McAlpine's sauger tailwater — what changed on the bank before the run

The Corps' trail to the Kentucky-side bank of the McAlpine tailwater is closed to the public, and so is the island it crosses. On 31 October 2025 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Louisville District announced that the Fisherman's Access Trail on the western bank of Shippingport Island, inside the Falls of the Ohio National Wildlife Conservation Area, "is temporarily closed from public access effective immediately." The Corps said it would re-evaluate the closure in the spring. What came instead was a wider closure: on 16 March 2026 the District announced that "due to increased force protection conditions" it was temporarily closing all public access to the McAlpine Locks and Dam Training Center and Shippingport Island, effective immediately, with no end date and no review date. We re-read the District's releases on 2 November 2026 and found nothing since that reopens either the trail or the island, so we have no basis for saying the trail has reopened — or that it will before the run. The releases cover the Corps' ground: KDFWR still lists a Kentucky bank site of its own, the McAlpine Lock and Dam site at Lannan Memorial Park, which neither release names, and no source we could find says whether that park's shoreline is open to fishing. The season KDFWR describes has not changed. Where you fish it from has.

What the Corps changed on Shippingport Island

Three Corps news releases bear on the trail, and they read differently, so it matters which is newest.

January 2023 (release 23-001). The trail would "reopen, however it will temporarily be operated under restricted Special Use," used "strictly for Special Use with the issuance of a Special Activity Permit," with permitted activities "primarily limited to educational programs and scientific research." That release is nearly three years old.

October 2025 (release 25-142), the trail closure. The trail "is temporarily closed from public access effective immediately due to ongoing improper uses of the site." The Corps cites a long history of Title 36 CFR violations — destruction of government property, break-ins, theft, off-road vehicle use, littering, unauthorized fires and camping, plus reported drug use, prostitution and illegal firearm discharge. Educational programs or scientific research "may be granted access through a Special Activity Permit," with requests to the Locks and Dams Natural Resource Specialist at Shippingport@usace.army.mil. The Louisville Fire and Rescue boat ramp inside the area, built in 2016 for faster emergency response in the lower McAlpine pool, stays open to first responders only. The Corps said it "will re-evaluate the closure next spring."

March 2026 (release 26-026), the current notice. Headlined "USACE announces temporary closure of public access to McAlpine Locks and Dam Training Center and overlook area" and dated 16 March 2026, the release says that "due to increased force protection conditions" the Corps is temporarily closing all public access to the McAlpine Locks and Dam Training Center and Shippingport Island, effective immediately, as a precaution for the safety and security of the public and the project's critical infrastructure. It does not mention the Fisherman's Access Trail, anglers, fishing or permits. It gives no end date and names no date for a review. Its contact is the Louisville District Public Affairs Office, LRL-PAO@usace.army.mil.

Read together: the 2025 closure shut the trail for misuse and promised a spring review; the 2026 closure shut the whole island for security reasons and promised nothing. Whether the spring re-evaluation of the trail closure ever happened, and what it decided, is Status pending: the District's release list, read on 2 November 2026 back to December 2025, carries no result, and the March release does not mention it. That is not the same as the Corps having decided nothing. The only permit route the Corps has described is release 25-142's Special Activity Permit for education and research; nothing in any of the three releases says a recreational angler can get one, and the March release does not say whether that route still operates under the island-wide closure. The releases' media contact is the Louisville District Public Affairs Office, lrl-pao@usace.army.mil, (502) 315-6766; permit questions go to the Locks and Dams Natural Resource Specialist at Shippingport@usace.army.mil. Until the District says otherwise, plan on no bank fishing from Shippingport Island this season.

The water you are fishing

McAlpine is the only real falls on the Ohio: the Corps describes "a rock reef extending across the river and forming a rapids having a length of about 3 miles," with a low-water slope of 26 feet over that distance, which is why the canal opened here — the first boat passed through on 22 December 1830. Our Ohio River at Louisville guide carries the launch tables and the four corridor cards for this reach. The modern project, per the Corps:

All of the following are the Corps' own figures, from the USACE Great Lakes and Ohio River Division project page except where noted.

