Kentucky's Fishing in Neighborhoods lakes are getting their fall trout now. KDFWR's FINs trout schedule, read on 27 October 2026, covers October, November, February and March, lists 44 lakes, and shows dates from 15 October to 12 November 2026 in its date column. Jacobson Park Lake in Lexington carries the largest figure on the page, 3,000 trout per listed stocking. Jesse W. Thornton Lake in Bowling Green has the latest date, 12 November.
These are not trout streams, and the rules are not the statewide ones. A FINs lake has its own limits, written into 301 KAR 1:201 as the "Special Lakes and Ponds": five rainbow trout a day, four catfish, one largemouth bass of 15 inches or more, fifteen sunfish, and no shad.
Here is what KDFWR has published, lake by lake, and where the page is harder to read than it looks.
What the program is
In KDFWR's words, the department "created the Fishing in Neighborhoods (FINs) program in 2006." "The program currently includes 45 lakes statewide. The aim of the program is to create quality fishing opportunities near cities of all sizes throughout the state." The lakes "are regularly stocked with catfish and rainbow trout throughout the year," and "the sunfish and bass populations are regularly sampled to ensure natural reproduction is meeting the needs of anglers." The program "is a cooperative agreement between KDFWR and city/county municipalities."
That last line matters on the bank. Going by the lake names on KDFWR's list, these are mostly city and county park lakes, plus one at Fort Knox. My reading, not KDFWR's statement: the fishing rules are the state's, but hours and access are the park's, so check the park before you go.
Basis: KDFWR, Fishing in Neighborhoods (FINs) program page, read 27 October 2026.
Who it is for
The program page answers this itself: anglers who want "quality fishing opportunities near cities of all sizes." The licence rules make it a beginner's water and a family one:
- "Resident/Nonresident youth ages 15 and younger do not need a fishing license or trout permit."
- "Residents/Nonresidents age 16 and older must possess a statewide fishing license."
- "Resident/Nonresident fishing license holders must purchase a Trout Permit to possess Rainbow Trout." Without one, the page says, you "can fish for Rainbow Trout but cannot be in possession of trout."
- "Resident seniors aged 65 and older are not required to purchase a trout permit to keep trout," with a condition on the page tied to the Resident Senior License. Read the page's full sentence if that is you.
- "On the Free Fishing Days, which take place the first weekend in June, any angler can fish without a fishing license."
If you are new to trout, our rainbow trout guide covers the fish itself. Nothing about a stocked FINs rainbow asks for special gear. That is my judgment, not KDFWR's.
Basis: KDFWR, Fishing in Neighborhoods (FINs) program page, licence section, read 27 October 2026.
The lakes
KDFWR's FINs lake-maps page lists 45 lakes across 28 counties, alphabetically by county. Grouped by city:
Louisville (Jefferson County), seven lakes: Cherokee Park Lake; Fisherman's Park Lake #3 and #4; Tom Wallace Park Lake; Waverly Park Lake; William F. Miles Angler Lake; William F. Miles Green Heron Lake. No other county has as many.
Lexington (Fayette County), two: the Kentucky Horse Park Lakes and Jacobson Park Lake. Around it: Lake Mingo and Southland Church Lake in Jessamine County, Lusby Lake and Scott County Park Lake in Scott County, and Whitehall Park Lake in Madison County.
Bowling Green (Warren County), one: Jesse W. Thornton Lake.
The rest of the state:
- Northern Kentucky: Camp Ernst Lake (Boone); Alexandria Community Park Lake, Robert J. Barth Lake, Southgate Lake (Campbell); Lake Pollywog, Leary Lake (Grant); Middleton Mills Long Pond, Middleton Mills Shelterhouse Pond, Prisoners Lake (Kenton).
- Owensboro (Daviess): Waymond Morris Park Lake, Yellow Creek Park Lake, Panther Creek Park Lake.
- Frankfort (Franklin): Lower and Upper Sportsman's Lake.
- West: Kess Creek Park Lake (Graves); Clinton Rotary Park Lake (Hickman); Madisonville Park Lake South (Hopkins); Mike Miller Park Lake (Marshall); Lake Montgomery (McCracken).
- Central and east: Anderson County Community Park Lake (Anderson); Millennium Park Pond (Boyle); Flemingsburg Old Reservoir (Fleming); James D. Beville Park Lake (Grayson); Kingdom Come State Park Lake (Harlan); Brickyard Pond (Knox); Logan Hubble Park Lake (Lincoln); Maysville-Mason County Recreation Park Lake (Mason); Carlson Lake, Ft. Knox (Meade); Easy Walker Park Pond (Montgomery); Bloomfield Park Lake (Nelson).
