KDFWR's November 2026 trout schedule is up, and it is short and front-loaded. Read on 1 November, it lists 46 stockings and 47,300 trout on five dates: 3, 4, 5, 10 and 12 November. Twelve of those stockings go into tailwaters below lake dams, 13,900 trout between them, and eleven of the twelve are scheduled by 5 November. The last is the Nolin River tailwater, 2,000 trout on 12 November.
Above those tailwaters, the Corps' published schedule has most of the lakes heading for winter pool by 1 December, and Taylorsville starting its two-foot drop on 15 November. The Corps' own lake records on 1 November show that some lakes are well on their way and some are sitting almost exactly at summer pool. That gap is what this piece is about.
The September and October stockings are in our fall trout stocking article. The drawdown schedule itself is in the fall drawdown article. This one covers the next four weeks.
The November schedule: the tailwaters
These are the tailwater entries, in KDFWR's order and spelling. The page gives counts only, no species.
| Date | Tailwater | County | Trout |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tue 3 Nov | Martins Fork Lake Tailwaters | Harlan | 750 |
| Tue 3 Nov | Carr Creek Lake Tailwaters | Knott | 1,000 |
| Wed 4 Nov | Grayson Lake Tailwaters | Carter | 1,000 |
| Wed 4 Nov | Yatesville Lake Tailwaters | Lawrence | 750 |
| Wed 4 Nov | Cave Run Lake Tailwaters | Rowan | 1,000 |
| Wed 4 Nov | Buckhorn Lake Tailwaters | Perry | 1,000 |
| Wed 4 Nov | Dewey Lake Tailwaters | Floyd | 1,000 |
| Wed 4 Nov | Paintsville Lake Tailwaters | Johnson | 2,000 |
| Thu 5 Nov | Taylorsville Lake Tailwaters | Spencer | 500 |
| Thu 5 Nov | Herrington Lake Tailwaters | Mercer | 900 |
| Thu 5 Nov | Fish Trap Lake Tailwaters | Pike | 2,000 |
| Thu 12 Nov | Nolin Lake Tailwaters | Edmonson | 2,000 |
| Tailwater total | 13,900 |
The Herrington Lake tailwater is on the list, but Herrington Lake is not on the Louisville District drawdown schedule, so it is not in the lake table below. The same goes for Martins Fork, Grayson, Yatesville, Dewey, Paintsville and Fishtrap.
Basis: KDFWR, Monthly Trout Stocking, November 2026, read 1 November 2026. The total is our addition.
The rest of the month
The other 34 entries are streams, small lakes and park lakes. Two of the streams are on the seasonal catch-and-release list covered in our catch-and-release article: Floyds Fork Creek (Jefferson), 2,000 trout on 4 November, and Otter Creek, 500 on the Fort Knox reach and 1,000 at the Otter Creek ORA on 10 November. Fish stocked into those two cannot be kept until April.
The other streams on the schedule: Greasy Creek (Leslie, 500, 3 November), Wolf Creek (Martin, 1,000, 4 November), Right Fork Beaver Creek (Floyd, 500, 4 November) and Sinking Creek (Breckinridge, 400, 10 November).
10 November also puts 1,750 trout into three Peabody WMA lakes: Robs Lake (500), Flycatcher Lake (500) and Access Lake (750), all Muhlenberg County. Peabody's waterfowl-refuge closure, covered in our refuge closures article, names Goose, Island and South lakes; none of the three stocked lakes is among them.
The remaining entries are mostly Fishing in Neighborhoods park lakes, whose own schedule and limits are in our FINs article, plus Martin County Lake (Milo), Pikeville City Lake, Grants Branch Lake, Fagen Branch Lake and Vastwood Park Lake.
By day, our count of KDFWR's page:
| Date | Entries | Trout |
|---|---|---|
| Tue 3 Nov | 14 | 14,000 |
| Wed 4 Nov | 13 | 14,500 |
| Thu 5 Nov | 10 | 10,650 |
| Tue 10 Nov | 7 | 4,650 |
| Thu 12 Nov | 2 | 3,500 |
| Total | 46 | 47,300 |
Basis: KDFWR, Monthly Trout Stocking, November 2026, read 1 November 2026. Counts and totals are ours.