• Location — Ohio River mile 606.8 at the locks, Portland neighborhood, Louisville.
• Upper pool — 420 ft. Lower pool — 383 ft. Lift — 37 ft.
• Dam — 8,627 ft long; nine tainter gates, each 100 ft wide by 22 ft, plus a concrete fixed weir.
• Locks — twin chambers, 110 ft by 1,200 ft.
• Hydropower — Louisville Gas and Electric hydroelectric generating station, on Shippingport Island.
• Upper pool reach — about 75 miles upstream to Markland Locks and Dam (USACE Louisville District).

Two things in that table drive the fishing. Thirty-seven feet of head across nine gates and a fixed weir means the tailwater's character is set by gate operations and river stage, not by weather alone; the same reef that stopped flatboats is the broken bottom sauger hold on. And the locks sit at the downstream end of the old canal, which is why the Corps quotes mile 606.8 for the locks while federal navigation rules quote mile 604.4 for the dam. They are the same project, two miles apart.

The line the rulebook draws

This is the part that matters most for anyone in a small boat, and it is federal law, not a suggestion.

Above the dam. Under 33 CFR 165.815, the Ohio River "from the Clark Memorial (Highway) Bridge at Mile 603.5, downstream to McAlpine Dam at Mile 604.4" is a Regulated Navigation Area. The operative sentence: "No pleasure or fishing craft shall be operated within the regulated navigation area at any time without prior permission of the Captain of the Port, Ohio Valley, except in case of emergency and except for passage through McAlpine Lock." That is the forebay between the Second Street bridge and the gates. Read the exceptions as the rule writes them: permission from the Captain of the Port, an emergency, or locking through. Absent one of those, a kayak, a jon boat or a bass boat does not belong in there, in any season.

Below the dam. Section 165.815 does not extend below the gates. Whether the Corps posts its own boat-exclusion distance downstream of the dam and weir — and how far it reaches — is Status pending: we could not verify it from the Corps and Coast Guard pages we accessed on 18 September 2026, which is not proof that none is posted. Assume there are buoys and signs, and assume they mean it. Nine 100-foot gates discharging 37 feet of head is not water to argue with.

Snagging. Kentucky's guide is explicit: "A person may not snag within 200 yards below any dam on the Ohio River." The regulation behind it, 301 KAR 1:410 (the version in force since 7 November 2024), bars snagging within 200 yards of any dam on a river or stream, with one narrow exception on the Tennessee River below Kentucky Lake Dam. On the Indiana side, KDFWR's reciprocal page is blunt: "Snagging is not permited for any fish species on the Indiana side or in any Indiana waters of the Ohio River" (their spelling). Sauger are a jig-and-blade fish, so the rule is unlikely to constrain how you fish for them; it is still worth knowing before you stand below a dam.

Regulations on both banks, and why the bank you stand on matters

Kentucky's reciprocal agreement with Indiana, Ohio and Illinois covers the Ohio River main stem only. KDFWR's wording: anglers licensed in Kentucky "may fish the entire main stem of the Ohio River from a boat, or a bordering state's bank without buying the other state's license." Embayments and tributaries are excluded; the boundary is "a straight line between opposite points where the tributary or embayment connects with the main stem." So Cane Run on the Indiana side needs an Indiana license, which is exactly what the Falls of the Ohio Foundation's fishing page says.

The catch is which rulebook applies. From a boat you follow the state that issued your license. From the bank, "anglers shall follow the regulations of the state in which they are fishing." At McAlpine, with Shippingport Island closed and Lannan Park's shoreline status unconfirmed, the bank the sources actually describe as fished is Indiana's — Falls of the Ohio State Park in Clarksville — and a creel taken from that bank follows Indiana's rules.

For sauger that turns out not to hurt, because the two states have converged. KDFWR lists special regulations for the Ohio River from the Salt River confluence up to Carrollton, which takes in Louisville; Indiana publishes one Ohio River table in its 2026–27 guide.

Kentucky's figures are from the regulation, 301 KAR 1:201 as amended effective 3 September 2026, for the Ohio River at Louisville, with statewide rules where no special rule is listed. Indiana's are from the 2026–27 Indiana Fishing Regulations Guide, Ohio River.

