Fish Species

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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

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Smallmouth Bass

Common names: Black bass, brown bass, bronzeback

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Spotted Bass

Common names: Kentucky bass, Kentucky spotted bass, northern spotted bass, Alabama spotted bass, Wichita spotted bass, smallmouth bass.

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White Bass

Common names: stripe, silver bass, striper, sand bass, barfish.

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Striped Bass

Common names: striper, rockfish, rock, linesides.

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White Crappie

Common names: papermouth, bachelor perch

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Black Crappie

Common names: speckled perch, specks, papermouth, bachelor perch, calico bass, strawberry bass, or white perch

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Bluegill

Common names: bream, blue bream, sun perch, blue sunfish, copperhead, copperbelly, roach

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Redear

Common names: Widely known as shellcracker because of its fondness for snails. Also called bream, yellow bream.

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Yellow Perch

Common names: raccoon perch, redfin perch, ringed perch, lake perch

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Blue Catfish

Common names: channel cat, hump-back blue, forktail cat, great blue cat, silver cat, chucklehead cat, blue fulton

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Channel Catfish

Common names: spotted cat, blue channel cat, river catfish, Fiddler, willow cat

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Flathead Catfish

Common names: yellow cat, mud cat, shovelhead cat, johnnie cat, goujon, appaluchion, opelousas

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Sauger

Common names: sand pike

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