The waters nobody announces
The same page repeats its standing note: "Stocking dates for streams on Federal Property are not announced ahead of time." It names them: Bark Camp Creek, Cane Creek, Chimney Top Creek, Craney Creek, East Fork Indian Creek, Middle Fork Red River, North Fork Triplett Creek, Rock Creek, Swift Camp Creek, War Fork and Hatchery Creek. And: "Specific stocking dates for the Cumberland Tailwaters are also not announced in advance."
So the Cumberland River tailwater is not on this schedule, and that does not mean it gets no fish in November. It means you will not know the date.
Basis: KDFWR, Monthly Trout Stocking, November 2026, read 1 November 2026.
Same as last November, a day earlier
KDFWR's archive shows November 2025 in full, and the tailwater program is the same program.
- Same twelve tailwaters, same counts. Every tailwater on this year's list was stocked in November 2025 at the number it is scheduled for now.
- A day earlier. Last year's dates were 4, 5, 6, 12 and 13 November. This year's are 3, 4, 5, 10 and 12. Nolin's tailwater went in on 13 November 2025; it is scheduled for 12 November this year.
- Nearly the same size. By our count the November 2025 archive holds 45 entries and 45,800 trout. This year's schedule has 46 and 47,300. The difference is in the park lakes: Eagle Lake (Rowan, 500) was stocked in November 2025 and is not on this year's list; Middleton Mills Park Shelterhouse Lake (Kenton, 500) and Jesse Thornton Lake (Warren, 1,500) are on this year's list and not in last November's.
The archive runs September 2025 to August 2026. Its December 2025 section has no entries. We do not read that as no December stockings, only as nothing posted.
Basis: KDFWR, Yearly Trout Stocking Archive, read 1 November 2026. The comparison and the counts are ours.
The lakes on 1 November
Here is each Louisville District lake on the drawdown schedule, with the Corps reading we took on 1 November beside it. Elevations are feet above mean sea level. Times are as the records give them, in UTC.
| Lake | Corps reading, 1 Nov | Schedule: summer to winter pool | Corps record: Top of Conservation / Top of Normal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barren River | 544.97 (05:00) | 552.0 to 528.0 | 552 / 525 |
| Nolin River | 513.37 (05:00) | 515.0 to 492.0 | 515 / 490 |
| Rough River | 483.11 (12:00) | 490.0 to 470.0 | 495 / 470 |
| Green River | 673.74 (11:00) | 675.0 to 668.0 | 675 / 668 |
| Cave Run | 729.79 (11:00) | 730.0 to 724.0 | 730 / 724 |
| Buckhorn | 781.96 (22:15) | 782.0 to 757.0 | 782 / 782 |
| Carr Creek | 1023.87 (22:15) | 1028.0 to 1017.0 | 1028 / 1017 |
| Taylorsville | 545.78 (11:00) | 547.0 to 545.0 | 547 / 545 |
The schedule column is the one on our drawdown article: the Louisville District's 2024 Proposed Fill and Drawdown Schedules, with the main drop running 15 October to 1 December and Taylorsville's from 15 November to 1 December. Rough River's 490 is the Corps' temporary target during its dam safety project. We tried to re-read the District's fill and drawdown page for this piece; it failed its security certificate check on 1 November, as it has since October, so those figures are as we last read them, not re-checked today.
The record columns are from the Corps' water data records, read on 1 November. On five of the eight lakes the record's Top of Normal matches the schedule's winter pool. On three it does not: Barren's record says 525 against the schedule's 528, Nolin's says 490 against 492, and Buckhorn's record gives 782 as Top of Normal, with 757, the schedule's winter pool, as its "Bottom of Normal". The records do not explain the differences, so we print both.
Four of the records also carried a 24-hour change in elevation: Barren down 0.69 ft, Nolin down 0.38 ft, Carr Creek down 0.26 ft, Buckhorn down 0.01 ft. The others showed none.
Basis: USACE water data, Louisville District location records for barren, nolin, rough, green, caverun, buckhorn, carrcreek and taylorsville, read 1 November 2026; schedule figures from our fall drawdown article (Louisville District, 2024 Proposed Fill and Drawdown Schedules, last read for that article in September 2026).