The maps page gives no acreage for any lake, so neither do we.
Basis: KDFWR, FINs Lake Maps page, read 27 October 2026.
The fall and winter trout schedule
KDFWR's FINs Trout Stocking Schedule has a column for each of four months (October, November, February, March) and a column headed "Last Date Stocked." The page carries no publication or revision date, so the date we can give you is the date we read it: 27 October 2026.
Two things about how to read it.
First, the "Last Date Stocked" column runs to 12 November 2026, which had not happened when we read it. The page's own address calls it a "Planned" schedule. My reading, not KDFWR's statement: treat a date after today as the planned fall stocking, and a date before today as the latest stocking done.
Second, most lakes show three numbers against four month columns, and the page as we could read it does not mark which month is blank. So the table below gives each lake's numbers as listed, not by month. Where every listed number is the same, we say so.
Louisville
| Lake | Date column | Trout per listing |
|---|---|---|
| Tom Wallace Park Lake | 15 Oct | 1,500 (×3) |
| Waverly Park Lake | 15 Oct | 1,500 (×3) |
| W. F. Miles Angler Lake | 15 Oct | 750 (×3) |
| W. F. Miles Green Heron Lake | 15 Oct | 500 (×3) |
| Cherokee Park Lake | 22 Oct | 750, 1,500 |
| Fisherman's Park Lake #3 | 22 Oct | 500 (×3) |
| Fisherman's Park Lake #4 | 22 Oct | 500 (×3) |
Lexington and around it
| Lake | County | Date column | Trout per listing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jacobson Park Lake | Fayette | 20 Oct | 3,000 (×3) |
| Ky. Horse Park Rolex Lake | Fayette | 3 Nov | 1,500 (×2) |
| Lake Mingo | Jessamine | 21 Oct | 500 (×3) |
| Southland Church Lake | Jessamine | 21 Oct | 500 (×3) |
| Whitehall Park Lake | Madison | 21 Oct | 1,500 (×3) |
| Lusby Lake | Scott | 3 Nov | 500 (×3) |
| Scott County Park Lake | Scott | 3 Nov | 500 (×3) |
The schedule names one Horse Park water, Rolex Lake; the maps page says "Kentucky Horse Park Lakes."
Bowling Green
| Lake | Date column | Trout per listing |
|---|---|---|
| Jesse W. Thornton Lake | 12 Nov | 1,500 (×3) |
The rest of the state
| Lake | County | Date column | Trout per listing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Camp Ernst Lake | Boone | 3 Nov | 1,500 (×3) |
| Alexandria Comm. Park Lake | Campbell | 3 Nov | 1,500 (×3) |
| Robert J Barth Lake | Campbell | 3 Nov | 750 (×3) |
| Southgate Lake | Campbell | 3 Nov | 500 (×3) |
| Lake Pollywog | Grant | 4 Nov | 750 (×3) |
| Leary Lake | Grant | 4 Nov | 1,500 (×3) |
| Middleton Mills Long Pond | Kenton | 21 Oct | 500 (×3) |
| Middleton Mills Shelterhouse Pond | Kenton | Postponed: low oxygen | 500 (×3) |
| Prisoners Lake | Kenton | 21 Oct | 750 (×3) |
| Panther Creek Park Lake | Daviess | 28 Oct | 750 (×3) |
| Waymond Morris Park Lake | Daviess | 28 Oct | 1,500 (×2) |
| Yellow Creek Park Lake | Daviess | 28 Oct | 750 (×3) |
| Lower Sportsman's Lake | Franklin | 22 Oct | 500, 500, 750 |
| Upper Sportsman's Lake | Franklin | 22 Oct | 1,500 (×3) |
| Kess Creek Park Lake | Graves | 27 Oct | 500 (×3) |
| Clinton Rotary Park Lake | Hickman | 27 Oct | 500 (×3) |
| Madisonville City Park Lake South | Hopkins | Postponed: low water | 1,500 (×3) |
| Mike Miller Park Lake | Marshall | 27 Oct | 750 (×3) |
| Lake Montgomery | McCracken | 27 Oct | 1,500 (×3) |
| Anderson Co. Comm. Park Lake | Anderson | 5 Nov | 500 (×3) |
| Millennium Park Pond | Boyle | 5 Nov | 500 (×3) |
| Flemingsburg Old Reservoir | Fleming | 3 Nov | 1,500 (×2) |
| James D. Beville Park Lake | Grayson | 28 Oct | 750 (×3) |
| Kingdom Come State Park Lake | Harlan | 22 Oct | 500 (×3) |
| Brickyard Pond | Knox | 3 Nov | 1,500 (×2) |
| Logan Hubble Park Lake | Lincoln | 5 Nov | 1,500 (×3) |
| Maysville-Mason Co. Rec. Park Lake | Mason | 3 Nov | 1,500 (×2) |
| Easy Walker Park Pond | Montgomery | 3 Nov | 500 (×3) |
| Bloomfield Park Lake | Nelson | 5 Nov | 500 (×3) |
The postponements are KDFWR's own notes: Madisonville City Park Lake South "Postponed Due to Low Water," Middleton Mills Shelterhouse Pond "Postponed Due to Low Oxygen." Neither note gives a new date.
