You’ll Never Believe How Many TONS of Catfish Smuggled

Nine people are being charged by the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife on 180 charges related to illegal catfish commercial activity. According to information released from the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Law Enforcement, earlier in 2024 Game Warden Cody Fox and Special Investigations Unit launched the investigation in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, the Alabama Game and Fish Division and the Barren County Attorney’s Office. The investigation also involved a Glasgow pay lake whose owner, according to the information, “knowingly” purchased catfish that were harvested from the restricted waters of Barren River Lake from individuals who were not licensed commercial fisherman. The information further states the pay lake operator ” failed to document any of the transactions as required by law.” Fox said the the pay lake in question was Green Valley Pay Lake. “The pay lake can only purchase catfish from licensed commercial fisherman in certain regulated waters,” Fox said. “You can’t catch fish in Barren River Lake and go sell them. [The lake] is a restricted waterway.” Specifically, the investigation revealed that “on 71 separate occasions” thousands of pounds of catfish were harvested from Barren River Lake, which is closed to commercial fishing and two of the nine harvested roughly 6,400 pounds of catfish “from waterways in the state of Alabama.” “Those catfish were transported to Kentucky and sold to the same pay lake operator,” Kentucky Fish and Wildlife stated. “Alabama law prohibits the transport of live trophy-sized catfish outside their state lines.” Fox explained the reason for this case, specifically citing the safety issues and the catfish population risks. “The big deal is these pay lakes taking these trophy catfish, which are catfish that are over 35 pounds, that can take anywhere from 12 to 30 years…so they’re removing all these large breeding catfish from lakes and rivers and in turn are decimating populations,” Fox said. “[Also, the pay lake operator] is required by law to document the time, license, amount of fish and where they came from because there’s also some health advisories…so if people buy these catfish and take them home and eat them they don’t know the waters they came from and the [body of water] might have a health advisory on it by the state that might say ‘only eat one from this lake’ or something like that.” Fox said it is hard to say specifically the consequences associated with these charges but guessed thousand of dollars “in fines and court costs,” the revocation of fishing licenses and the pay lake could be shut down “for up to three months.”

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#illegalcatfish
#paylakes
#greenvalleypaylake

[bradreynoldsbtcatfishingad]

Glad we have both put this storie out. It's important to keep people informed about these activities

[jimmylowe]

I am glad DNR is starting to address this problem.Any other pay lake owners take notice you could be next.

[AronWitt]

Great to see you are covering the issue of poaching and pay lakes and bringing greater awareness to the issue.
We appreciate all you do from the technical how to instructions to the longer interviews with folks in the catfishing world. Thanks for the effort you put into the content and we will stay tuned

[settinghooksncrossingeyes]

You can tell by looking at that pay lake on Google maps that ifish is not going to survive. It's nothing but a farm pond in front of someone's house. No current no shade, no depths. It's a jail for fish

[DannyCal]

Great to see this finally getting some attention! Also congrats on 100k Dieter!!

[DailyDoseInspire]

I have a 3 acre farm pond in Indiana. I contacted a local pay lake to see if I could purchase some catfish from them when they get their next shipment. My pond is loaded with large bass. I can't stock the 6"-8" catfish fingerlings from my local fish retailer. They are just expensive bass food. So.. long story short.. this paylake guy said he would sell me a few hundred pounds on his next shipment. I went to pick them up and these fish were regurgitating red ear, crappie... blue gills etc. I immediatley realized these fish were not captive bred. I left without giving that man a dollar. First off, that's unethical. Second off... I am not introducing disease or invasive invertabrates to my trophy bass pond. I was so upset to learn that the catfish were clearly taken from a river somewhere south,

[jtotherog]

I’m a KY boy myself. I fish the Ohio 3-4 times a week all year. My pool is between mcalpine dam and cannelton dam. The Ohio River has been beaten down so bad it’s a shame. Thanks for sharing the story man.

[georgewoodby]

It's about time I've been saying that for over 20 years but nobody would listen

[rogermosberger]

The lack of "severity" in the nature of the charges tells us everything we need to know. "Misdemeanor" charges. Most will be dropped, the violators will plea out, and that will be the end of it. This comment is not meant as a jab at the Conservation officers, their hands are tied.

[randall]

Pay lakes are awful. It's just unethical and greedy.

[jbhodj]

We need to bring more awareness to this sort of behavior. Would like to see a study done on the actual impact pay lakes have had on local fisheries but doubt tht happens

[wantboutdoors]

Great coverage Mr. Dieter. You did an excellent job laying out this situation and explaining the details of the negative impact with paylakes. I'm sure that, like tou said there are those who don't understand why this is an important positive step forward, and there are those who feel there's no big deal. I couldn't begin to imagine the uproar that would happen if there was trophy bass paylales, but most bass fishermen don't like catfish because they are a predator to their favorite fish to catch. What I'm getting at is that all fishermen need to help one another against those who oppose a threat to any game fish (which catfish should be considered a game fish, in my opinion this would help cease issues of poachers with carfish) or largely harvested fish. Anyways, I'm ranting now. I just wanted to say great coverage on the situation sir.

[gabekasler]

Congrats on 100k Dieter, learned a lot on this channel thanks for all the tips and good content. Appreciate you making noise about pay lakes.

[TNRVG]

WOW Kentucky is on a ROLL!!!! Was just over a month ago 11 were caught doing the same in the same state! Crossing state lines makes these federal crimes. That reminds me I need to send an email to a certain federal agent I know.

[parentsarealien]

Good story and about time something is done. Also, nice MONSTER ROD HOLDER shirt. 👍

[fishin-impossible]

Good info Dieter, I'd like to see wildlife get more involved in the Bow fishing stuff going on now

[Tonnsfabrication]

I'm an Ohio River fisherman in Ohio near WV and Ky. Our pools in this part of the river have been hit hard due to pay lake bounty hunters. We've got lots of pay lakes around south eastern Ohio, it's not about fishing to to most of those guys, its all about gambling. The boat ramps I use on a weekly basis I've only ever seen ODNR one time in several years, I've never seen any on the water.

[trinityoutdoors]

Thank you for covering this Dieter love all your content

[bluesdad]

Dieter, good podcast. Someone needs to talk about this. I have no problem with pay lakes as a business. I think it should bbe illegal to sell any wild caught fish to paylakes. if they buy the fish from a farm, thats fine.
thanks for taking the time to do the video.

[chadg]

I live 10 mins from that lake and have fished there last time I was there, there was thirty five pound plus catfish, dead floating around the bank