Disturbing rumors are circulating in some fishing circles that the bass fishing at Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley isn’t what it used to be. The reason: Asian carp.
It’s no secret that the invasive silver and big head carp are a problem. (The silver carp are the jumpers.) They’re in the lakes, and in all likelihood, they aren’t going away. And although both state and federal fish and wildlife officials are working hard to combat and control the carp problem, options are limited.
But are they damaging Kentucky’s twin lakes’ multi-million-dollar bass fisheries?
A few weeks ago, officials from the Tennessee Valley Authority, which manages the Kentucky Lake/Tennessee River system, and some folks from the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) met with some media types at the KDFWR’s Camp Currie, near Benton, to discuss this and other fishy issues.
Adam Martin was there. Martin is the western district fisheries biologist for the KDFWR whose 14-county management area includes Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. He always has carp on his mind.
“I think it’s safe to say that Asian carp and specifically silver carp are negative for the bass fishery,” he said.
He would get few arguments from anglers. But are the carp changing or damaging the bass fishery?
“Changing it? Yes. And I would argue that they are damaging it,” Martin said. “However, I would also argue that carp are not the main driver of the fishery. If you look, historically, by far our best bass fishing years have occurred after carp arrived, and the main reasons for that are environmental.”
Paul Rister was there. Rister was the KDFWR western district fisheries biologist for more than two decades before retiring in 2017. He’s been wrestling with Asian carp since they began showing up in 2006. He’s still wrestling with them, although now from the sidelines. Once a biologist, always a biologist.
Based on bass size and growth data Rister collected through the last decade of his tenure and the first 10 years of the carp invasion, damaging effects were negligible, he said.
Changes to the fishery, however, were seismic.
“One of the first indicators of carp impacting bass would be, have [bass] lengths and weights changed?” he asked. “Because if the bass can’t be where they want to feed, then they’re going to get skinnier. I didn’t see that up to my retirement in 2017. The bass weights versus the lengths were still historically high. The fish were feeding well.
“I would agree that the carp have changed the fishery. Now you’ve got the carp entered in the picture, and they want plankton, which displaces the shad, which displaces the sportfish that want to eat the shad. So, they have disrupted that natural food chain.”
Jessica Morris was there. Morris also is a state fisheries biologist and coordinates much of the KDFWR’s Asian carp research in western Kentucky waters. She knows carp and is keeping a close eye on them.
“They are still out there,” she said. “But we haven’t seen any significant change in population numbers or size.”
She also knows that silver carp travel in “large schools.”
How large?
“The size of a house. And we’ve also seen them move 60 miles in three days.”
Even in watersheds the size of Kentucky and Barkley lakes, that is a disruptive force. For anglers wrestling with the carp problem, both Martin and Rister suggest bass fishermen tweak their tactics.
“There are a lot of theories on how silver carp are actually affecting the bass fishing,” Martin said. “The main trend is that you’re seeing bass shallower for more of the year than you used to.”
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Traditionally, outside the spawn, Kentucky Lake in particular has been an offshore, or ledge, bass fishery. Swarms of invasive carp are changing that. Fishing tactics have to change, too.
“A bass is where it is for one of three reasons, or all of these reasons: to find something to eat, to not get eaten, or to reproduce,” Martin explained. “In the case of the spawn, obviously, they’re going to be shallow. But all other times of the year, they’re trying to find something to eat and not get eaten. In most cases, if you have a healthy shad population, that shad population is going to be largely offshore because the plankton levels are higher out there.”
The shad follow the plankton, and the bass follow the shad. House-size schools of carp also cruising for plankton upset this scenario, forcing bass to look elsewhere for groceries.
“My opinion would be that those bass are now taking advantage—or taking more advantage—of those shallower resources, meaning the sunfish population, which are going to stay shallow year-round,” Martin concluded. “Anglers are seeing bass in shallow areas throughout the summertime, which is not something you’d traditionally see.”
Rister, speaking from the relaxed position of retirement, explained it a bit differently. “People say, ‘Well, I just don’t catch the bass that I used to catch.’ Well, that’s because they’ve been displaced. The carp have come in, and they’re grazing out in the field, so the bass have to go someplace else. You’re fishing in the wrong place.”
Rister added that a story he heard from an experienced shellcracker (redear sunfish) angler is a near-perfect example of this.
“This guy said he could always go to this one spot and guarantee some really nice redear,” Rister recalled. “Then, after a couple years of the carp, the redear were no longer here. There was carp there. But he moved 50 yards down the shoreline and found the redear. They had just moved. That’s a good example of what happens because the carp—when they get into their big groups—they’re bullies. Nobody likes to use the word ‘bully.’ but that’s what carp are. They get in such massive numbers, they root everything else out.
“Fishermen are going to have to adapt. The carp are probably not going away.”
The experts have spoken. Go catch some fish.