What that adds up to
This section is our arithmetic and our reading, not anything the Corps states.
From 1 November to 1 December is 30 days. To reach the schedule's winter pool on time, from the 1 November readings:
| Lake | Feet still to drop | Average needed, ft/day |
|---|---|---|
| Buckhorn | 24.96 | 0.83 |
| Nolin River | 21.37 | 0.71 |
| Barren River | 16.97 | 0.57 |
| Rough River | 13.11 | 0.44 |
| Carr Creek | 6.87 | 0.23 |
| Cave Run | 5.79 | 0.19 |
| Green River | 5.74 | 0.19 |
| Taylorsville | 0.78 | from 15 Nov |
Three things stand out.
Barren is on pace. It was falling 0.69 ft a day on 1 November, faster than the 0.57 it needs.
Nolin and Buckhorn are not, on these readings. Nolin's record showed 0.38 ft a day against 0.71 needed. Buckhorn was 0.04 ft below its Top of Conservation on 1 November, which on our reading means its main-phase drawdown had not visibly started, seventeen days after the schedule's 15 October start. Cave Run was 0.21 ft below its summer pool. None of the three records says why, and we are not going to guess. The schedule is a target, and the Corps' own title for it says proposed.
Taylorsville is already most of the way down before it starts. The schedule holds it at 547.0 until 15 November. On 1 November it read 545.78, 1.22 ft under that and 0.78 ft above its winter pool. Again, the record does not say why.
What the stockings land in
This is reasoning, labelled as ours. No agency publishes a fall release schedule, and we found no statement that KDFWR times tailwater stockings to Corps releases.
Our fall trout article said the October and November stockings would land in tailwaters running drawdown discharge. On the 1 November records, that holds for some of them and not for others. The outflow readings on the records were older than the elevations, dated 29 October:
| Lake | Outflow, 29 Oct | Tailwater stocking |
|---|---|---|
| Buckhorn | 40.02 cfs | 1,000 on 4 Nov |
| Taylorsville | 49.73 cfs | 500 on 5 Nov |
| Cave Run | 54.31 cfs | 1,000 on 4 Nov |
| Carr Creek | 81.13 cfs | 1,000 on 3 Nov |
| Nolin River | 127.88 cfs | 2,000 on 12 Nov |
Those are small numbers next to Barren's 3,058 cfs and Rough River's 856 cfs on the same date, and Barren and Rough have no tailwater stocking this month. Read together: on 29 October the four trout tailwaters below Buckhorn, Taylorsville, Cave Run and Carr Creek were not taking big drawdown releases. If the Corps has to take Buckhorn down 25 feet by 1 December, the water has to leave through the dam at some point in the next four weeks. We cannot tell you when, and nobody publishes it.
Nolin is the one to watch most closely. Its record showed the lake falling 0.38 ft a day on 1 November, while its latest outflow figure was three days older, so the two do not describe the same moment. Its tailwater stocking is the last of the month, on 12 November.
The practical version: a tailwater that was low and easy when the trout went in can be a different river a week later if the Corps steps up releases to catch the schedule. Check the record the morning you go.
The rules that apply
None of the twelve tailwaters is among the fifteen streams in the seasonal catch-and-release regulation; our catch-and-release article has that list, the regulation's wording, the trout permit rule and the statewide trout limits, all read from 301 KAR 1:201 on 26 October 2026. Floyds Fork and Otter Creek, both stocked this month, are on that list, so their trout go back until 31 March.
We did not re-read 301 KAR 1:201 for this piece. Whether any of these twelve tailwaters carries its own rule in the regulation's water-by-water section is Status pending here; check Section 3 before you keep a fish. For the Cumberland, the same catch-and-release article covers the year-round permit rule.
Ramps at winter pool
The lake records tell you where the water is. These are the notes the agencies attach to ramps when it goes down.
Cave Run. KDFWR's access records carry four winter-pool notes, and our Cave Run muskie article covers the lake's other ramps:
- Warix Run Ramp: "Launch cannot be used at winter pool". Ramp listed "Seasonal - 24 Hours".
