Whether you are a dyed-in-the-wool flyfisherman or a corn and cheese type of guy, or somewhere in between, Kentucky waterways have plenty of opportunities to meet any kind of trout fisherman's needs.

One of the best things about trout fishing is that you can catch them with just about whatever kind of approach you enjoy most. The trout-stocking program developed by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) caters to a very wide range of angler expectation and experience.

Combined, the Bluegrass State is stocked with rainbows in over 100 different places. Some of these waters also receive brown trout and in some more remote settings, brook trout are stocked. Both the KDFWR and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) release fish into various waters. Most of the USFWS fish are placed in streams in the Daniel Boone National Forest, where habitat is suitable. The KDFWR handles trucking fish to the rest of the creeks, tailwaters and lakes.

The additional Kentucky waters receive 926,850 rainbow trout each year, starting in April. The brown trout figure is around 35,000, with 30,000 of those being poured into the Cumberland River below Wolf Creek Dam. There are four or five catch-and-release-only brook trout streams that are stocked annually. Together, these three fishery resources are being supplied with almost one million trout each year, all of which are raised at the Wolf Creek Hatchery operated by the USFWS at Lake Cumberland. The KDFWR supplements the operating cost of the hatchery to maintain the level of trout production that supplies the state's various stockings.

So how does the KDFWR decide which waterways get trout? Although 100 locations, and nearly one million fish sounds like a great number, not every lake or stream has an established trout fishery. There are some requirements a waterway must have in order for trout to survive, and then grow as well. Trout don't reproduce in Kentucky, nor are they native, so the health of the fishery is dependent on selecting waters where they can make it through all year long. In a word, waters that get too warm in summer would wipe out any trout, say, placed in there in early spring, so it's not worthwhile to add them to the stocking list. In fact, last fall the KDFWR had to postpone several stream stockings because the drought, coupled with very warm weather late into the season, kept water temperatures too high.

The KDFWR has ranked trout streams based on the quality of habitat, water temperatures and other factors. Before he retired after more than 30 years of service last fall, KDFWR fisheries Assistant Director Jim Axon administered Kentucky's trout program. He worked with agency district fishery biologists to help identify and examine many streams across the Commonwealth, and judge them on their merits to support trout. This extensive effort now allows the agency knowledge of where trout fisheries may be able to develop into more than strictly put-and-take fishing, and in some cases, determine where both rainbow and brown trout might both do well in the same waterway.