Art Lander’s Outdoors: Laurel River Lake offers good fishing for cool water species fall through spring

Editor’s Note: This is the seventh article in a series about Kentucky’s major reservoirs.
Laurel River Lake is located in Laurel and Whitley Counties in the Daniel Boone National Forest (Photo from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)
Laurel River Lake is in Laurel and Whitley Counties, just off Interstate-75 in Daniel Boone National Forest.
The dam is about 20 miles east of Corbin, on Ky. 1193, about...
Art Lander’s Outdoors: Let’s go fishing which is best in Spring; we’re blessed with abundance of lakes and streams

We are blessed here in Kentucky with an abundance of streams and lakes, excellent fishing and no closed seasons.
While the unofficial start to spring fishing begins with the new license year on March 1, we can fish year-round, weather permitting.
Quality crappie is the name of the game at Taylorsville Lake, 3,050 acres in Spencer, Anderson and Nelson counties. (US Army Corps of Engineers photo)
If...
Kentucky Afield Outdoors: A fall fishing festival, the reservoir smallmouth bass season is in full swing

By Lee McClellan
Special to KyForward
Reservoir smallmouth anglers are a weird lot. They dangle tiny little hair jigs under bobbers in air so cold ice forms in the guides of their rods. They think the best late fall fishing days feature leaden, low skies, light rain and highs in the 40s.
The record heatwave of early October is now a memory. The bracing morning air and cooler, longer nights signal to...
Kentucky Afield Outdoors: Kentucky has record with largest smallmouth bass in world
Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources staff artist Rick Hill, left, and “Kentucky Afield” Television Host Tim Farmer admire a smallmouth bass Farmer caught from Dale Hollow Lake in early spring. Dale Hollow Lake, Laurel River Lake and Lake Cumberland hold some of the largest smallmouth bass in the world. (Photo from F&W)
By Lee McClellan
Special to KyForward
You...
Art Lander’s Outdoors: Almost 60 years later, spotted bass still Kentucky’s state gamefish
The spotted bass has been Kentucky’s state gamefish since 1956. (Photo by Art Lander Jr.)
The spotted bass (Micropterus punctulatus) has found a home in Kentucky.
On Feb. 27, 1956, Kentucky’s General Assembly passed Senate Resolution 70, establishing the spotted bass as Kentucky’s state gamefish. Soon afterwards, the legislation was signed into law by Gov. Albert B. “Happy”...
Kentucky Afield Outdoors: March is the best time for catching trophy smallmouth bass
By Lee McClellan
Special to KyForward
Female smallmouth bass in lakes such as Laurel River Lake, Green River Lake, Lake Cumberland and Kentucky Lake grow hungry in early spring as water temperatures slowly warm to 50 degrees. The water temperatures in these lakes range from the mid to high 40s right now.
James Charas of Lexington holds a 22-inch smallmouth bass caught recently from Lake...