301 KAR 1:130. Live bait for personal use.

      RELATES TO: KRS 150.010, 150.170, 150.175, 150.340, 150.450

      STATUTORY AUTHORITY: KRS 150.025

      NECESSITY, FUNCTION, AND CONFORMITY: KRS 105.025 authorizes the department to promulgate administrative regulations establishing the procedures for taking fish and creel and the areas from where fish and creel may be taken. This administrative regulation establishes the procedures for the taking of live bait and restricts use to personal use.

      Section 1. Definitions. (1) "Live bait" means minnows, shad, herring, crayfish, salamanders, frogs except bullfrogs, tadpoles, native lampreys, Asiatic clams (Corbicula sp.) and aquatic organisms except mussels.

      (2) "Minnows" means fishes under six (6) inches in length, except basses (largemouth, small mouth or Kentucky), rock bass or goggle-eye, trout, crappie, walleye, sauger, pikes, white bass, yellow bass, rockfish (saltwater striped bass) and muskellunge, or any hybrids of the above.

      Section 2. Live bait shall be taken with the following gear for personal use. Other species except live bait taken with this gear shall be returned immediately to the water:

      (1) Seines: Maximum size ten (10) feet long, four (4) feet deep, one-fourth (1/4) inch mesh, taking permitted statewide; maximum size thirty (30) feet long, six (6) feet deep, one-fourth (1/4) inch mesh, taking permitted in Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and Kentucky and Barkley Lakes.

      (2) Minnow traps: Maximum size three (3) feet long, eighteen (18) inches diameter, one (1) inch openings for catching, taking permitted statewide.

      (3) Dip nets: Maximum size three (3) feet diameter, taking permitted in Ohio, Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers, Cumberland River below Barkley Dam, Kentucky River below Lock #14, and all lakes over 1,000 acres.

      (4) Sport cast nets: The maximum size shall be twenty (20) feet diameter, one (1) inch bar mesh, taking permitted statewide except for the following waters:

      (a) Trout streams and tailwaters listed in the current Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife's Fishing and Boating Guide;

      (b) Lakes with a surface area of less than 500 acres; and

      (c) Taking shall be permitted in Crocus and Marrowbone Creeks, Cumberland County, but the mesh size shall be in one (1) inch bar mesh. Crocus Creek shall be closed to cast nets for an area extending from its mouth to fifty (50) yards upstream. All other tributaries of the Cumberland River below Wolf Creek Dam to the Tennessee state line shall be closed to cast nets.

      Section 3. No mussels shall be taken for use as bait except Asiatic clams (Corbicula sp.). A sport fishermen shall have in his possession no more than:

      (1) 500 minnows;

      (2) 500 crayfish;

      (3) Twenty-five (25) dusky salamanders (spring lizards) of the genus Desmognathus;

      (4) Five (5) frogs (other than bullfrogs);

      (5) Five (5) tadpoles;

      (6) 100 native lampreys (mud eels);

      (7) 500 aquatic invertebrates other than mussels;

      (8) 500 shad;

      (9) 500 herring;

      (10) Any number of Asiatic clams (Corbicula sp.).

      Section 4. Material Incorporated by Reference. (1) Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources Fishing and Boating Guide, 2004 edition, is incorporated by reference.

      (2) This material may be inspected, copied, or obtained, subject to applicable copyright law, at the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, #1 Game Farm Road, Frankfort, Kentucky, between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Eastern time. (KFWR-F-LB 1-1; 1 Ky.R. 242; eff. 1-8-75; Am. 8 Ky.R. 1154; eff. 6-2-82; 10 Ky.R. 623; eff. 12-2-83; 16 Ky.R. 46; eff. 8-23-89; 26 Ky.R. 2294; 27 Ky.R. 484; eff. 8-14-2000; 2871; 3240; eff. 6-8-2001; 29 Ky.R. 515; 927; eff. 10-9-02; 30 Ky.R. 2334; 7-14-04.)