• Sauger, walleye and saugeye. Kentucky: 6 daily, 14-inch minimum (statewide rule); statewide possession limit 12. Indiana: 6 daily in any combination; 14-inch minimum.
• White, striped and hybrid striped bass. Kentucky: 30 daily in any combination, "no more than four (4) in the daily limit shall be fifteen (15) inches or greater" (special rule). Indiana: 30 daily in any combination, no more than 4 may be 15 inches or longer.
• Yellow bass. Kentucky: no daily limit and no size limit (statewide); KDFWR's online record for this water lists them in the 30, but the regulation does not. Indiana: in the 30-fish combined limit.
• Black bass. Kentucky: 6 daily combined; 12-inch minimum for largemouth and smallmouth, no minimum for spotted bass (statewide). Indiana: 6 daily in any combination; 12-inch minimum; no size limit on spotted bass.

The Ohio River striped bass rule is the one to note: on this stretch KDFWR folds striped bass into the 30-fish combined limit rather than the statewide 5-fish, 15-inch rule.

Kentucky moved to the 6-fish, 14-inch walleye, sauger and saugeye rule statewide — the Ohio River included — on 1 March 2019, stating the goal as more "larger, older sauger in the Ohio River." Indiana followed in January 2020, cutting its Ohio River bag from 10 to 6 and adding the 14-inch minimum on the Ohio River Fisheries Management Team's recommendation. Six years on, the fishery you are planning for is the one those rules were written to build. KDFWR's own read on whether it worked is in the 2026 Fishing Forecast, which the agency says "is based on 2025 fish population surveys, creel surveys, fish stockings, and historical knowledge of the fisheries." Its Ohio River entry gives sauger one line of tactics, "Spring and Fall below dams, on gravel bars, and creek mouths," and one line of assessment: "Recent regulations appear to be helping as larger fish are becoming more abundant." Walleye get "Occasionally found in tailwaters." The forecast also prints a star rating for each water, but the ratings exist only as page images that our text extraction cannot read, so the Ohio River sauger rating is Status pending. That is the agency's whole statement on the question — a trend, not a number — and we read it on 2 November 2026.

When it actually happens

KDFWR's own guidance, from Lee McClellan's Kentucky Afield piece of 2 December 2020, is the cleanest statement of timing we have found from an agency source. Writing as Ohio River temperatures dropped "into the upper 40s," he said "the numbers of sauger below the locks and dams on the river are only going to grow," and that "December is the start of the good sauger fishing with the peak coming in February," running through late March. The same piece calls sauger "the most reliable winter fish of all" and says they "readily bite in water temperatures below 40 degrees." It names McAlpine, Meldahl and Falls of the Ohio State Park specifically.

KDFWR's species page adds the spring end of the story: sauger are "often taken by anglers during early spring spawning runs when they congregate near swift shoals, near the mouths of streams, or in tailwaters of dams," and they tolerate turbid water better than walleye — which is why a muddy Ohio does not shut them down the way it shuts down much else. Size expectations from the same page: up to about 30 inches and 8–9 pounds, but usually under 20 inches and 2–3 pounds. By those numbers a 20-inch fish is a good one anywhere on this river.

So September is a planning month, not a fishing month. We have no current temperature reading for the Ohio at Louisville and no forecast of when it will reach the range KDFWR describes, so we are not going to guess at a date: watch it yourself. USGS 03294500 (Ohio River at Louisville) is the station, and the National Weather Service gauges MLUK2 (McAlpine Upper) and MLPK2 (McAlpine Lower) give you stage above and below the dam.

Getting on the water from a kayak

Be clear-eyed about what this is. The McAlpine tailwater is commercial navigation water with a Regulated Navigation Area at its head, a hydro plant on one side, and a lock canal delivering tows into the lower pool. We are not going to hand you a paddling route to the tailwater, because we cannot support one: we could not verify a boat-exclusion distance below the gates, or a river mile for any ramp below the dam, from the sources we accessed, and nothing we read describes what the discharge does to the water in between. What follows is where the launches are and what the agencies say about them — not a route, and not a judgement that any particular approach is safe. Bank anglers near the dam have the closest water to the tailwater, and where that leaves them this season is unsettled: the Corps trail and the island it crosses are closed, Lannan Park's shoreline status is unconfirmed, and the Indiana shoreline at Falls of the Ohio State Park is listed as fishable by the Foundation — a listing, not a check that it is open today.

