When Hickey analyzes the results, he considers several indicators of fishing quality, including: tournament angler success, catch rate, average weight per bass, fishing hours required per 4-pound-plus bass caught, fishing hours required per 6-pound-plus bass caught, total number of 6-pound-plus bass and average winning bag. Whether an angler seeks fast fishing action, large fish on average, and the best opportunity to catch a trophy bass or some combination, a year of tournament results compiled into a report provides a pretty good picture of where he might find what he seeks.

Willisburg Lake and Elmer Davis Lake, for example, produced the best tournament angler success rates and catch rates in 2008 (the most recent year for which a reporting year was completed at press time), both suggesting the likeliness of fast action; however, the average size of the bass weighed on both lakes was fairly small. Laurel River Lake produced the biggest average size for bass brought to the scales (3.14 pounds) and still produced a good catch rate. Kentucky and Barkley lakes topped most of the big-fish measures in the report.

BASS STOCKINGS
Another project that Hickey works closely with — the Largemouth Bass Stocking Initiative — aims to reduce the lows that commonly occur in bass populations because of poor spawning years and to add consistency to the quality of the bass fishing. A relatively new approach to bass management, the plan begins with annual assessments of age 0 fish that are collected in the fall from lakes all over the state to determine the success of that year’s spawn in individual lakes. If those samples suggest the lake’s bass had a sub-par spawn for that particular lake when compared with years of data from the same waterway, then the KDFWR stocks a moderate number of bass to supplement the spawn.

“We are trying to catch it early,” Hickey said, “where in years past we might not have identified the poor spawn until the next year, at which point it is too late to intervene.”

One important key to success with this program has been stocking 5-inch bass, according to Hickey. The fish get stocked during the fall, so winter is just around the corner. Therefore, it’s vital for the newly stocked fish to be large enough to stand a decent chance of surviving when conditions get tough. The stockings seem to have had more success in some waterways than others, but with the program being fairly new, much remains to be learned about the conditions or types of waters that favor the best stocking success.

Another place where bass stocking has figured prominently into Kentucky’s bass management plan in recent years has been the Ohio River. The KDFWR has stocked more than 200,000 largemouth bass fingerlings into the bays of the Markland Pool on the Ohio River over the past two years to supplement natural reproduction and to build the bass population.

The stocking efforts have proved very effective, according to Hickey, as the stocked fish have turned up in large numbers in spring and fall samples and have had a notable impact on the bass populations within the bays where they have been stocked.

The total long-term effect of the stockings will be tough to track because the bass will be hard to find once they move into the main river, which is extremely difficult to sample effectively. That limitation acknowledged, early indicators suggest good success, and anglers in this area will want to keep an eye on the bass fishing in the backwaters of Markland Pool.

NOTEWORTHY BASS WATERS
Without question, one of the biggest stories in Kentucky’s bass-fishing world in recent years has been the ongoing development of a trophy bass fishery on Cedar Creek Lake in Lincoln County, and thus far the news has been good.