- Beaver Creek Ramp: "cannot launch at winter pool". Ramp listed "Seasonal - 24 Hours", single lane.
- Blackwater Ramp: "small fishing boats only; difficult to launch during winter pool". Ramp listed "Year Round - 24 Hours", single lane.
- Ramey Creek: "difficult to launch at winter pool". Ramp listed year round, 24 hours.
None of those records gives the elevation at which the note starts to apply. On 1 November Cave Run was at 729.79, near summer pool, so the notes describe where the lake is headed, not where it is today.
Buckhorn. A KDFWR alert says the ramp at Buckhorn Lake Dam "is currently closed to all traffic and boating access" and "is projected to remain closed until at least February 2027," while the Louisville District renovates the ramp and parking lot. The same alert says there will be "no reliable boat access available at the lake" during "winter pool conditions (any elevation below 770 ft)", usually November through April, and that Gay's Creek, the Marina, Leatherwood and Trace Branch ramps are generally open 1 May to 31 October. KDFWR's record for the Buckhorn tailwater lists it as bank access with no boat ramp, so the 4 November tailwater stocking is a bank fishery either way.
Nolin River tailwater. KDFWR's access record says: "The Nolin River Lake Tailwater Boat Ramp is temporarily closed due to reduced water levels" "following the partial failure of Lock and Dam 6 on the Green River," and "It will remain closed until the situation is resolved." The record does not mention winter pool.
Nolin Lake State Park. Kentucky State Parks' improvements page says: "Nolin Lake State Park primitive campsites open over the winter (no water available)." "Boat ramp and trails are open."
Everywhere else. For Barren, Green, Rough, Taylorsville and Carr Creek we found no Corps or KDFWR statement in this run giving a ramp cutoff at winter pool. As our drawdown article said, the Louisville District does not publish the elevation at which a ramp becomes unusable. Its ramp-by-ramp section for Rough River and Taylorsville is still the most complete record we have.
Basis: KDFWR access-site records, asid 530 (Warix Run), 431 (Beaver Creek), 451 (Blackwater), 529 (Ramey Creek), 157 (Nolin River Lake Tailwater) and 493 (Buckhorn Tailwater); KDFWR alert, "Buckhorn Lake Dam Ramp Access closed until Feb. 2027"; Kentucky State Parks, improvements page; all read 1 November 2026.
Lodges and campgrounds near these lakes
From the same Kentucky State Parks improvements page, which carries no date of its own:
- Barren River State Resort Park: "Barren River State Resort Park lodge is closed through spring of 2027."
- Green River Lake State Park: the campground was "open to limited primitive and self-contained units until October 31, 2026," "with no electrical service at sites," and its reopening is "TBD 2027."
- Jenny Wiley State Resort Park: "Jenny Wiley State Resort Park lodge is closed for critical structural integrity renovations," and "the marina will be back open for business March 15, 2027."
The page had no entries for the parks at Cave Run, Buckhorn, Rough River, Taylorsville, Carr Creek, Yatesville, Paintsville, Fishtrap or Grayson.
Basis: Kentucky State Parks, parks.ky.gov/improvements, read 1 November 2026.
What we don't know yet
1. Whether the November stockings happen as scheduled. The tables are the schedule as printed on 1 November. Delivery is Status pending until KDFWR moves November into its archive.
2. Species. The November schedule gives no species for any entry. These are "trout" until KDFWR says otherwise.
3. Why Buckhorn and Cave Run were near summer pool on 1 November, and why Taylorsville was below its summer pool before its drawdown starts. The records give readings, not reasons. Status pending.
4. When the releases come. No agency publishes a fall discharge schedule, and the outflow figures we read were dated 29 October. Status pending; the gauge is the only answer.
5. This year's schedule. The schedule figures are the District's 2024 proposed table, as read for our drawdown article. The District page failed its certificate check on 1 November, so we could not re-read it. Status pending.
6. The Barren, Nolin and Buckhorn winter-pool figures. The Corps' own records and its schedule disagree by 2 to 3 feet on Barren and Nolin, and Buckhorn's record names its levels differently. Status pending; we print both.
