One mile of this river is closed to you, by federal rule, in every season

KDFWR’s record for this water is “Ohio River from Confluence of Salt River to Carrollton” — the head of the Cannelton pool below the dam, the whole 75-mile McAlpine pool above it, and the foot of the Markland pool at the top. The Corps holds those pools at 383, 420 and 455 feet and the river’s stage moves on top of them; there is no drawdown to plan around here and no lake gauge to read, only stage. A Kentucky licence covers the whole main stem from a boat and both banks under the reciprocal agreement, but the rulebook changes with the bank you stand on. The sauger rule — 14 inches, six a day — is the same in both states, and the Ohio’s 30-fish striper rule replaces Kentucky’s statewide five.

The river in one paragraph

The Ohio at Louisville is the only place on the river with a natural falls: a “rock reef extending across the river and forming a rapids having a length of about 3 miles,” the Corps says, with a low-water slope of 26 feet, which is why the first canal opened here on 22 December 1830. The modern project is McAlpine Locks and Dam, 604.5 miles below Pittsburgh in the Portland neighbourhood, with the locks two miles down the canal at mile 606.8: a concrete fixed weir with nine tainter gates, each 100 feet wide and 22 feet high, 8,627 feet of dam in all, and twin 110-by-1,200-foot lock chambers, the second of them opened in April 2009. The head across it is 37 feet — “the largest of all the Locks on the Ohio River.” Above the dam the McAlpine pool runs about 75 miles up to Markland Locks and Dam at mile 531.5; below it the Cannelton pool runs 114 miles down to Cannelton Locks and Dam at mile 720.7. KDFWR draws its Louisville record from the Salt River mouth up to Carrollton, which takes in the top few miles of the Cannelton pool, the whole McAlpine pool and the last reach of the Markland pool, and lists fourteen access sites on it: eight in Jefferson, Oldham, Trimble and Hardin counties, and six on the Indiana bank that the reciprocal agreement makes legal launches on a Kentucky licence.

Three pools, two gauges, and nothing to fill or draw down

This is a navigation river, not a reservoir. The Corps publishes one elevation per pool and holds it; what changes is the stage on top of it, which is weather and upstream dams and nothing you can schedule around. The project pages give the figures without naming a datum, so they are printed here as the Corps prints them.

The mile you cannot fish from a boat

Federal regulation 33 CFR 165.815 defines a Regulated Navigation Area on this water and the whole of it is worth quoting. Paragraph (a): “The waters of the Ohio River from the Clark Memorial (Highway) Bridge at Mile 603.5, downstream to McAlpine Dam at Mile 604.4.” Paragraph (c): “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.” The Clark Memorial Bridge is the Second Street bridge. Everything from it to the gates — the forebay, the top of the Falls, the water off the downtown wharf — is closed to a kayak, a jon boat and a bass boat alike, in every season, and the rule has stood since 1990. The Corps quotes the dam at mile 604.5 and the Coast Guard at 604.4; it is one structure quoted by two agencies.

Below the dam the rule does not reach. Whether there is a posted boat-exclusion distance downstream of the gates and the weir is status pending: there is no entry for Louisville, McAlpine or the Falls in 33 CFR Part 334, the danger-zone regulations, and no Corps page we read states one. Assume buoys and signs on the water and assume they mean it — nine 100-foot gates discharging 37 feet of head is not water to argue with.

Two more rules sit on this mile. The Falls of the Ohio National Wildlife Conservation Area, whose boundary “encompasses an existing hydroelectric generating station and the McAlpine Locks and Dam,” is governed by 36 CFR Part 331: fishing must comply with state law, the banned methods include “bow and arrow” and “trot lines,” “Swimming is prohibited unless authorized in writing by the District Engineer,” and “Vessels or other watercraft may be operated in the WCA waters except in prohibited or restricted areas.” KDFWR’s own note on its McAlpine bank record says the same in fewer words: “Bowfishing is not allowed within the boundary of the Falls of the Ohio National Wildlife Conservation Area.” And on snagging, the 2026–2027 Fishing and Boating Guide: “snagging is not permitted for any fish species on the Indiana side or in any Indiana waters of the Ohio River. In Kentucky, a person may not snag within 200 yards below any dam on the Ohio River.”

