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State Fish and Wildlife Department to moving largemouth bass to Boltz Lake in Grant County


The Fisheries Division of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources plans to remove smaller largemouth bass from Beaver Lake in Anderson County to improve the quality of bass and sunfish.

The removed bass will be released into Boltz Lake in Grant County and Taylorsville Lake in Spencer, Anderson and Nelson counties.

“The largemouth bass are becoming too crowded in Beaver Lake, which is negatively impacting the size structure of the bass population,” said David Baker, Central Fisheries District biologist for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. “We’ve had great bass spawns in the last couple of years, especially last year. We want to be proactive.”

Baker said a similar removal of largemouth bass from Beaver Lake in 2011 did wonders for the largemouth bass and bluegill populations. “The idea is to reduce the density of small largemouth bass to improve growth rates,” he said. “We saw the bluegill populations take off after our last bass removal. The number of 6-inch and larger bluegill in the lake quadrupled.”

Baker also said the largemouth bass benefitted to the point that Beaver Lake received an excellent rating for largemouth bass in the 2017 Fishing Forecast. This is the first time in 16 years the lake received the top rating.

“The removal project did what it was supposed to do,” Baker said. “It helped drive the sunfish management goals and improved the largemouth bass population.”

The Beaver Lake bass removal project will begin next week.

From Fish and Wildlife Department Communications


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