There is no road to this water

There is no road to this water. KDFWR’s only access record for the Herrington Lake Tailwater is a bank entry with these directions, verbatim: “Herrington Lake Tailwater is only accessible by boat from the Kentucky River. The closest ramp is located at High Bridge.” That ramp is a KDFWR Voluntary Public Access fee ramp on the Kentucky River in Jessamine County; the water is in Mercer. From it you paddle upstream into the Dix and up the gorge toward the dam — “about three or four miles,” per Kentucky Tourism. The regulated reach is two miles, dam to mouth, artificial bait only. KDFWR stocked it with 5,300 trout across six dated archive lines between November 2025 and August 2026, and its own classification calls the water marginal for trout in summer. Eastern time applies.

The tailwater in one paragraph

KDFWR keeps the river below Dix Dam as a separate waterbody from the lake: record wid=135, “Herrington Lake Tailwater,” Mercer County, described as “Dix river from Herrington Lake Dam downstream for two miles,” with the regulation note “Fishing with artificial lures or flies only” and one access site. KDFWR’s 2026 Fishing Forecast heads the same water “DIX RIVER – below Herrington Lake (Garrard and Mercer counties) Central Fisheries District,” so this page prints Mercer and Garrard. The dam is Kentucky Utilities’: “Completed in 1925, the Dix Dam Hydro Plant was hailed as the world’s largest stone-filled dam”; construction “officially began in the fall of 1923”; “it still produces 33 megawatts of power with all three units running,” and KU says “Herrington Lake is the deepest lake in Kentucky, boasting a depth of 249 feet at the dam.” The two miles below it end where the Dix meets the Kentucky River in Pool 7, between Lock and Dam 7 at High Bridge and Lock and Dam 8. The lake above the dam is published on this site as its own water. Treat the two as related, not the same.

Getting there: by boat, from the next county

KDFWR’s access record for the tailwater (asid 1211) is a “Bank Access” entry with no ramp, no lanes, no fee, no courtesy dock, parking “Unpaved” with no capacity given, shoreline “Year Round - 24 Hours,” and every facility field “None.” Its directions are the two sentences quoted above. Reasoning, not measurement: a bank-access entry with unpaved parking that is reachable only by boat is KDFWR’s way of recording that the reach is fishable from its banks once you are on it, not that there is a car park; this page does not describe one. Whose land the banks are, whether wading is permitted, and where the dam’s exclusion zone begins are not published on any page we read — status pending. Do not read this page as saying the bank is public, and do not approach the dam face on the strength of anything here.

The ramp KDFWR names is High Bridge (asid 276), on the Kentucky River in Jessamine County — KDFWR’s directions and fee sentence are verbatim in the corridor section below. Reasoning, not measurement: KDFWR’s tailwater coordinate lies south of the ramp and the Kentucky River flows north past High Bridge, so the Dix enters above the ramp and above Lock 7 and the route from the ramp is upstream. KDFWR’s Pool 7 page says “The Dix River Gorge offers about 7 miles of additional paddling upstream from High Bridge” — that figure runs the whole navigable gorge, not the two-mile trout reach, and is printed here as KDFWR’s paddling estimate, not as a fishing distance. Kentucky Tourism (a state agency, 2023): “You can paddle about three or four miles upstream to the Dix Dam … and fish at any point along the way.” The regulated reach is the fact: two miles, dam to mouth. The trip estimate is Kentucky Tourism’s. This page does not compute a distance from coordinates.

A second launch, Shaker Landing, sits a tenth of a river mile above the High Bridge ramp on the Mercer bank — Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill’s paddle-only canoe launch, ticketed at its Welcome Center. It is the second corridor below. KDFWR names one alternative for the days it closes the river at High Bridge for railroad work: the Camp Nelson ramp, Garrard County, eighteen river miles upstream — an alternate for a closure, not a way to fish this reach in a day, and it gets no card here.

The dam, and what KU says about releases

Dix Dam is part of Kentucky Utilities’ E.W. Brown Generating Station, and KU’s own description of how the hydro plant runs is one sentence: “Originally a principal source of power, the hydro plant is now used mainly when heavy rainfall results in above normal lake elevation.” No KU page we read publishes a generation schedule, a release calendar, a recorded information line, or a downstream warning system for the Dix — status pending, all four. There is no summer pool, winter pool or drawdown date for Herrington on any KU page, so this page has no pool section; the gauges below are what the reader gets instead.

