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Kentucky Electroshock Recap

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Although it is still summer in the Southeast, AES was asked to shock several strip mine lakes in western Kentucky. These lakes can be difficult to shock due to their extreme depth and high conductivity.

It is typical that these lakes have sharp drop offs a few feet off the shoreline.
These lakes in particular had never been managed so their visibility readings were greater than 12 ft. This visibility reading tells us that the lake is not supporting many pounds of fish per acre.
High conductivity was a worry but the readings indicated perfect shocking conditions.
Carp are very common pond fish to shock but these are special because they are buffalo carp. Buffalo carp are prized by fishermen. 
Big Bass
As the visibly reading from earlier showed us the lake did not hold many pounds of fish but we still managed to shock a few.
Gar
Gar are a common trash fish that we encounter in swampy environments.
Besides gar we also shocked large bowfin that exceeded 30 inches.
To gain access to the otoliths Matt has to remove the head of the bass.The otoliths are tucked near the spinal cord on a fish. Matt will count the rings on the otoliths similar to the counting the rings on a tree to get an accurate age.
As with many lakes there was no boat ramp at this location. With some fancy foot work and four-wheel drive Matt manged to tuck the shock boat deep into some cattails.
Under performing bass are harvested but never wasted. The property owner is about to have a large fish fry.
At the end of a long day Matt had a good idea of what was happening underwater. The strip mine lakes had never been managed so they were bass heavy, had too many competitive species, and lacked proper amounts of forage. None of these issues are permanent. With time these ponds can be turned into great fisheries.

Shock season is just about to get rolling so if you are interested in getting your pond audited give the office a call so we will have time to make it out. Dates are booking quickly with Fall rolling in.

Education in the School of Fish

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