Art Lander’s Outdoors: Introduced fish species have had both positive and negative effects in Kentucky
Editor’s note: This is the first article in a two-part series on fish that have been introduced into Kentucky waters.
Fish species introduced into Kentucky waters through the years have had a wide variety of impacts, some good, some bad, some ugly.
In a presentation entitled Aquatic Invasive Species in Kentucky, prepared by Jeffrey Herod, Aquatic Nuisance Species Coordinator for the Kentucky Department...
Art Lander’s Outdoors: Lake Reba, in Madison Co., was impounded from Otter Creek in KY River Basin
Editor’s note: This is the nineteenth article in an occasional series on small lakes in central and eastern Kentucky.
Lake Reba (Photo courtesy Visit Richmond)
Lake Reba is east of Richmond, in Madison County.
Drive east on Ky-52 from Exit 90 of Interstate-75, then turn south (right) on Lake Reba Drive.
Lake Reba (Image from Apple Maps; click for larger image)
The lake has an interesting history...
Art Lander’s Outdoors: Madison County’s Lake Wilgreen offers fishing for bass, crappie, blue gill
Editor’s Note: This is the eighteenth article in an occasional series on small lakes in central and eastern Kentucky.
Lake Wilgreen, a.k.a. Taylor Valley Lake, is a few minutes west of exit 87, off Interstate-75, in Madison County. Drive west on Ky. 876 from the exit, take a left onto Curtis Pike at the Marathon store, then left on Wilgreen Lake (Taylor Fork) Road.
The 142-acre lake was impounded...
Art Lander’s Outdoors: A preview of Kentucky’s 2024 spring wild turkey season beginning April 13
Kentucky’s 2024 spring turkey season opens in two weeks.
Opening day varies from year to year because Kentucky’s 23-day spring season is set by regulation to begin on the Saturday closest to April 15. This year’s season dates are Saturday, April 13 through Sunday, May 5.
The two-day youth-only season, also set by regulation, is held on the first weekend in April. This year the season is April...
Art Lander’s Outdoors: Kentucky’s so-called rough fish species are taken by wide range of methods
Many anglers are familiar with the sport fish species in Kentucky’s lakes, rivers and streams.
But Kentucky waters also support a number of fish species that can grow to enormous size, that anglers may not be as familiar with, because they are not actively fished for, are of low food value, or restricted to specific habitats.
Kentucky is home to a total of 248 native fish species with an additional...
Art Lander’s Outdoors: Shelbyville’s Clear Creek Park Greenway offers natural escape from urban backdrop
Trails through green spaces in urban areas provide a welcome escape, an opportunity to stretch your legs, walk the dog, go for a bike ride, or engage in other active or passive outdoor recreational pursuits.
One such area in central Kentucky is the Clear Creek Park Greenway, in Shelbyville, designated as Heritage Land on the State Nature Preserves website.
Clear Creek Park Greenway (Map from Shelby...
Art Lander’s Outdoors: The Red-winged Blackbird is a native species rarely observed up-close
The Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) is a native species found year-round in Kentucky.
But, their occurrence is somewhat irregular since some birds move south for the winter, while others join large, migrating flocks of birds from the northern reaches of their range, moving around the region.
According to The Kentucky Breeding Bird Atlas, the Red-winged Blackbird is “most numerous in western...
Art Lander’s Outdoors: Creation of plastic worm lure revolutionized the sport of largemouth bass fishing
A guy cooking up plastic in his kitchen and then pouring it into steel molds in his basement revolutionized fishing for largemouth bass.
The plastic worm, flexible, with a soft, flesh-like texture, traces back to Nick Creme, who created the first plastic worm at his home in Akron, Ohio, in 1949. The rest is history and bass fishing has never been the same.
Nick Creme (Photo courtesy Creme Lure)
A machinist...
Art Lander’s Outdoors: Late winter, early spring offers some of KY’s best largemouth bass fishing
March is the beginning of some of the best fishing of the year for largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides).
When water temperatures climb into the 40s and low 50s, bass begin to travel from their winter, deepwater haunts, to flats at the backs of bays, and areas where creek or river channels are close to the banks.
Telephone a marina on the lake you want to fish for information on current lake levels,...
Art Lander’s Outdoors: News and updates for the 2024-25 fishing license year set to begin March 1
The new license year begins March 1st and continues through the last day of February the following year (2025). Here’s some points to consider before wetting a line:
Who needs a fishing license?
New licenses and permits are required annually for everyone except resident and non-resident boys and girls ages 15 and younger, resident landowners, their spouses and dependent children, and tenants, their...
Art Lander’s Outdoors: A winter migrant, the white-crowned sparrow flashes distinctive plumage
Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing series on backyard birds.
In the scramble for seed at the feeder you may have seen this sparrow with distinctive plumage — the white-crowned sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys).
An adult white-crowned sparrow (Photo by Kevin Rutherford, courtesy National Audubon Society)
A member of family Passerellidae, this sparrow is only in Kentucky during...
Art Lander’s Outdoors: Some of Kentucky’s best sauger fishing of the year starts in February
The thermometer might say no, but the calendar says yes.
February is the start of some of the best fishing of the year for sauger in Kentucky rivers and tailwaters.
Water temperatures will be cold, but the fishing can be good to excellent, when water conditions are right. Sauger readily bite in water temperatures below 40 degrees F.
Kentucky has six rivers that support quality sauger fisheries (Photo...
Art Lander’s Outdoors: The American coot is an infrequent visitor to lakes in Central Kentucky
This migratory waterbird is an infrequent visitor to lakes in central Kentucky during the winter months.
Commonly mistaken for a duck, the American coot (fulica americana) is in fact a bird of the family rallidae, which includes rails, gallinules, and coots. The common name is mud hen.
The American coot found its niche in sports culture as the mascot of the Toledo Mud Hens, a minor league baseball...
Art Lander’s Outdoors: 2023 KY deer season harvest drops 2.56 percent; chronic wasting disease detected
The old saying “what goes up must come down” is certainly applicable to Kentucky’s white-tailed deer season harvest.
During the past 10 seasons the deer harvest has been trending in a range between a high of 155,720 in 2015, to a low of 132,327 in 2021.
A whitetail doe (Photo by Helmer Nielson, Flickr Commons)
At this stage in the management of deer herds in our 120 counties, fluctuations...
Art Lander’s Outdoors: Field Sparrows are abundant in KY and common visitors to backyard feeders
When you feed songbirds during the winter months sparrows are likely to come in droves.
The little brown and tan birds are seed eaters and they relish the small seeds commonly found in wild bird mixes — black oil sunflower seeds, millet, and milo.
They will feed on hanging feeders, trays laid on the ground where seeds are piled up, or on the ground where seeds have spilled under hanging feeders.
Field...