7. The lakes above the other tailwaters. Grayson, Dewey and Fishtrap appear in the Corps' Huntington District records, not Louisville's; we did not find Paintsville or Yatesville in the part of that list we could read, and we did not read a Huntington District drawdown schedule in this run. We did not read a lake record for Martins Fork or Herrington. What those seven tailwaters are running below their dams is Status pending.
8. Ramp cutoff elevations. None of the Cave Run notes gives the elevation where it starts to apply, and apart from the Buckhorn alert's 770 ft, no agency gives one for the other Louisville District lakes. Status pending.
9. Water-specific rules on the tailwaters. We did not read 301 KAR 1:201 in this run. Status pending for any tailwater rule beyond what our catch-and-release article covers.
We have not put a forecast on this page. The readings above are 1 November's and will be out of date within the day.
Sources and how confident we are
Check it yourself
- KDFWR monthly trout stocking schedule: https://fw.ky.gov/Fish/Pages/Monthly-Trout-Stocking.aspx
- KDFWR trout stocking archive: https://fw.ky.gov/Fish/Pages/trout_archive.aspx
- Corps lake records, Louisville District: each lake's record is at https://water.usace.army.mil/cda/reporting/providers/lrl/locations/ followed by its name: nolin, caverun, buckhorn, carrcreek, taylorsville, barren, green, rough. Each gives the current elevation, its time, the outflow and the record's pool levels.
- KDFWR alerts: https://fw.ky.gov/Alerts/Pages/default.aspx
- Kentucky State Parks improvements: https://parks.ky.gov/improvements
- USGS Kentucky current streamflow, for the tailwater gauges: https://waterdata.usgs.gov/ky/nwis/current/?type=flow
- Buckhorn Lake office (Corps): 606-398-7251, as given in KDFWR's alert.
Sources
Stocking
- Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, Monthly Trout Stocking, November 2026. Every date, water, county and count above, and the federal-property and Cumberland notes; read 1 November 2026: fw.ky.gov/Fish/Pages/Monthly-Trout-Stocking.aspx
- KDFWR, Yearly Trout Stocking Archive, September 2025 to August 2026. The November 2025 entries for the comparison; read 1 November 2026: fw.ky.gov/Fish/Pages/trout_archive.aspx
Lake levels
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, water data, Louisville District location records (barren, nolin, rough, green, caverun, buckhorn, carrcreek, taylorsville). Elevation, time, 24-hour change, outflow, Top of Conservation, Top of Normal and Bottom of Normal; read 1 November 2026: water.usace.army.mil/cda/reporting/providers/lrl/locations
- USACE Louisville District, Fill and Drawdown page. Could not be read on 1 November 2026 (certificate error); the schedule figures are from our fall drawdown article: lrl.usace.army.mil/Missions/Civil-Works/Water-Information/Fill-and-Drawdown/
Ramps and access
- KDFWR access-site records: Cave Run Lake, Warix Run Ramp (asid 530), Beaver Creek Ramp (431), Blackwater Ramp (451), Ramey Creek (529); Nolin River Lake Tailwater (157); Buckhorn Tailwater (493); read 1 November 2026: app.fw.ky.gov/fisheries/accesssitedetail.aspx?asid=530
- KDFWR alert, Buckhorn Lake Dam Ramp Access closed until Feb. 2027; read 1 November 2026: fw.ky.gov/Alerts/Pages/Buckhorn-Lake-Dam-Ramp-Access-closed-until-Feb-2027.aspx
- KDFWR, Alerts, the list of current alerts; read 1 November 2026: fw.ky.gov/Alerts/Pages/default.aspx
- Kentucky State Parks, Improvements. The Nolin Lake, Barren River, Green River Lake and Jenny Wiley lines; undated, read 1 November 2026: parks.ky.gov/improvements
On this site
- Our fall drawdown article, fall trout stocking article, catch-and-release article, FINs article, refuge closures article and Cave Run muskie article.
Stocking dates are KDFWR targets and move with weather, water and hatchery logistics. Pool targets are the Corps' and respond to rain and flood storage. Lake readings are 1 November's. Check the schedule and the record before you go.