bass and other sport fish that rely on
shad and other native fishes for food
can be impacted.
On Kentucky Lake and Lake
Barkley, many anglers have noted the
absence of those bait balls in recent
years. Freeman, who still makes it a
point to fish for bass on his home
waters, is among those who saw the
baitfish population potentially increase
last season, if only a little.
AN UPHILL BATTLE
The problems facing those
attempting to combat the Asian carp
population in U.S. waterways are
many. For one, environmental condi-
tions are impossible to change, and
the flooding that occurred around
Kentucky and Barkley in the spring of
2015 is a good example of that. With
prolonged high water levels at that
time, Asian carp eggs – fluvial eggs
that need consistent current to remain
up in the water column to survive –
flourished, and it resulted in the mass
of fish in the lakes today.
Freeman says Asian carp need cer-
tain water conditions to spawn – con-
ditions that were more than met in
2015 – and that’s why he’s seeing so
many fish in the 6-plus-pound range
with each harvest.
“They’re four-and-a-half,” Freeman
quips when asked how old he thinks
the carp are in a recent harvest. “They
all spawned in that high water in 2015.”
Freeman acknowledges that it’s
going to take avoiding those kinds of
massive water fluctuations to ensure
the Asian carp in Kentucky and Barkley
don’t have another banner spawn. And
that might be crucial in efforts to eradi-
cate them entirely, which isn’t neces-
sarily an obtainable goal.
“To completely eradicate an entire
species is pretty hard to do, especially
with so many of them in our rivers,” he
says. “They have so much water to move
40
up and down in. In the rivers, they’re
here, but in our reservoirs, we have a
fighting chance at resisting them.”
In addition to environmental factors,
there’s the simple fact that commercial
carp fishing needs to be profitable to
ensure participation. No one is going to
lose money buying boats, nets and sup-
plies and filling gas tanks to take a loss.
“Our biggest problem down here is
an unreliable market,” Freeman says.
“We used to have to drive 45 minutes
to an hour to market. Now we have
one close.”
That’s great for Freeman and other
Kentucky- and Barkley-based fisher-
men, but there are many others who
have to spend money on gas to get to
and from the market, to say nothing of
what it takes to keep harvests cold and
fresh getting there. Markets aren’t
going to buy spoiled fish.
Then there’s the fact that gill-net-
ting doesn’t exactly have a positive
connotation in the conservation world,
a reputation that really isn’t warranted
when considering Freeman’s process.
“Gill nets get a bad rap, but these
fish [bass caught accidentally] aren’t
out of the water very long,” he says.
The nets are in the water long
enough to trap the fish – sometimes
less than an hour – and the fish are
harvested immediately. Bycatch is rare.
Austin Gruner, who has worked with
Freeman for a few months, has seen
maybe 10 bass caught in their nets in
that time. Bycaught fish are almost
always returned to the water fully
healthy. The negative environmental
impact of what Freeman and his crew
are doing is nil.
THE ENDGAME
“It’s going to take a combination of
several things to catch them down to a
level it’s not such a problem,” Freeman
says of the carp. “As far as economic
tourism and things like that, that’s
where we need to focus on trying to
get these things out: for the sport fish,
the tourism industry, safety for boaters.
Those are the biggest reasons we need
to target them.”
At just 24, Freeman is still old
enough to remember when Kentucky
and Barkley were bass fishing meccas.
A banner day then and a banner day
now are not the same.
“Kentucky Lake would spoil you as
a kid,” he recalls. “I remember going
out there and having 200-fish days and
they all being 3- to 5-pounders. You’d
catch 40 or 50 fish a day and be sad
about it sometimes.”
Though the carp certainly aren’t the
only factor at blame for the downturn in
bass fishing (untimely water-level fluctu-
ations, reduced grass growth and other
factors have also contributed), learning
to control and minimize their population
is a major hurdle in getting back the
Kentucky Lake Freeman remembers.
That’s the lake Freeman wants back. It’s
his vision for a better future for
Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley.
“Those lakes are my home. That’s
where I grew up. That’s what I knew,”
he reminisces.
For now, the home Freeman knew
and the one he has aren’t necessarily
one and the same. But he’s doing his
best. He’s doing what many have
called for – the removal of Asian carp
from Kentucky and Barkley – one day
at a time. For him, it’s not just about
making a living; it’s about making a
true difference.
“As much as a 12-year-old kid can
cut his teeth, I learned everything I
learned from these lakes,” he adds.
“That is my home. To have something
come in here and completely throw it
for a loop is so tragic to watch. That’s
why it’s personal to me.”
FLWFISHING.COM | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING.COM | APRIL-MAY 2020