Quote Originally Posted by DJD View Post
Was this lake a trophy management lake years ago? Did it start out as anything other than a new lake? I'm asking because it seems they always have an issue with Shad, Carp or Weeds. Does it get more attention because it's a pet project lake??

Just thinking back over the last 10-15 years I fished it and wondering why this lake goes bad more than other small lakes I hear of.
No Beaver wasn't a trophy management lake. I used to fish the weekend tournaments on a regular basis back in the late 80s and early 90s-dang has it been that long??? (Are those tournaments still being held? I'd love to be part of them again) I was there when several of the older, more well known local weekend tournament fishermen used to gripe about the weeds in the lake. The lake was owned by (I think) the fish and game club. I would assume, not being an Anderson county resident or game club member, they must have lobbied the state to become involved...spraying for weed control, then introducing massive amounts of grass carp per acre was the tactic employeed by the state. The lake then went from being an incredible fishery to the fisaco it has become. Before I go any further, I would like to say that in the early days of grass carp being used for weed control, it seemed that the philosophy was...if some are good, then more are better. The life expectancy of the carp in relation to over-stocking them allowed the carp to mow down every stalk of grass(no exaggeration) for several years. This set off a chain of events that went as follows...the predatation of smaller fish became easier, then as fish spawned, the fry had fewer and fewer places to hide and grow as a result of ever diminishing weed cover. This made subsequent spawns less and less productive and effective because as soon as fry became available without places to hide, they were dinner for larger fish. This in turn essentially wiped out majorities of year classes of fish. The lake was left with a few big fish and a few surviving smaller fish which managed to escape predators. After the bigger fish began to die out or be caught, the small fish were the rule, which brings us to today.
Let me shift gears here for a minute. Many years ago, my step father and I got permission to fish a pond in central Ky. which was full of 9-12 inch bass. There hadn't been keepers(12 inch) caught from the pond for several years. The pond owner, realizing the problem said "We need to get some of those little guys out of there...take all the small bass you catch or don't fish here." This was in the early days of catch and release so while it was contrary to the accepted belief system, we complied with the owner and took quite a few bass over the next 2 months....but probably less than 100. The pond also had a big population of over sized bluegill(10 inchers) which became our focus. We fished the pond a few times that first year and 2nd year, but didn't go back for a couple of years after that. The next trip back(which would have been the 4th or maybe 5th year), we didn't catch as many bass but the 9-12 inchers we caught the first year had seemingly been replaced by numerous 15-17 inch bass along with a 5+ pounder caught by my step father in the summer of that 4th year. The bluegill had gotten noticeably smaller in number and size...obviously as the bigger bass population had increased in size.
The point here is- I think some harvest WOULD be in order, even if that means keeping 1 or 2 undersized bass per boat or per fisherman for a year or possibly 2. The main thing, in my opinion is this- the lake used to have good genetics and the terrain is obviously fertile enough to feed the lake. Those genetics are still alive in some of those fish whose ancestors were residents of Beaver. I think this idea may have some merit. I disagreed with the state's involvement and methods years ago...but this one has a track record with me personally. I've seen it work. I started fishing Beaver when I was in my late 20s. I am now in my early 50s(wow- again...it's painful to say it). I miss what it was but I believe it can become again. The fertility in that area has given way to some incredible fisheries..does anyone remember Taylorsville in it's early days? How about Guist Creek? The Ky River, Salt River, Elkhorn, shall I go on?
My political views are NOT in favor of governmental interference so I don't relish the government's presence in most cases but in this case, they do have the resources and they did enable this to take place years ago. I don't mean to sound like an old fogey- I just have hope for the future of the sport and it's going to require more than the hottest newest lure or technique. If Texas can do it, Kentucky can too. Maybe it will start with Beaver Lake.