Sounds to me like this is a classic case of the US ARMY CORP OF ENGINEERS pi$$ing down the general publics back and then attempting to convince them it raining.

The US ARMY CORP OF ENGINEERS has already decided to declare these places off limits to the the general public well before they issued dates for their so called "public forums meetings". The USACE is blowing smoke when they act like they are requesting public input concerning their desicions due to the fact their minds are already made up and to heck with what anyone else thinks about the issue.
Why did they decide to put these restrictions in place at Barkley Dam but decide no to do so at Kentucky Dam?
It doesnt take a genius to know there is more fishing activity at Kentucky Dam in comparison to Barkley Dam and that if they had announced such a decision for Kentucky Dam that the public backlash would have been severe enough to give them a very noticeable public relations blackeye.
The USACE were betting on the odds that the general public would fall into the lines of thinking it would be okay to give in to the regulations they would be puting into place at Barkley Dam because there were no regulations announced for Kentucky Dam. They were expecting the general public to "drink the coolaide" and to willingly give up the tailwater areas of Barkly Dam while considering that Kentucky Dam tailwaters area would remain forever wide open and accesible. And from the looks of things that is exactly what is happening and people are "drinking the coolaide" taking it for granted the USACE will not be enforcing these types of restrictions at Kentucky Dam.
My thoughts are the USACE are putting these restrictions into effect at Barkley Dam in order to test the waters in an effort to see just how much opposition they will encounter in hopes they can just as easily put the same restrictions into effect at Kentucky Dam on some later to be announced date. By that time people will be conditioned into thinking along the lines of "Well they did it at Barkley Dam so that is proof enough we cant keep them from doing it at Kentucky Dam and they couldnt be stopped back then so what makes us think we can stop them now".