One dated event shows what a release looks like here. KU’s update of 7 April 2025, 9:00 a.m., verbatim: “E.W. Brown employees opened spill gates in a controlled fashion according to the company’s Dam Safety Procedures.” “As of this morning, only four gates are currently open, and E.W. Brown will gradually begin closing additional gates over the next couple days.” “E.W. Brown only releases inflow to Lake Herrington and no additional water into the river — meaning the flow of water is what would normally be in the river under current conditions.” “Per protocol, a notification was sent out Friday evening at 5:30 p.m. alerting local officials and emergency personnel that a planned release would be beginning in a few hours.”

Two gauges, and what each one answers

USGS 03286200, Dix River at Dix Dam near Burgin, KY — the tailwater’s own instrument (Mercer County; 37.79313391761, −84.7060566227347; drainage area 439 square miles; altitude 510.97 feet above NAVD 88; gage datum “511.635 (KU Datum)” on the legacy page). It reports discharge, parameter 00060, and gage height, parameter 00065 — this is the flow source for the reach. It is operated “in cooperation with the Kentucky River Authority and Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet - Department of Environmental Protection and Kentucky Utilities.” No flow figure is printed here: the page marks its data “PROVISIONAL DATA SUBJECT TO REVISION,” and on the day we read it the legacy display ended 31 August 2026 while the modern monitoring-location page reported continuous data to 28 September 2026 — two USGS pages, two end dates, the same day. Treat the station as live and open it yourself; do not take a number from a website, including this one.

USGS 03286500, Kentucky River at Lock 7 at Highbridge, KY — the pool the paddler crosses (Jessamine County; 37.829244707556, −84.7238350356191; drainage area 5036 square miles; elevation 503.25 feet, NAVD 88; continuous records from 1992). It reports gage height (00065) and precipitation (00045); its discharge series is listed with an end date of 23 August 2026. The legacy page carries the notice “This page will be decommissioned in late 2026.” Why it matters: Shaker Village’s launch rule is written against this pool — “paddling from Shaker Landing is only permitted when pool 7 of the Kentucky River is at 12 feet or lower.” Reasoning, not measurement: Shaker Village does not name the gauge; the Lock 7 gauge is the USGS stage record for Pool 7 and the one this page links. Shaker Village’s own line for the level is 859.734.5411.

Trout: the stocking record, and three KDFWR statements that do not line up

KDFWR’s waterbody record for wid=135 carries no species rows at all. Its Yearly Trout Stocking Archive (archive year September 2025 – August 2026), read as complete month sections on 28 September 2026, carries these Herrington lines, verbatim:

Five thousand three hundred trout in six stockings. One line is marked “(Brown Trout)”; the other five carry no species mark, and this page prints them as “trout,” in the archive’s own wording. The complete September and October 2025 sections carry no Herrington line, and no December, January, February or April line was returned. KDFWR’s Monthly Trout Stocking page for September 2026 lists no Herrington or Dix line.

The species split is the 2026 Fishing Forecast’s statement, verbatim: “Brown Trout: Very low numbers of holdover fish expected due to poor water conditions. Brown Trout (300) are stocked annually.” “Rainbow Trout: Low numbers of holdover fish expected due to poor water conditions. Rainbow Trout (4,500) are stocked annually.” No other species is listed for this water in the forecast.

KDFWR’s 2026 trout-stream classification lists the reach under Class IV, Tailwaters, as one row: “Herrington Lake (Dix River) | Mercer/Gerard | 2.0 | Dam to mouth | Rainbow p-t” — the county spelling is the document’s; “p-t” is its legend for “put-and-take fishery.” Its class definition, verbatim: “CLASS IV STREAMS: marginal trout streams that have a significant number of days (>25) above 72° F in a calendar year, have a higher number of days (>5) stream temperatures remain equal to or greater than 73° F during the month of June, and the maximum average daily temperature in June exceeds 75° F.” The same document’s brown-trout section says: “Herrington Lake tailwater was annually stocked with 8-inch Brown Trout from 1988 to 2016, but stockings were eliminated in 2017 due to inconsistent water quality.”

One dated KDFWR staff statement, from the article “Fall for trout all over again” (28 October 2020): “The Dix River below Herrington Dam is one of his favorite fall haunts for trout.” “We’ve done well on the Dix River in October and into November running a zebra midge beneath a strike indicator.” That is a 2020 statement about a fishery KDFWR now calls put-and-take, printed as dated, not as this season’s advice. Size at stocking for rainbows, where in the reach fish are released, any non-trout species assessment, and holdover beyond the forecast’s two sentences: status pending, none published.

