feet or so we get better survival. Our current schedule is to plant about 1,000 in ky lake each year. The Corps of engineers also got a grant for us on barkley this year that includes planting 1000 cypress trees. So far we have planted them in several coves and we have pretty good survival.

We were able to do some work on the patterson islands several years ago with some mitigation funding. That funding allowed the rip rapping of several islands and has stabilized the shoreline there. We have also planted some cypress trees on the back side of those rip rap sections to further stabilize it. Unfortunately that type of work is expensive and we have no current plans to do more of it. It may or may not surprise you to learn that our local fisheries habitat budget is only 3,500 dollars a year, which unfortunately doesn't buy a lot of rock. However, there are always opportunities for funding here and there.
Cormorants do have a negative impact on the trees due to the acidity in their feces. This has turned some tree islands in other lakes into grass islands. Its an unfortunate problem without an easy solution due to their listing on the international migratory bird treaty. The control of cormorants is all done through a permitting process within the federal government so this isn't a situation where the states can act independently. I have mixed opinions about whether just planting trees on the islands would help. If there is a strong erosional force from the current it is unlikely that young new trees will succeed when old and well established trees failed.

3500 ain't much. That's for both lakes or the whole of the western fisheries area? Either way that is spreading it mighty thin.

I've been spending a fair amount of time on Old Hickory in TN. It has a serious cormorant problem as well and because of that the islands and certain shore areas are damaged due to dying trees. I don't want to see KY and Barkley get to that point if it can be helped. Not to mention they are hard on the fish.

Where are you guys getting the cypress and how are you growing them out to 5'? I attempted to transplant a few that were about 18" tall and they had about a 4' tap root on them. They didn't survive.

Originally Posted by smashdn

3500 ain't much. That's for both lakes or the whole of the western fisheries area? Either way that is spreading it mighty thin.

I've been spending a fair amount of time on Old Hickory in TN. It has a serious cormorant problem as well and because of that the islands and certain shore areas are damaged due to dying trees. I don't want to see KY and Barkley get to that point if it can be helped. Not to mention they are hard on the fish.

Where are you guys getting the cypress and how are you growing them out to 5'? I attempted to transplant a few that were about 18" tall and they had about a 4' tap root on them. They didn't survive.

The 3500 is for everything west of the tradewater, but is mainly spent on barkley and kentucky. We did add some brush piles on beshear last month though. It isn't much, but we stretch it out as far as possible and sometimes beyond.

We actually did a very large diet study on the cormorants here. The obviously eat a lot of fish, but they mainly just eat whatever species is shallow at the time. So for the month of may they eat a lot of sunfish, but outside of that they are mainly feeding on shad. The study began in 2016 so we even observed them eating small silver carp. (thankfully we havent seen any small silver carp since 2015). Cormorants certainly aren't helping our fish population, but at this point the impacts are relatively small and focused around those nesting colonies/islands.

We purchase our trees from the state nursery as seedlings. We then plant them in some caged plastic totes which we have cut in half and filled with sand and compost. We plant 100 per container so they are very crowded. This seems to force them to grow up instead of down or out. I am not a horticulturalist, and I'm sure in all of crappie.com there is someone more qualified, but I would suggest trimming that taproot next time you try the transplant. Trimming seems to work fine, and is preferable to bending it. Alternatively, you could dig a 4 foot hole.