FRANKFORT, Ky. – The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources will collect walleye and sauger from waters throughout the state from late January through spring.
“Both the walleye and sauger fisheries in Kentucky wouldn’t be as good without stocking,” said David Baker, stream fisheries biologist for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “We will take some of these fish as broodfish to the hatchery, spawn them off and return them to the waters from which they came.”
Baker said broodfish collection could start as soon as next week if the weather cooperates. Broodstock collected in the coming weeks will help provide better fishing in Kentucky in the future.
Fisheries crews will collect Lake Erie strain walleye, which thrive in lake environments, and native walleye, a riverine fish whose populations declined due in part to rivers being dammed.
Lake Erie strain walleye will be collected from Carr Creek Lake in Knott County, Paintsville Lake in Johnson and Morgan counties, Laurel River Lake in Whitley and Laurel counties, Lake Cumberland in Russell County, the Russell Fork River in Pike County and the Green River in Taylor County.
Employees will also collect native walleye for an ongoing restoration effort to reestablish that strain in its former range. Fisheries employees plan to collect native river strain walleye broodstock from the Rockcastle River, the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River and the Barren River, among others.
Crews will collect broodstock sauger from the Ohio River below the Meldahl and Markland dams.