The regulation: artificial bait only, and the statewide limits underneath it

301 KAR 1:201, current in-force version (history “eff. 9-3-2026”), Section 3(23) is the only subsection that names the Dix River or Herrington, verbatim: “Dix River for two (2) miles downstream from Herrington Lake Dam. A person shall only fish with artificial bait.” Section 3’s lead-in, verbatim: “Exceptions. All other provisions of this administrative regulation shall apply to the bodies of water listed in this section, with the exceptions established in subsections (1) through (71) of this section.” Section 2(1)’s lead-in: “A person taking fish from public or private waters using traditional fishing methods shall observe the daily limits and size limits established in paragraphs (a) through (n) of this subsection...” Reasoning, with the basis quoted: Section 3(23) adds one rule to the two-mile reach and changes no limit, and Section 3’s lead-in keeps “All other provisions” in force. So on the Dix below the dam: statewide size and creel limits for every species, artificial bait only, no culling of trout. KDFWR’s own summaries agree — the wid=135 note “Fishing with artificial lures or flies only,” and the 2026–27 Guide’s line “DIX RIVER from Herrington Lake Dam downstream for two miles: Only artificial baits shall be used.”

What “artificial bait” means in Kentucky law — 301 KAR 1:001, current, Section 1(8), verbatim: “‘Artificial bait’ means a lure, bare hook, or fly made of wood, metal, plastic, feathers, preserved pork rind, or a similar inert material.” (A proposed revision filed with the LRC on July 15, 2026 carries the same sentence.)

Statewide limits that apply here (301 KAR 1:201 §2; Guide “Regulations Summary • MARCH 2026 - FEBRUARY 2027”)

The asterisks are the Guide’s footnote marks for combined-species limits — read the footnote in the Guide rather than this restatement. Possession, per the regulation: “The possession limit shall be two (2) times the daily limit, except as established in Section 2 of this administrative regulation.” The regulation’s trout paragraph, Section 2(1)(i), verbatim: “1. No culling statewide. 2. Rainbow trout daily limit, eight (8); no size limit. 3. Brown trout daily limit, one (1); size limit, sixteen (16) inches. 4. Brook trout, catch and release only. 5. Cutthroat trout daily limit, one (1); size limit, twenty (20) inches.” The Guide’s summary of the same rule — “Except for trout, anglers may cull fish of a particular species until reaching the daily limit” — is the summary; the KAR’s “No culling statewide” is the primary text.

Method rules — kept separate from the limits above

Artificial bait only on the two miles below the dam, as quoted. One statewide method rule applies at Dix Dam like any other, Guide, verbatim: “Sport fishing trotlines, jug lines or set lines may not be used within 200 yards below any dam.” A trout permit: “A trout permit is included with the resident senior/disabled sportsman’s license and resident sportsman’s license” (Guide). The permit’s price is status pending — our read returned a figure that was not a verbatim quote, so none is printed; the KDFWR licence page is linked below.

The Kentucky River side — the water a boat crosses to get here

No subsection of Section 3 read this run names the Kentucky River below Lock and Dam 14 (subsection (41) is “Kentucky River upstream of Lock and Dam 14 ...” — a smallmouth rule, not this reach). Statewide limits apply on Pool 7; the artificial-bait rule begins at the Dix mouth. Kentucky Tourism puts it the way a paddler would: “No live bait is allowed after entering the Dix River.” KDFWR’s Kentucky River – Lower record (wid=344) showed no species rows on our read; nothing Pool-7-specific is printed.

Wilmore / KY 29 to Lock 7 Road — the High Bridge ramp (Jessamine County)

The ramp KDFWR names for this water. It is not on the Dix and not on wid=135 — it is a Kentucky River ramp, KDFWR map ref 42 on the “Kentucky River - Lower” record (wid=344), and KDFWR’s Pool 7 page calls it the “Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources’ High Bridge Voluntary Public Access (VPA) site” and the take-out of the “18-mile” Camp Nelson to High Bridge paddle. The Kentucky River Authority’s ramp guide lists it at river mile “117.5R,” “Fee,” “Light Trailerable Recreational Boats.”

Road in (KDFWR, verbatim): “From Wilmore, take KY-29 / High Bridge Rd. south 4.8 miles. Take sharp right turn onto Lock 7 Road and go 0.8 miles to site on left.”

