Journal
What we found out, and how we found it
Longer pieces that sit behind the waterway pages — schedules, seasonal timing, dam work, and the arithmetic nobody else bothers to do. Published when there is something worth saying, not on a calendar.
Recent
12 piecesKentucky in December: sauger below the dams, trout, winter pool and closures
KDFWR's own timing puts the start of good sauger fishing below the dams in December. The trout schedule goes quiet, the Corps lakes finish their fall drawdown, and a short list of ramps and lakes stay shut. Here is what the agencies published, read on 7 November 2026, and what they have not.
Kentucky in November: trout stockings, winter pool and the ramps
Twelve tailwaters get trout in the first twelve days of November, several of them below lakes the Corps schedule says should be at winter pool by 1 December. Here is the schedule as KDFWR printed it, what each lake read on 1 November, and what the agencies say about the ramps once the water is down.
Kentucky's FINs lakes: the fall stockings
Forty-five small lakes in city and county parks, rainbow trout from October to March, and a set of limits that is not the statewide one. The lakes by county, the trout schedule as KDFWR has published it, and the regulation's own words.
Kentucky's seasonal catch-and-release trout streams
From 1 October to 31 March, fifteen Kentucky streams are artificial bait only and every trout goes back. The regulation's own words, the streams it names, the fish KDFWR scheduled for them in October, and what opens up on 1 April.
Kentucky crappie limits, lake by lake (2026)
The statewide crappie rule is one line long. The exceptions are what you need to know before you keep a fish: fourteen waters with their own crappie line, thirteen of them with a 9- or 10-inch minimum and four with a 15-fish daily limit. Every one below is quoted from the regulation, with its section number, and checked against KDFWR's own lake pages.
Kentucky crappie fish attractors: the state maps the brush piles, the drawdown moves the water
The state hands you a waypoint file for all three lakes. It gives position and type, never depth, and the published drawdown removes 23 to 24 feet from two of them by 1 December. The arithmetic, the three crappie size limits (one of them in force since June 2025 but new to the printed Guide), and the ramps that close on the way down.
The Water That Closes on 15 October and 1 November
Six wildlife management areas shut ground and water to the public on 15 October. On 1 November, Honker and Fulton bays on Lake Barkley, the backs of Smith and Duncan bays on Kentucky Lake and several Land Between the Lakes lakes follow. The rule sits in a hunting regulation most anglers never open. This is every closure we found in it that touches fishable water, and what stays open.
Cave Run Muskie: Fishing the Fall Drawdown
The Louisville District drops Cave Run half a foot before 14 October and five and a half feet after it. That schedule, not the calendar on your wall, is the fall muskie season.
McAlpine's sauger tailwater — what changed on the bank before the run
The Corps has closed its Kentucky-side trail to Louisville's sauger tailwater, and since March 2026 the whole of Shippingport Island, with no end date given. Peak season is still December to March by KDFWR's own reckoning, which leaves the fall to sort out where you will stand or launch.
Kentucky's Creeks Are Running Below KDFWR's Own Float Window
KDFWR publishes a recommended flow window for every stream it profiles. USGS publishes a median flow for every day of the year. Put the two next to each other and early September stops being a judgement call.
Kentucky's Fall Trout Stocking, September to November 2026
The fall program runs in three acts: a small September opening on seven cold waters, the 1 October switch to no harvest on the seasonal catch-and-release streams, and the October and November waves that carry most of the fish. Here are the published dates, waters and counts for all three months, and the temperature logic behind which waters get fish when.
Why Taylorsville drops two feet and Buckhorn drops twenty-five
Eight Corps lakes, one calendar, a twelve-fold spread in how far the water goes. The published schedule, what it does to shallow water, and the one number nobody publishes.
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