Photo by Tom Evans.

Among anglers, hybrid striped bass do not have the same celebrity status that largemouths, smallmouths, or even trout do. Despite this, hybrids have definitely earned some acclaim all their own. They have a dedicated following of anglers who believe that hybrids are some of the best game fish out there.

And that’s no real surprise. After all, hybrids are very exciting to catch. They’re well distributed around our state and can be caught year ‘round. What more could any angler want?

Kentucky has a very active hybrid bass-stocking program, which has been functioning for many years.

The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) raises and stocks around 1 million hybrid stripers each year. A number of different waters receive these hybrids and are providing some excellent fishing opportunities for anglers.

Some of our larger reservoirs receive large numbers of 1 1/2-inch hybrids. Barren River Lake was stocked with 204,000 hybrids, while Rough River Lake received 105,000; Taylorsville Lake received 63,000, and Fishtrap Lake received 23,000.

Herrington Lake received around 50,000 of the smaller hybrids and another 1,100 hybrid stripers of 5 inches. The 5-inch hybrids were supplemental fish left over from other stockings.

As part of the FINS (Fishing In Neighborhoods) program, around five of the state’s urban fishing lakes also received stockings of hybrids.

Assistant Fisheries Director Jeff Ross says the KDFWR is trying to get the program established to provide fishing opportunity for urban anglers.

These urban lakes are stocked with substantially larger fish. The hybrid fingerlings stocked into the FINS lakes are around 10 inches in length.

Another special stocking takes place at Guist Creek Lake. Last year, this 317-acre Shelby County water received approximately 5,500 hybrids 6 inches long.

Ross said they weren’t getting the return with smaller fish at Guist Creek, so they’re experimenting to see whether stocking larger fish will improve conditions.

Lakes are not the only waters that receive hybrids. Both the Ohio and the Kentucky rivers are also included in the stocking program.

Last year, the Ohio River received almost 500,000 hybrids. Most all of the river’s pools were stocked with good numbers of 1 1/2-inch fish.

There were 44,000 fish stocked into the Meldahl Pool, 112,000 into the Markland Pool, 60,000 into the McAlpine Pool, 89,000 into the Cannelton Pool, 70,000 into the Newburgh Pool, 33,000 into the Uniontown Pool and 71,000 into the Smithland Pool.

A couple of years ago, the KDFWR also started a program at the Kentucky River to “beef up fishing” there, according Jeff Ross. He says the fishery is still in the building stage, but has good potential for the future because of the efforts the KDFWR is putting into the river.

The Kentucky River received two different sizes of hybrids last year.

Around 600,000 hybrid fry were stocked into the river, but Ross says they don’t see real good survival rates with fry. He says our stocking program for hybrids is fairly established, but the KDFWR is still trying to tweak it.

The biologists are experimenting with stocking different-sized fish in certain locations to see what will provide the greatest return for anglers.

Most of the stocked fish come from the Minor Clark Fish Hatchery in Morehead. The Peter W. Pfeiffer Fish Hatchery in Frankfort hatches a lot of the hybrids, but then most are transferred to the Clark Hatchery where they remain until they reach stocking size. However, some of the 5- and 6-inch fish stocked last year came from Pfeiffer.