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Create 1,000 shoreline laydowns to improve bass spawning habitat.
Kentucky Lake is well known for its bass populations and each year it draws more than 100,000 bass fishing trips in the Kentucky-owned portion alone. It is no secret that the bass numbers are down in Kentucky Lake. The goal of this project will be to improve the recruitment of largemouth bass by creating spawning cover on over 5 miles of suitable shoreline. Kentucky Lake is a huge lake and state agencies are small, so affecting the fish population is going to require a lot of money and volunteer time.
Kentucky Lake was impounded in 1944. As the reservoir has aged it has lost most of its original flooded terrestrial cover. In a natural lake, this cover would be consistently replaced by natural tree laydowns. However, as a flood control reservoir it is subject to an annual fall and winter drawdown of 5 feet. As a result of the drawdown and decades of bank erosion, most of the shoreline is devoid of natural woody cover and vegetation. This is particularly true during the fall and winter when the few natural laydowns that exist are often dewatered and inaccessible to our fish.

Largemouth bass spawning cover will be created by placing artificial laydowns in areas with the appropriate gravel substrate and slope. Artificial laydowns are trees placed in shallow water and sunk with concrete blocks. The process involves first cutting down a tree (approx. 6in DBH) from the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area on the lake’s edge and dragging it towards the bank where a boat is waiting. We then lift the top of the tree onto the front of the boat. Next, we use rope to tie one concrete block to the tree along the trunk and another block closer to the tree’s top. Then the boat driver reverses while someone in the boat holds the top of the tree to drag it into the shallow water, at which point they will let it sink. Hardwoods are generally used as they are available with the occasional cedar or elm tree as needed. Trees are placed perpendicular to the shoreline to best mimic most natural laydowns with the treetops farthest into the water. To maximize the potential use by bass, laydowns will be placed so that they are in less than 10 feet of water at summer pool and approximately 30 feet apart along gravel banks. This work will be focused away from the main lake and within smaller pockets that can provide some protection from wind, waves and heavy current. Although natural wood tends to decay after a few years, the shallowness of these structures should allow the blocks to be reused in the future by simply replacing the trees.
This project will be completed in coordination with KDFWR, who will provide staff support and equipment. All tree cutting will be conducted by trained KDFWR personnel, however, they do not have the manpower or budget to create this many laydowns. This grant will be used to purchase 2,000 cull concrete blocks and rope. Once the trees are cut, volunteers will be used to drag the trees to the water and attach them to the concrete blocks. Kentucky B.A.S.S. Nation will help coordinate the volunteer efforts, which we expect to include several youth groups such as high school bass fishing clubs. By working directly with KDFWR staff these youth will learn the importance of giving back to help conserve the resource for the future.
KDFWR and Kentucky B.A.S.S. Nation will work to provide educational information about this project and bass spawning in general through available social media platforms. This information will be meant to increase the knowledge on why we choose to implement simulated laydowns and what they mean for anglers. Active fisheries management like this is not often attempted in reservoirs this large, but with enough people involved, anything is possible.

Following several documented weak bass spawns from 2010-2015, the goal of this project is to provide more bass with optimal spawning habitat and juvenile habitat to potentially improve upcoming bass spawns, and therefore, improve catch rates of bass by anglers. Researchers have shown that largemouth bass prefer to spawn on gravel substrate near simple cover such as trees that have fallen off the bank. Furthermore, largemouth bass are not community spawners and typically create beds at least 30 feet from one another. The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) recently began experimenting with shallow water bass spawning habitat in nearby Lake Barkley. KDFWR’s recently conducted snorkel surveys revealed that the new spawning habitat was being using by bass and other species like bluegill, redear, and longear sunfish. There are abundant areas of Kentucky Lake which seem to have the appropriate gravel and slope, but are missing the simple cover. Getting this grant would start to fix that problem on over 5 miles of shoreline.

Spawning flats designated for growth of bass, bream, bluegill and redear.

KDFWR and Kentucky B.A.S.S. Nation will work to provide educational information about this project and bass spawning in general through available social media platforms. This information will be meant to increase the knowledge on why we choose to implement simulated laydowns and what they mean for anglers. Active fisheries management like this is not often attempted in reservoirs this large, but with enough people involved, anything is possible.