herrington yesterday

the old man and i headed to herrington yesterday. i caught one bass and broke off on another one. we seemed to be marking the fish on main lake points and ledges. we also saw and marked a ton of baitfish around the mouths of creeks, usually with what were probably hybrids not too far behind. while on the lake, we saw two sets of 5 to 7 jugs floating in a line. they seemed to be on what looked like a trot line going to the bank. the jugs had Kentucky Fish and Wildlife logos on them. any idea as to what these were?????

Probably surveying catfish if they were KDFWR. However, they may have been some jugs purchased from KDFWR with their logo. May have just been jug fishing for catfish or whatever else is my guess.

You forgot about the bluegill ya caught on a plastic worm. Bait was bigger than the fish.
The Ol Man

The jugs you saw do belong to the KDFWR and under those jugs are gill nets. The fisheries biologist conduct this study every fall in mid Oct. to determine the fish populations in Herrington. I have witnessed them removing the fish from the nets in past years and all are dead. They measure/weigh each fish and record the info. Then they toss the dead fish back in the lake. I guess they get valuable data from this study but it sure is disheartning to see the hundreds of game fish killed and tossed back in the lake.

Yeah those gill nets ****...on lake Erie they outlawed it..except in canada where native indians are allowed to use them...but its a terrible practice...you get all species in them and almost always they end up dead...I don't know if the valuable information they get is really worth it or not...if all they want to do is measure the fish it seems like electroshocking would be better than gill netting....I really wasn't aware that KDFW uses them, kinda surprising really...I wish they didn't do this. But I guess its probably cheaper than electroshocking.

Not to bash KDFWR, but what good does surveying DEAD fish have to do with helping a fishery?:confused: Or help to manage it for that matter?:confused: The fish were alive before they were caught in the nets. If there are too many small fish in the lake that need to be exterminated, why not just decrease the size limit?:confused:

yea that does seem pretty counter productive. i was just curious and yes i did catch a bluegill on a big worm and 5/0 hook. i have no idea how it worked, but it did, hooked him through the bottom jaw and out the top.

[QUOTE=MagikSmallie;386275]Yeah those gill nets ****...on lake Erie they outlawed it..except in canada where native indians are allowed to use them...but its a terrible practice...you get all species in them and almost always they end up dead...I don't know if the valuable information they get is really worth it or not...if all they want to do is measure the fish it seems like electroshocking would be better than gill netting....I really wasn't aware that KDFW uses them, kinda surprising really...I wish they didn't do this. But I guess its probably cheaper than electroshocking.[/QUOTE]

I may be wrong on this, but I believe that shocking can only work "so deep" thus it doesn't get an accurate count , gill nets (depending on size) can go much deeper If I Remember Correctly.....

thats why you wait till fall to shock the fish when the biggest majority are shallow. no use for gill nets and they should be outlawed even for fish and game.

[QUOTE=jamesdenson;386484]thats why you wait till fall to shock the fish when the biggest majority are shallow. no use for gill nets and they should be outlawed even for fish and game.[/QUOTE]


Well, as the entire water column is roughly the same temperature I'd guess most fish are not shallow (especially at the same time) Whatever the case I don't have a doctorate in fisheries biology so I'll defer to the experts who do :)