Dix River Trout

[BurleyDog]

I have fished the Dix river tailwaters for several years now.

It seems like the entire fishery collapsed this past Spring with the flooding.
Is this something that others have noticed in years past?

I haven't caught a decent fish or brown trout since 2009. I am not seeing
any rises. I am not seeing fish swimming away that I have spooked.

I am seeing some fat gar (are they eating trout?)

Anyone have any thoughts or ideas? How many years before this fishery recovers?

[bluegrasser]

I have fished the Dix river tailwaters for several years now.

It seems like the entire fishery collapsed this past Spring with the flooding.
Is this something that others have noticed in years past?

Hi BurleyDog,

I have fished the Dix tailwaters for 15+ years. It has indeed had some ups and downs during that time.

I had a blast this past summer catching hybrid stripers and gar on the fly rod (throwing giant streamers).

However, I have noticed that my catch numbers of trout WERE down this year.

Aside from the massive flood in May, I believe they have been working on Dix Dam the last year and purposefully keeping Herrington a little lower than normal pool. I have seen a lot of construction equipment on the dam. Possibly related, I noticed that the river was off-color and "murky" every time I went in the late summer, fall, and early winter - even at times of the year when it should be low and gin-clear.

It will be interesting to see if/when it rebounds. I have noticed a LOT more fishing pressure over recent years too. That coupled with the flood and dam work have probably made a quick recovery unlikely.

May take a year or two - or three - but numbers and size should slowly start building back up.

In the meantime - find a big pod of gar, tie on a long white streamer and strip it right past them. They're hard to hook, but it can provide some nice entertainment!

[BurleyDog]

Thanks

I have been giving gar a hard time with the fly rod for years. I use the streamers and the tanglemouth lures.

Maybe next time I might take a gar home to eat and see if he's got any trout in his belly. If I do this I will give a report.

[bluegrasser]

I don't think you'd find any trout in the gar. My experience was that they would not hit a streamer stripped normally - at a decent pace. Instead, I had to retrieve it VERY slowly and basically right past their nose to get a strike. I would imagine most of those Dix trout would be quick enough to get away.

Man, now I'm sitting here at work daydreaming about summertime on the Dix.

I have also recently expanded my target area to include the KY River around highbridge.

You fish that much?

Seems like, based on what KDFWR says, there should be a wide variety of gamefish in that area.