Whose rules, on which bank

Kentucky’s reciprocal agreements were re-made in 2025 — 301 KAR 3:160, effective 16 October 2025, replacing the expired 301 KAR 1:220 — and the Ohio River is in them: “Persons fishing in the Ohio River bordering Illinois or Indiana shall comply with both the sport and commercial fishing requirements” of the incorporated agreements. KDFWR’s plain-language version is the one to carry, quoted with its own spellings: “Kentucky Anglers licenses 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.” The limit: “This does not apply if fishing a bordering state’s embayments or tributarites, which begin at a straight line between opposite points where the tributary or embayment connects with the main stem of the river.” And the rule that decides your creel: “Anglers shall abide by the regulations of the state by which they are licensed, except that when fishing from the bank, anglers shall follow the regulations of the state in which they are fishing.”

So a Kentucky licence launches you from Duffy’s Landing, the Clark Homesite, Jaycees, Mauckport, Madison or Sandy Beach without an Indiana licence, and Kentucky’s rules follow you in the boat. Step onto the Indiana bank — Falls of the Ohio State Park, most obviously — and Indiana’s rules govern what you keep. Cane Run and every other Indiana feeder needs an Indiana licence, which is what the Falls of the Ohio Foundation’s fishing page says too. For the fish that matter here the two states have converged, and the table under the regulations below sets them side by side.

Four roads in

KDFWR’s waterbody record lists fourteen access sites with a direction string for most, and the strings sort themselves: I-71 exit 2 to River Road; I-64 exit 3 to 27th Street, or I-65 to Clarksville and New Albany; I-264 exit 3 and Dixie Highway; and US 42 or US 421 out of the city. The corridors below are built from those strings, not from compass quarters. A corridor is one trip’s worth of road — the highway in, then every Kentucky ramp and bank site that road serves without crossing the dam, plus the Indiana sites KDFWR lists on the same stretch of river. Those Indiana sites are on the far bank, so reaching one by road means crossing the Ohio. The table names the crossing where the directions give one (I-65 for Utica Pike and Clarksville, US 421 from Milton to Madison); for Jaycees, Sandy Beach and Mauckport the records give only the Indiana-side town or road, so plan that crossing yourself. From a boat, a Kentucky licence covers launching from them. The dam splits the water in two, so the pool you are on is decided by the road you took.

That is twelve trailered ramps and two bank sites. Every Kentucky site is “Fee: No” on its record; Mauckport and Sandy Beach on the Indiana side charge. Courtesy docks at Cox’s Park, Westport and West Point only. Every ramp carries a KDFWR “Year Round” flag; the three Louisville Metro Parks ramps — Cox’s, Shawnee, Greenwood — are “Limited Hours” because the parks close from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. Two sites are closed as this is written: West Point, where KDFWR’s own directions field ends “TEMPORARILY CLOSED!”, and the George Rogers Clark Homesite ramp, closed for high-water damage per the Foundation. Neither closure is dated. Directions are KDFWR’s, verbatim. The facility and season flags on this page are what the agencies list; they are not a check that a site is open today, and we have not confirmed the current operating status of the other twelve.

