Beaver Lake FYI

[Wormin]

http://fw.ky.gov/newsrelease.asp?nid=937

[fishincreek]

What the heck?????????????

[DJD]

Why does this sound wrong to me? If Bass populations were really the problem then take away the 15" minimum for a few years. Leave the weed since it's proven to be a nursery for small bass and bream.
Sounds more like the grass isn't liked by the locals and they finally found a way to get rid of it. JMO.

[jcclark]

Isn't Guist Creek a 12" min.
I guess they have to take them there to be caught (LOL)
but yeah, why not lower the limit?

[Fntsyfbgod]

They need to remove small bass that I agree with but removing vegetation wont help. I hate to say it but our fish and wildlife agency has always been anti grass to a fault. They are more worried about removing grass so some rednecks can bank fish than they are about the bass fishing. If theres ever an arguement over grass with bass fisherman vs. everyone else the grass will go. If you want to see grass carp just visit a state managed lake with grass in it and in a year or two it will have grass carp. They ruined Greenbo which used to be a tourist attraction and one of the best small lakes in the state by filling it with grass carp. I have talked to some wildlife people about this and their general opinion is if they remove the grass the bass can find food easier and grow fast. I don't agree with that I think its more about overcrowding. They seem to find food fine down at Guntersville and they used to do fine when Kentucky Lake was loaded with grass.

The only good news is most of the time they arent smart enough to get rid of the grass when they try. They sprayed a small lake I used to fish and it turned a little brown then grew better than ever.

[Bineyj]

I went to the public meeting on this issue back in March and i am not a KDFWR employee. They were only wanting to git rid of something called curly leaf grass/weed...exotic non-native??? In prior years this was sprayed in May/June which only kept it in check, now they want to erradicate it. They stated they prefered the coontail and other native grasses be dominat and evidently this stuff takes over. They mentioned the curly leaf gows way too thick. Also, questions were raised about reducing the size limit or a slot. I gather they lose the control element on how many bass are taken out. I can see where they want to know if enough were taken out. KDFWR stated the bass are around 30+ fish an acre, normal should be about 15-16 per acre if memeory serves me correctly. Long story short, KDFWR is going to take some fish and restock them at Guist and another lake. Lots of opinions, some even thought 1,000 fish wasn't even close to enough to making a dent in the population. I think they stated two weeks afterward they would resurvey/sample the waters and take more if need be. The goal is to make the panfishing better which will inturn help the bass fishing. They mentioned a 1.5"-2" jump in growth for the overall bass population at Beaver by Fall because of this. KDFWR mentioned these fish were eating everything they could find, but there just wasn't enough forage, which lead to the poor size distribution. I would guess around 20-25 people in attendance and no one really disagreed with what they wanted to try. If they did, i didn't see it voiced. They did mention you could get a recorded copy of the meeting if you wanted. When ever we asked a question they made us use the microphone plus state name.

[Fntsyfbgod]

I agree some fish need to be removed. The problem with changing the size limit is that on a small lake like that local anglers can keep way too many fish. Local anglers ruined Smokey Valley Lake with overharvest now it has no size limit and truley is the a dead sea. And this is a lake that used to be phenomenal and had the first 20in trophy size limt. If they are only getting rid of one type of grass thats fine but I wonder if its really worth it.

And I know they don't want to waste fish but I wonder how much stunted 9-12in bass will grow in another lake, they might as well have a big fish fry.

[ThreeLions]

They are more worried about removing grass so some rednecks can bank fish than they are about the bass fishing.

I have to say that I take offence to this comment. I do not consider myself a redneck but I am a bank fisherman. If I had the money to purchase any kind of boat so that I could go and learn "proper" bass fishing I would, but I am not in that position so I have to fish from the bankside. Personally, I'm glad that my $20 is going some way to maintaining fishing for both bank and boat anglers.

DAVE

[Fntsyfbgod]

I have to say that I take offence to this comment. I do not consider myself a redneck but I am a bank fisherman. If I had the money to purchase any kind of boat so that I could go and learn "proper" bass fishing I would, but I am not in that position so I have to fish from the bankside. Personally, I'm glad that my $20 is going some way to maintaining fishing for both bank and boat anglers.

DAVE

Theres nothing wrong with fishing from the bank. Just because your fishing from the bank doesn't mean your a redneck who cant fish. There are plenty of people in boats who cant fish. You can fish from the bank and catch fish where there is grass you just have to adjust your tackle. But there are people who think its impossible to fish from the bank because of grass because they wont use anything other than a worm on a bobber. I just think making the quality of fishing better should be first priority not managing the lake so people can use whatever presentation they want.

[DJD]

Why worry if the weed is Non native? I'm asking because it seems it has done alot for the bass and bluegill spawn surviving to over population. I'm just guessing they could have read data from prior years to prevent this from happening. This just seems like a knee jerk reaction of "oh well we been guessing wrongly on how to deal with this lake so lets just kill non native weeds, reduce bass populations and lets see what happens".

What did they do years ago at Beaver? Kill shad? Grass Carp? I remember they did something but not sure what it was. Anyone remember?

[know1]

What did they do years ago at Beaver? Kill shad? Grass Carp? I remember they did something but not sure what it was. Anyone remember?

They killed the shad.

[Bineyj]

My guess from the meeting, this has been managed as a panfish lake and KDFWR wants to keep/make it a top notch panfish lake. I guess this is my own interpretation/opinion.

The bass will benefit from a better bluegill/shellcracker fishery if i recall what they said. I fish this lake quite a bit and even fished the Grassmasters tournys a few years back. I can't see where it would hurt to try something because the bass sure aren't growing over there. Yeah, there are numbers, but no size. On the grass, but don't hold me to it, I think they stated this curly leaf get so thick it was hampering the ability to spawn some. Again i am trying to recall from a meeting in the middle of March.