One FINs lake is missing from the trout schedule altogether: Carlson Lake at Fort Knox. It is on the lake list and on the catfish schedule. The trout page does not say why.
For contrast with the stream program, the September and October trout-stream stockings are in our fall trout stocking article. FINs runs on its own page and its own months.
Basis: KDFWR, *FINs Trout Stocking Schedule*, read 27 October 2026. Counties, dates, figures and notes are the page's; the "(×3)" shorthand and the groupings are ours.
The catfish schedule is a spring one
The program page says the lakes are stocked with catfish "throughout the year." The schedule KDFWR publishes, read on 27 October 2026, does not show a fall or winter catfish stocking. Its month columns are March, April, May and June, and its "Last Date Stocked" entries fall in June 2026, from 1 June (Jacobson Park Lake, Lake Pollywog, Leary Lake) to 12 June (Cherokee Park Lake). A gap on that page is not proof that no fall catfish go in. It is only all that has been published.
For the three cities in this piece, the June 2026 schedule reads:
| Lake | Last date | Catfish per listing |
|---|---|---|
| Jacobson Park Lake | 1 Jun | 2,300 (×4) |
| Ky. Horse Park Rolex Lake | 8 Jun | 1,100 (×2) |
| Tom Wallace Park Lake | 9 Jun | 1,000 (×4) |
| Waverly Park Lake | 8 Jun | 900 (×4) |
| Cherokee Park Lake | 12 Jun | 800 (×2) |
| W. F. Miles Angler Lake | 8 Jun | 700 (×4) |
| Fisherman's Park Lake #3 and #4 | 9 Jun | 400 each (×2) |
| W. F. Miles Green Heron Lake | 8 Jun | 200 (×4) |
| Jesse W. Thornton Lake | 11 Jun | 1,450 (×4) |
Madisonville City Park Lake South's catfish date column reads "Cancelled/Low Water." Carlson Lake at Fort Knox is listed for 1,400 per listing, twice, last dated 2 June.
The schedule does not name the catfish species or give a size, and neither does the program page. If they are channel catfish, our channel catfish guide covers them; KDFWR's pages do not say which.
Basis: KDFWR, *FINs Catfish Stocking Schedule* and Fishing in Neighborhoods (FINs) program page, both read 27 October 2026.
The rules on a FINs lake
The regulation does not use the word FINs. 301 KAR 1:201 Section 7, "Daily Limits and Size Limits for Special Lakes and Ponds," says its requirements "shall apply to all bodies of water established in the List of Special Lakes and Ponds:"
- "(1) Largemouth bass size limit, fifteen (15) inches; daily limit, one (1);"
- "(2) Catfish daily limit, four (4);"
- "(3) Sunfish or bream daily limit, fifteen (15);"
- "(4) Rainbow trout daily limit, five (5); and"
- "(5) A person shall not possess shad or use shad as bait."
Section 8 incorporates "'List of Special Lakes and Ponds', 2026 Edition" by reference. The regulation's history line reads "eff. 9-3-2026."
Every lake on the FINs maps page has a matching entry on that 2026 list, though the list sometimes groups them ("Fisherman's Park lakes," "Miles Park lakes," "Middleton Mills Park ponds"). The list also names two waters that are not on the FINs maps page: Harry T. Clark Community Park Pond (Rowan County) and Owens' Lake (Boone County). The Section 7 limits apply there too.