Harrodsburg / Shaker Village — Shaker Landing (Mercer County; paddle only)

Same water, same route up the Dix, from the other bank and the other county. Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, verbatim: “Shaker Landing provides one of the few public access points to the sweeping Kentucky River Palisades.” The Kentucky River Authority’s navigation chart 17 prints it as “Shaker Landing ... canoe launch Ky Mile 117.6 L” — a tenth of a mile above the High Bridge ramp (117.5) on the left-descending, Mercer, bank. Reasoning, not measurement: the road in — US 68 from Harrodsburg to Shaker Village — is this page’s reading of where Shaker Village is, not a sentence on any page we read; the lake’s KDFWR directions run “KY 152 E of Harrodsburg” to the lake side, a different destination.

Safety: a closed pool, a dam half a mile downstream, and releases you will not be told about

• A closed pool. Kentucky River Authority, 2026 locking information: “Kentucky River Locks 5 through 14 are closed until further notice.” Nothing locks into or out of Pool 7; a boat launched at High Bridge or Shaker Landing has the pool between Dam 7 and Dam 8, and the Dix, and nothing else. It cannot leave by water.
• Dam No. 7 is downstream of the ramp. The KRA charts put the High Bridge ramp at mile 117.5 and “DAM NO. 7 MILE 117.0.” Reasoning, not measurement: half a mile downstream of the ramp is a dam with no lock operation; the Dix is upstream. Head upstream to the Dix, never down.
• Releases. KU can open spill gates “in a controlled fashion according to the company’s Dam Safety Procedures” and notifies “local officials and emergency personnel” before “a planned release”; the hydro plant runs “mainly when heavy rainfall results in above normal lake elevation.” No siren, horn or public release notice is described on any page we read. Your only instruments are USGS 03286200 (discharge and stage at the dam) and 03286500 (Pool 7 stage).
• High water. Shaker Village will not let a paddler launch above 12 feet on Pool 7. That is a business’s rule, but it is the only published launch threshold for this pool, and it is printed as theirs.
• Bridge work. KDFWR has closed the river at High Bridge for railroad maintenance on weekdays (undated alert, above). Check KDFWR alerts before a weekday trip.
• Marginal trout water in summer. KDFWR’s own classification puts this reach in Class IV, and its 2026 forecast expects low holdover “due to poor water conditions.” The fishery is put-and-take by KDFWR’s description.
• Status pending: wading, bank ownership, any exclusion zone at the dam, cell coverage in the gorge — nothing read.

Facilities, camping and nearby services

• At the water: nothing. KDFWR’s tailwater record lists no ramp, no restrooms, no picnic area, no camping.
• At High Bridge ramp: the ramp only; every facility field on the KDFWR record is “None.”
• At Shaker Landing: fee, waiver and keys at the Welcome Center; the landing is 1.5 miles below the village by the River Road Trail or by car with a checked-out key.
• Towns the sources name: Wilmore (KDFWR’s directions to High Bridge), Harrodsburg (Shaker Village), Burgin (USGS “near Burgin”). No lodging, outfitter or shuttle is named on any primary page read — status pending.
• Camping: none on this water. Lake-side camps are private marinas with fees, on the lake page. Nothing else read.

What we have not verified

• Whose land the tailwater banks are, whether wading is permitted, and where any exclusion zone at the dam begins. Not published on any page read. The bank is not described as public here.
• A release schedule, a recorded-information line, or any downstream warning system at Dix Dam. None on any KU page read; the dated April 2025 update is the only description of a release.
• The Dix River mouth’s river mile and a coordinate for Dix Dam or for Shaker Landing. Not printed anywhere read; the map says how each is placed.
• Whether USGS 03286200 is transmitting today. Two USGS pages gave two end dates on the day we read them; treated as live, no figure printed.
• The stocking archive’s October 2025 entry. An earlier partial read of the archive reported an October brown-trout line; the complete month-section dumps used here show none and a March 2026 line instead. The page prints the six lines above and no October stocking.
• Species behind five of the six archive lines, size at stocking, release points, holdover beyond the forecast’s sentences, any non-trout assessment.
• The trout permit price. Not printed; link below.
• The High Bridge river-closure dates. The alert is undated; printed as a standing possibility, not an event.
• Lodging, outfitters, shuttles, cell coverage in the gorge. Nothing read.

Related on this site

Waters

• Herrington Lake