Frankfort, KY -  The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) plans to stock the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River on Friday, June 24 with approximately 15,000 white bass fingerlings 1.5 to 3.5 inches long. this stocking is part of an ongoing effort to bolster white bass numbers in the upper part of Lake Cumberland.

"We are using the excess production of white bass at the hatchery to try and restore the white bass runs in Lake Cumberland," said Gerry Buynak, assistant director of fisheries for the KDFWR. "We are using the excess from a research study on white bass being conducted on Dewey and Barren River lakes."

The Big South Fork of Cumberland River flows into Lake Cumberland at Burnside, Kentucky. "We put 100 adults in the Big South Fork in 2001," said John Williams, southeastern fishery district biologist for the KDFWR. "In 2003, we stocked 5 million white bass fry and over 300,000 1.1 to 1.5 inch fingerling white bass. The fingerling white bass were stocked at both Noe’s Dock on the upper Cumberland River and at Alum Ford on the Big South Fork. We stocked about 300,000 1.5 inch fingerlings last year and 5 million white bass fry earlier this year."

The results of these white bass stockings in Barren River and Dewey lakes encourage biologists. In 2004, approximately 95 percent of the white bass in Dewey Lake that were one year old came from KDFWR hatchery-produced fish. At Barren River Lake, the 24 percent of the white bass that were one year old in 2004 came from stockings.

"It would be a great benefit to anglers if we could restore those early spring white bass runs on Lake Cumberland," Buynak said. "They are tremendous early spring fisheries."

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