The program page adds rules of its own, in its words:
- Rainbow trout: "No culling of trout." "Culling is holding a trout in a livewell, fish basket, or stringer and later replacing it with another fish." The regulation's statewide trout entry, Section 2(1)(i)1, reads "No culling statewide."
- "Possession or use of live shad for bait is prohibited at all FINs lakes." The regulation's wording is wider: it says shad, not live shad.
- "All grass carp caught must be immediately released."
- "No cast nets are allowed in FINs lakes for the taking of live bait."
The grass carp and cast net lines come from the program page. I did not find them in Section 7.
Basis: 301 KAR 1:201 Sections 2, 7 and 8, Kentucky Legislative Research Commission (regulation text); KDFWR, List of Special Lakes and Ponds, 2026 Edition; KDFWR, Fishing in Neighborhoods (FINs) program page; all read 27 October 2026.
Using the schedule
This section is editorial: how I would use the page, not something KDFWR says.
A FINs stocking is a known number of fish put into a small, public lake on a known date. Check the date column for your lake before you go, and if it shows a date still ahead, that is the day to plan around. The limit is five rainbows, and under the program's no-culling rule the first five you keep are the five you take home. If you are 15 or younger, you need no licence and no trout permit.
If your lake shows "Postponed," you have no new date until KDFWR posts one.
What we don't know yet
1. Which month each trout number belongs to. Status pending. The schedule has four month columns and most lakes show three numbers; the page as we could read it does not mark which month is blank. Check the live page for your lake.
2. Whether a date in the "Last Date Stocked" column is done or planned. Status pending. Several dates were still ahead when we read it on 27 October. We have treated those as planned. KDFWR does not say.
3. When the schedule was published or last changed. Status pending. Neither stocking page carries a date.
4. Fall and winter catfish. Status pending. The program page says "throughout the year"; the only catfish schedule published covers March to June.
5. Which catfish, and what size. Status pending. Neither the schedule nor the program page names the species or gives a size.
6. Why Carlson Lake is not on the trout schedule, and what Fort Knox requires to fish it. Status pending; we have not read Fort Knox's rules for Carlson Lake.
7. The count. The program page says 45 lakes and the maps page lists 45. The trout schedule lists 44 and the regulation's list has 44 entries, some of them grouped and two of them not on the FINs page. We have not tried to force these to agree.
Sources and how confident we are
Check it yourself
- KDFWR, Fishing in Neighborhoods: https://fw.ky.gov/Fish/Pages/Fishing-in-Neighborhoods.aspx
- FINs lake maps: https://fw.ky.gov/Fish/Pages/FINs_Lake_Maps.aspx
- FINs trout stocking schedule: https://fw.ky.gov/Fish/Pages/Planned-Monthly-Trout-Stocking-Schedule.aspx
- FINs catfish stocking schedule: https://fw.ky.gov/Fish/Pages/Catfish-Stocking-Schedule.aspx
- 301 KAR 1:201: https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/kar/titles/301/001/201/
Sources
Program and lakes
- Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, Fishing in Neighborhoods (FINs): program description, the FINs rules table and notes, and licence requirements, read 27 October 2026: fw.ky.gov/Fish/Pages/Fishing-in-Neighborhoods.aspx
- KDFWR, FINs Lake Maps: the 45 lakes and their counties, read 27 October 2026: fw.ky.gov/Fish/Pages/FINs_Lake_Maps.aspx
Stocking schedules
- KDFWR, FINs Trout Stocking Schedule: months covered, every lake, date column, trout figures and postponement notes, read 27 October 2026: fw.ky.gov/Fish/Pages/Planned-Monthly-Trout-Stocking-Schedule.aspx
- KDFWR, FINs Catfish Stocking Schedule: months covered, June 2026 dates, catfish figures, the Madisonville cancellation, read 27 October 2026: fw.ky.gov/Fish/Pages/Catfish-Stocking-Schedule.aspx
Regulation
- 301 KAR 1:201, Kentucky Legislative Research Commission: Section 7 special-lake limits, Section 8 incorporation by reference, Section 2(1)(i)1 culling, effective date, read 27 October 2026: apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/kar/titles/301/001/201/
- KDFWR, List of Special Lakes and Ponds, 2026 Edition: the 44 entries the Section 7 limits apply to, read 27 October 2026: fw.ky.gov/Fish/Documents/List_of_Special_Lakes_and_Ponds_2026_Edition.pdf
Stocking dates are KDFWR's plans and move with weather, water and hatchery logistics; two were postponed when we read the page. Regulations change. Check KDFWR and your park's own hours before you go.