Corridor 1 — River Road: Cox’s Park, Bandman Park and Duffy’s Landing

This is the upper pool from inside the city, and it is the corridor with the line on it. Cox’s Park is the Kentucky-bank launch: Louisville Metro’s Carrie Gaulbert Cox Park at 3730 River Road, 51.2 acres, open 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., a paved multi-lane ramp with a courtesy dock and no fee. Federal mooring regulation 33 CFR 162.100 fixes it on the river as “Kentucky Bank—Mile 599.8 (Cox’s Park)” — an emergency mooring-buoy site where “mooring of tank vessels laden with petroleum products or hazardous materials is not authorized,” which tells you what shares this water — and puts the Clark Memorial Bridge 3.7 miles downstream. Nothing launched here may legally pass that bridge toward the dam. Bandman Park, at the mouth of Beargrass Creek a mile and a half down River Road, is bank only: KDFWR’s record says “no boats allowed.” Across the river, Duffy’s Landing in Jeffersonville is the best-equipped ramp on the whole water by KDFWR’s flags — multi-lane, 51-plus parking, restrooms, an accessible ramp, all year-round, 24 hours — and needs no Indiana licence to launch from. The Six Mile Island emergency mooring buoys at mile 598.2 stay in the water all year; the others come out from 1 May to 30 September.

Corridor 2 — The Falls: the McAlpine tailwater from both banks

This is the sauger water — KDFWR’s December 2020 Kentucky Afield piece calls the river “below the McAlpine Lock and Dam in Louisville” “another highly productive sauger fishing spot” — and it is the corridor where the access has changed. On the Kentucky side, I-64 exit 3 at 22nd Street leads to Northwestern Parkway, 27th Street and Lannan Memorial Park, the bank site KDFWR files as “McAlpine Lock and Dam”: no fee, paved parking for 51 or more, shoreline year-round with limited hours, no other facilities. That is KDFWR’s listing; no current source confirms whether the shoreline there is open to fishing. The Corps trail beyond it onto Shippingport Island is closed (above). On the Indiana side, I-65 to Clarksville reaches Falls of the Ohio State Park and the George Rogers Clark Homesite ramp, which the Falls of the Ohio Foundation says “is currently closed due to high water damage”; the Foundation’s named alternative “for launching below the Falls” is the Water Street ramp in New Albany, which is KDFWR’s Jaycees Boat Ramp. The same Kentucky Afield piece says “Bank anglers have ample fishing opportunities at the Falls of the Ohio State Park in Clarksville, Indiana, just across the river from Louisville” — and from that bank, Indiana’s rules govern, and bowfishing and trotlines are out under the federal WCA rule on both banks.

Corridor 3 — Dixie Highway and I-264 West: the Cannelton pool downriver

West of the dam the river turns south-west and the Kentucky bank gets two Metro Parks ramps in eleven miles. Shawnee Park’s is the new one: a two-lane ramp opened 21 May 2021 with Sport Fish Restoration money, KDFWR and Louisville Parks together, which the agency described as “access to the Cannelton Pool of the Ohio River” and “the second Jefferson County boating access point,” with “access to some of the best fishing in the state, especially for sauger, catfish and striped bass.” It is reached from I-264 exit 3 along Southwestern Parkway, no fee, parking for 51 or more, accessible restrooms and parking, in a park open 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Further down, the Greenwood Ramp sits in Riverview Park off Greenwood Road, with canoe access on the park’s list and KDFWR’s note that “Riverview Park and the Greenwood Ramp are open from 6 am to 11 pm.” The corridor ends at West Point, where the Salt River meets the Ohio and KDFWR’s record is the downstream boundary of this water — and where the ramp is, in the agency’s own directions field, “TEMPORARILY CLOSED!” Across the river and well west, Mauckport’s fee ramp is the last Indiana launch KDFWR files under Louisville. USGS 03294500 at the Portland waterfront is the stage gauge for this pool.

Corridor 4 — Upriver: Westport, Milton, Madison and Sandy Beach

The upper half of the McAlpine pool is reached by two roads out of Louisville that never meet again: US 42 through Oldham County to KY 524 and Westport, and I-71 or US 421 through Bedford to Milton on the Trimble County bank, with the US 421 bridge across to Madison. Westport is Oldham County Parks’ Schamback Park at 6617 Main Street — “Dawn to Dusk,” a boat ramp and dock, a “Canoe & Kayak ramp,” a fishing dock, restrooms at the shelter — and KDFWR’s record gives it a multi-lane paved ramp, a courtesy dock, 26–50 spaces and restrooms year-round, 24 hours. KDFWR’s directions field for it is not directions at all but a 2019 detour notice for bridge work on “West Highway 524 heading towards Westport,” so the road name is the notice’s and the address is the county’s. Milton is the one light-boat, single-lane ramp on the Kentucky bank, “US 421 N of Bedford to Milton; right on Ky 36.” Madison’s city ramp on Vaughn Drive is the multi-lane launch across the bridge, and Sandy Beach Marina, “Two miles southeast of Brooksburg on S.R. 56,” is the fee ramp with a marina at the top of the water. Beyond it, Carrollton and then Markland Dam at mile 531.5. The 18 Mile Island mooring buoys on the Indiana bank at mile 582.3 are seasonal, out from May to September.