Indiana side. The Falls of the Ohio Foundation's fishing page lists fishing from the shoreline, from the river in small boats, and at the boat ramp near the George Rogers Clark home site — and then says that ramp "is CLOSED due to damage from moving high water" (their capitals), with no reopening date posted. Its stated alternative for launching below the Falls is "a ramp at 100-598 Water Street in New Albany, IN" — an address, not a name. KDFWR lists a ramp on that street: Jaycees Boat Ramp, "In Jaycee Riverfront Park on Water Street in New Albany," single lane, paved, no fee, no courtesy dock, listed year-round 24 hours. Same street, same town, both below the Falls, so we take them to be the same ramp — but neither source says so, and neither is a check that it is open today. Parking at the park runs through the lot behind the interpretive center ($2, waived with an Indiana State Parks pass), the railroad bridge area, Ashland Park roadside, or the George Rogers Clark ramp lot off Harrison Avenue. The interpretive center at 201 West Riverside Drive, Clarksville, is open Monday–Saturday 9–5 and Sunday 1–5 (Indiana DNR). The Foundation recommends checking the park's webcam before you drive, because the fishable water at the Falls depends entirely on stage.

Kentucky side. KDFWR's own bank listing below the dam is the McAlpine Lock and Dam site at Lannan Memorial Park, off 27th Street: bank access, no fee, paved parking for 51 or more, shoreline year-round with limited hours, no other facilities (KDFWR access-site record). The Corps trail beyond it onto Shippingport Island, and the island itself, are the closures above. Louisville Parks and Recreation's own page for Lannan Park, read on 2 November 2026, gives hours of 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. and lists ballfields, basketball, a picnic shelter, a playground, tennis, volleyball and walking among its amenities; it does not mention fishing, the river or the shoreline, and it posts no alert for the park. So we still could not verify from KDFWR, the Corps or the city whether the park's shoreline itself is open to fishing: treat it as unverified until someone confirms it on the ground. The public ramp KDFWR lists below the dam on the Louisville bank is the Greenwood Ramp at Riverview Park: any trailerable boat, multiple paved lanes, paved parking, no fee, no courtesy dock, and "Riverview Park and the Greenwood Ramp are open from 6 am to 11 pm" (KDFWR access-site record, managed by KDFWR). How far downstream of the dam it sits is Status pending: we could not verify its river mile from the sources we accessed, and the Corps navigation chart books that would settle it refused our requests. So we cannot tell you what a paddle from there to the tailwater would involve. Treat Greenwood as a lower-pool launch, not a way to reach McAlpine.

Upper pool. Cox Park on River Road is the upstream launch, and it is above the Regulated Navigation Area, which begins at the Clark Memorial Bridge. Past that bridge the section 165.815 rule takes over: no pleasure or fishing craft without the Captain of the Port's prior permission, the emergency and lock-transit exceptions aside. (Federal mooring rules also single out "Kentucky Bank, Mile 599.8 (Cox's Park)" for a petroleum-barge mooring prohibition, which tells you what kind of traffic shares that water.)

Tackle, the agency's list and ours

KDFWR's own list is short and correct: 3- to 4-inch curly-tailed grubs on ¼- to ¾-ounce leadheads, up to 1 ounce in heavy current, in pearl, orange and black, chartreuse or orange and lime green; blade baits and jigging spoons, gold on overcast days and silver or blue when the water clears; live crappie minnows on the bottom from the bank; vertical jigging in strong current from a boat, or scooting the lure across bottom in normal to low flows. The line that matters: "Lures that don't strike bottom regularly don't generate many sauger strikes."

Our additions, which are opinion rather than regulation:

• Carry the heavy end of KDFWR's range. Thirty-seven feet of head across nine gates makes for current that a ⅜-ounce head will not hold bottom in, which is why the agency's own list runs to ¾ and 1 ounce. Bring spares: the bottom here is the rock reef the Corps describes, and rock costs leadheads.
• Braid main line to a fluorocarbon leader. Bottom contact is the whole game, and stretch hides it.
• A blade bait fished on a semi-slack fall is the winter default; the grub is the searcher. Rotate colors by water clarity, not by superstition: darker and orange when the river is chocolate, pearl and silver when it clears.
• Gloves you can jig in. December to March is the season. Plan for it.

