Probe targets illegal fishing at Barren River Lake

An extensive investigation led by Kentucky Fish and Wildlife uncovered several instances of a pay lake in Barren County buying illegally harvested catfish.

The results of the investigation were announced Tuesday in a post on the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Law Enforcement Facebook page.

Nine people were cited to court on a total of 180 fish and wildlife-related violations in Kentucky, and charges are pending against two people in Tennessee and Alabama as a result of the investigation, which was led by the state fish and wildlife department’s Special Investigations Unit.

The state fish and wildlife department said that the investigation turned up 71 illegal transactions in which thousands of pounds of live catfish were harvested from Barren River Lake, which is closed to commercial fishing, and allegedly sold to Green Valley Pay Lake in Glasgow.

The pay lake operator knowingly purchased catfish from a restricted waterway from people who were not licensed commercial fishermen, according to the fish and wildlife department.

Pay lakes in Kentucky are private facilities where anglers pay a fee to fish for a set amount of time at lakes stocked with what are designated as trophy catfish, which state regulations define as blue or flathead catfish at least 35 inches in length or channel catfish at least 28 inches long.

State regulations set limits on the amount of trophy-sized catfish from public waters that can be stocked at a pay lake, with a maximum annual limit of up to 2,250 pounds of fish per surface acre of water and a limit of 750 pounds per surface acre of water per stocking session.

Pay lakes are also required to keep receipts for each fish order received, documenting the hatchery of origin if obtained from one, or the commercial fisherman and driver who provided the fish, if obtained from public waters for three years after the date of purchase.

“(Pay lake operators) have to follow certain guidelines, they have to document where the fish are coming from, what waterways they originate from,” said Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Game Warden Cody Fox, who was involved in this investigation. “In this particular situation, the pay lake owners were not keeping any proper receipts or documentation on where they were purchasing fish from and who they were coming from.”

Fox said the investigation began in May.

Kentucky Fish and Wildlife said its investigation also found that two commercial fisherman harvested about 6,400 pounds of live catfish from waterways in Alabama, which prohibits the transport of live trophy-sized catfish beyond state lines, and brought them to Kentucky sold them to the pay lake operator in Glasgow.

Most of the fish transported from Alabama were trophy catfish, some of which weighed more than 60 pounds, according to the fish and wildlife department.

Fox said the people charged in the investigation were cited for violations of state laws governing the buying, selling and transporting of protected wildlife and for exceeding the creel limit – or the maximum number of sport fish that can be caught in a day or that a person can possess at one time.

Last year, state fish and wildlife officials cited 28 pay lakes for violations involving operating without a license, improperly obtaining catfish and failing to document purchases.

Fox said law enforcement has learned of instances in which, instead of going through licensed commercial fisherman, pay lake operators will buy fishing stock from people who are not commercial fisherman, paying less per pound.

This practice has the effect of harming fishing habitats in public waterways, Fox said.

“There’s a lot of money to be had for these public waterways that are restricted for commercial fishing,” Fox said. “These catfish tend not to live very long in pay lakes and they have to constantly buy new fish, and that creates an unhealthy habitat with so many fish in such a small body of water.”

A pay lake operator convicted of violating regulations related to the operation of their lake risks losing their license to run a pay lake for three months for a first offense.

A second offense leads to an operator having their license revoked for a year, while a third or subsequent offense results in a two-year license revocation.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, Alabama Game and Fish Division and Barren County Attorney’s Office assisted in the investigation.