What the regulations tell you about the river

Those three are the whole of KDFWR’s special list for this water, and they are identical on the Central and Below Cincinnati records either side of it. Everything else is statewide: six black bass with a 12-inch minimum on largemouth and smallmouth, twenty crappie, and the trout, sunfish and rough-fish rules as printed in the guide. Two of the three say something about the river. A 30-fish striper-and-white-bass limit with only four of 15 inches or longer replaces Kentucky’s statewide five stripers at 15 inches, which is what a state writes where hybrids and whites run in numbers below dams and the fish worth protecting are the big ones. And a catfish rule that lets you keep one blue or flathead over 35 and one channel over 28, with no creel below that, is a trophy rule — the agency’s 2026 forecast for the Ohio says “Trophy-size Blue and Flathead catfish available. Target tailwaters below locks and dams.” The sauger rule dates from 1 March 2019, when Kentucky moved the Ohio to six fish and 14 inches; Indiana followed in 2020.

The regulation itself, 301 KAR 1:201 as amended effective 3 September 2026, differs from the record in three places. Its Ohio River subsection, Section 3(56)(a), verbatim: “White bass, striped bass, and any hybrid thereof, daily limit, thirty (30); no more than four (4) in the daily limit shall be fifteen (15) inches or greater.” Yellow bass are not in it: statewide they have no daily limit and no size limit, and the Fishing & Boating Guide’s Ohio River entry leaves them out too. The cap starts at 15 inches, not above it, so a fifth fish of exactly 15 inches goes back; the Guide says “only 4 fish may be 15 inches or longer.” And the regulation has no Ohio River sauger rule: six fish at 14 inches is the statewide limit, Section 2(1)(c), “Sauger, walleye, and any hybrid thereof daily limit, singly or in combination, six (6); size limit, fourteen (14) inches.” Where the record and the regulation differ, the regulation is the law.

What KDFWR says about the fish

The 2026 Fishing Forecast has one Ohio River entry, under the Western District heading, and it is quoted as the agency’s 2026 statement rather than this week’s report. There is no sauger line in it.

• Catfish: “Good populations of Channel and Blue catfish, with some Flathead Catfish. Trophy-size Blue and Flathead catfish available. Target tailwaters below locks and dams, deeper holes, and around logs, brush, or rocks.”
• Striped and hybrid striped bass: “Stripers and hybrids congregate below dams late spring through early fall. Cast top water plugs or lead head jigs into boils below dams. Shad imitation swim baits, bucktail jigs, and nightcrawlers, shrimp, or chicken liver cast onto hard bottoms or end of boat ramps catch fish as well.”
• White bass: “Fish tributary mouths in spring and below dams mid-spring through fall. Top water baits or lead head jigs below dams and lead head jigs, jigging spoons, or live bait at mouths of tributary streams during spring.”
• Crappie: “Sometimes hard to find, but good fish available when found. Fish tributary mouths, below locks and dams, and brush along bank in spring and fall with live minnows and small plastics.”

