Types of Fish in Kentucky Lake & Lake Barkley
Kentucky has a total of 242 species of fish, which represents one of the most diverse assemblages in North America. Many are obscure minnows and darters, which are not commonly seen by anglers. The following list features the most common Lake Barkley & Kentucky Lake fish species.
Largemouth Bass
Common names: black bass, Florida bass, Florida (or southern) largemouth, green bass, bigmouth, bucketmouth
Smallmouth Bass
Common names: Black bass, brown bass, bronzeback
Spotted Bass
Common names: Kentucky bass, Kentucky spotted bass, northern spotted bass, Alabama spotted bass, Wichita spotted bass, smallmouth bass.
White Bass
Common names: stripe, silver bass, striper, sand bass, barfish.
Striped Bass
Common names: striper, rockfish, rock, linesides.
White Crappie
Common names: papermouth, bachelor perch
Black Crappie
Common names: speckled perch, specks, papermouth, bachelor perch, calico bass, strawberry bass, or white perch
Bluegill
Common names: bream, blue bream, sun perch, blue sunfish, copperhead, copperbelly, roach
Redear
Common names: Widely known as shellcracker because of its fondness for snails. Also called bream, yellow bream.
Yellow Perch
Common names: raccoon perch, redfin perch, ringed perch, lake perch
Blue Catfish
Common names: channel cat, hump-back blue, forktail cat, great blue cat, silver cat, chucklehead cat, blue fulton
Channel Catfish
Common names: spotted cat, blue channel cat, river catfish, Fiddler, willow cat
Flathead Catfish
Common names: yellow cat, mud cat, shovelhead cat, johnnie cat, goujon, appaluchion, opelousas
Sauger
Common names: sand pike