What we don't know yet

• The spring 2026 re-evaluation. The October 2025 closure said the Corps would review it in the spring. The District's releases, read on 2 November 2026, carry no result; what they carry is the March 2026 island-wide closure, which does not mention the trail or the review. We treat the trail as closed and say so rather than reading silence as a decision.
• How long the March 2026 closure lasts. Release 26-026 gives no end date, no review date and no conditions for reopening.
• Angler permits. The only Special Activity Permit route the Corps describes is for educational programs and scientific research. Nothing published says a recreational angler can qualify, and the March 2026 release does not say whether permits are still issued under the island-wide closure.
• Shoreline fishing at Lannan Memorial Park. KDFWR lists the bank site with year-round limited hours (re-read 2 November 2026, unchanged); the city's park page gives 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. and an amenities list without fishing, the river or the shoreline; neither Corps release names the park. We could not verify from any source we accessed whether the park's shoreline is open to fishing.
• Current operating status of the listed sites. KDFWR's facility flags, the parks' posted hours and the Foundation's page are listings, not a check that a ramp or bank is open today. Only West Point and the George Rogers Clark ramp are reported closed.
• A below-dam exclusion distance. We could not verify one from the sources we accessed. There may well be a zone posted on the water.
• The George Rogers Clark ramp. Closed for high-water damage per the Falls of the Ohio Foundation; no reopening date.
• Ramp river miles. We could not verify the distances from Greenwood or Water Street to the tailwater from the sources we accessed; the Corps chart books that carry them refused our requests.
• Water temperature. We print no live reading. USGS 03294500 is the station to watch.
• The state of the sauger population, in numbers. KDFWR's 2026 Fishing Forecast gives the Ohio River sauger one trend sentence, quoted above. It prints no counts, lengths or survey figures for the Louisville pool, and its star rating for the river did not survive our text extraction, so the rating is Status pending.

Related: our Ohio River at Louisville guide has the fourteen launches on both banks, corridor by corridor. The same KDFWR piece names the Cumberland River below Wolf Creek Dam and the Salt River below Taylorsville Lake as sauger tailwaters — both smaller water for a kayak, and neither with a Regulated Navigation Area to plan around.

Sources: USACE Louisville District news releases 23-001 (5 January 2023) and 25-142 (31 October 2025) on the Fisherman's Access Trail, and 26-026 (16 March 2026) on the temporary closure of public access to the McAlpine Locks and Dam Training Center, overlook area and Shippingport Island; the Louisville District news-release list on the Great Lakes and Ohio River Division site, December 2025 to 29 October 2026; Louisville Parks and Recreation, Lannan Park page; USACE Great Lakes and Ohio River Division, McAlpine project page; 33 CFR 165.815 and 33 CFR 162.100; KDFWR Kentucky Fishing and Boating Guide, March 2026–February 2027; KDFWR Statewide Size and Daily Limits; KDFWR special fishing regulations, Ohio River – Louisville; Indiana DNR 2026–27 Indiana Fishing Regulations Guide, Ohio River regulations; KDFWR Reciprocal Hunting and Fishing Agreements; KDFWR Sauger species page; Kentucky Afield Outdoors, "Sauger bite during the holiday season," 2 December 2020; Kentucky Afield Outdoors, new regulations for 2019 (rule effective 1 March 2019); Indiana DNR, Ohio River Sander regulation change (effective 19 January 2020); Indiana DNR, Falls of the Ohio State Park; Falls of the Ohio Foundation, fishing page; KDFWR access-site records, Greenwood Ramp, McAlpine Lock and Dam (Lannan Memorial Park) and Jaycees Boat Ramp; 301 KAR 1:410 (snagging); 301 KAR 1:201 (limits); 2026 Kentucky Fishing Forecast. Every source in this list was re-read on 18 September 2026 except release 26-026, the District's release list and the Lannan Park page (first read on 2 November 2026), the Fishing Forecast PDF, which the fetcher truncates, and the Indiana state park's posted hours. 301 KAR 1:201, the Kentucky guide and KDFWR's Ohio River – Louisville record were re-read on 5 October 2026 for the Kentucky limits, and 301 KAR 1:410 on 6 October 2026 for its current effective date. On 2 November 2026 we re-read releases 25-142 and 26-026, the District's release list, KDFWR's McAlpine Lock and Dam access-site record, the Lannan Park page and the 2026 Fishing Forecast's Ohio River entry; the forecast's star ratings were not readable in that fetch, and the District's own website refused our connection, so its releases were read on the Division's mirror. Access, closures and regulations change; verify with the agency before you travel.