On sauger the agency’s statements are older and dated here. Its species page: “Adults can grow to 30 in. (8-9 lbs.), but are usually less than 20 in. (2-3 lbs.)”; “Sauger tend to be more tolerant of turbid (muddy) water conditions”; they 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.” Lee McClellan’s Kentucky Afield piece of 2 December 2020, written “With water temperatures on the Ohio dropping into the upper 40s this week”: “December is the start of the good sauger fishing with the peak coming in February” and “The fishing lasts until late March when they spawn”; the lures it names are “3- to 4-inch pearl, orange and black, chartreuse or orange and lime green curly-tailed grubs rigged on leadheads ranging from ¼ - to ¾-ounce,” and “Blade baits catch numbers of sauger.” The same piece, in 2020, already noted that “The road access to Shippingport Island that allowed anglers to fish beside the hydroelectric outflow is temporarily closed.” No KDFWR page we read gives a stocking figure or a population rating for this water, and KDFWR publishes no fish attractors on the Ohio, so we print none of those.

Who manages what

The Corps of Engineers, Louisville District, operates all three navigation projects and the Falls of the Ohio National Wildlife Conservation Area; its only public recreation areas in the McAlpine pool are the lock visitor area — “a walkway with interpretive panels and a viewing platform overlooking the landward lock” — and the closed trail. Louisville Metro Parks runs Cox’s, Shawnee and Riverview parks, 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.; the Shawnee ramp was a KDFWR–Metro project. Oldham County Parks runs Schamback Park at Westport. KDFWR publishes the West Point ramp and names no manager for it. Indiana DNR runs Falls of the Ohio State Park, with the interpretive center at 201 West Riverside Drive, Clarksville, and Charlestown State Park, which the Foundation names as the launch “above Louisville” and which is not on KDFWR’s list. The Indiana city ramps are municipal. No wildlife management area touches this water.

What we have not verified

• Current stage, discharge and temperature. Live. USGS 03294500 below the dam and 03293551 above; no temperature series exists on this reach. Not printed.
• River miles for the ramps. The Louisville District navigation charts would not open for us. Cox’s Park (599.8), Six Mile Island (598.2), 18 Mile Island (582.3), the bridge (603.5), the dam (604.4 / 604.5), the locks (606.8), Markland (531.5) and Cannelton (720.7) are the only published miles on this page.
• A boat-exclusion distance below the dam. Not in 33 CFR 334 and on no Corps page we read. Status pending; assume posted buoys and signs.
• The spring 2026 re-evaluation of the Shippingport Island closure. Promised in release 25-142; no published result as of 2 November 2026. Release 26-026 (16 March 2026) closed the whole island instead, with no end date. Louisville District Public Affairs, lrl-pao@usace.army.mil; the project office, (502) 774-3514.
• West Point and Clark Homesite reopening dates. Both closures are undated on the pages that carry them.
• Current operating status of the other twelve sites. KDFWR’s facility and season flags, the park hours and the Foundation’s page are listings, not a check that a ramp is open today.
• Shoreline fishing at Lannan Memorial Park. KDFWR lists the bank site; releases 25-142 and 26-026 close the Corps trail and Shippingport Island beyond it and do not name the park; no current source says whether the park’s shoreline is open to fishing.
• The datum for 455 / 420 / 383. Not stated on the Corps project pages. Printed as USACE feet.
• NWS flood categories for MLUK2, the upper gauge. Read in the Service’s gauge record on 29 October 2026 (03293551, NAVD88 406.68: action 21, minor 23, moderate 30, major 38 feet; at 30 feet “Utica Pike floods at Duffy’s Landing in Jeffersonville.”), but the upper gauge is not watched and the hydrograph pages linked below are applications we have not read. MLPK2’s categories are in the alert callout above.
• Westport directions. KDFWR’s field is a 2019 detour notice. The county address is printed instead.
• Indiana ramp hours and fee amounts, and Charlestown State Park. Municipal and park pages not read.
• Restroom seasons at the Metro Parks ramps. KDFWR’s flags and the parks’ amenity lists differ in detail; “park hours” is what we print.
• The sauger population. KDFWR’s 2026 Fishing Forecast, read on 2 November 2026, gives the Ohio River one trend line, “Recent regulations appear to be helping as larger fish are becoming more abundant,” and no numbers; its star rating is an image we could not read. Status pending.

Related on this site

From the journal

• McAlpine sauger