LBL KY side

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Rackseeker

Rackseeker

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Southern Mid TN
I have been hunting LBL on and off for 30 yrs but all on the TN side. Just wondering how is the KY side compared to the TN side. I would assume about the same but thought I'd ask. Thinking about giving the KY side a try for a few days before the youth rifle hunt.
 
Rackseeker said:
Just wondering how is the KY side compared to the TN side.
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IMO, it's almost 6 of one, a half dozen the other.

Hunters sometimes may think I'm hiding info, but the truth is, the best areas of LBL are whichever ones you become most familiar. All the area (hunt units) are more similar than different, all have lake frontage, high ridges, creek bottoms, etc.

Some areas (or parts of some areas) may be marginally better for archery hunting, simply because less or no gun hunting is allowed. But that in turn attracts more archery hunters and more gun hunters nearby, so go figure.
 
That said, there are some significant factors effecting whether you should hunt the TN or the KY side of LBL. These factors have nothing to do with whether the hunting might be better on one side of the state line or the other.

A few years ago, LBL began counting any bucks taken toward your respective state's "statewide" annual buck limit. Even an LBL buck tag on an LBL quota gun hunt counts toward the statewide buck limit.

The annual buck limit for LBL is one (1), period.
Doesn't matter whether you hunt the TN or the KY side.
One, and you're done.
 
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If you're a resident KY hunter, if you kill a buck on the KY side of LBL, that's your annual buck for the entire year in the State of KY. If you're a resident TN hunter, if you kill a buck on the TN side of LBL, that buck counts towards your statewide 2-buck limit.

Whether you're a resident of either TN or KY, if you limit out on bucks in your home state, then you cannot kill a buck at LBL on your resident part of LBL.

If you're a TN resident, buying a KY non-resident license, hunting the KY portion of LBL, could allow you to have your normal 2-buck limit in TN, plus take a buck on the KY portion of LBL.

If you're a KY resident, buying a TN non-resident license, hunting the TN portion of LBL, could allow you to have your normal 1-buck limit in KY, plus take a buck on the TN portion of LBL.
 
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But wait, there's more.

If you hunt on either the TN or the KY portion of LBL during the pre-gun archery-only season, and you kill a buck, that became your 1 annual buck for LBL, NEGATING your ability to legally kill a buck should you be drawn for a quota gun hunt (even though your quota permit says you can kill 1 buck, but only if you haven't already).

LBL's 1-buck annual limit doesn't matter whether you hunt the KY or the TN side of LBL. But whether you take that buck on the KY or TN side does effect your statewide buck limit for that respective state.
 
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LBLman,here is my question,if I kill my turkey limit of two in Tennessee, can I get a non-resident license in Kentucky to hunt Kentucky side of LBL for turkeys and it count towards my Kentucky limit?
 
Wrangler95 said:
LBLman,here is my question,if I kill my turkey limit of two in Tennessee, can I get a non-resident license in Kentucky to hunt Kentucky side of LBL for turkeys and it count towards my Kentucky limit?
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That is my understanding, assuming you didn't get either your TN turkeys at LBL.
But before you go with this, be sure to check early next year, as things are constantly changing.

LBL turkeys count "same as statewide" just like buck deer, even if drawn for a quota turkey hunt, i.e. they still count towards the respective state's annual bag limit.
 
TheLBLman said:
That is my understanding, assuming you didn't get either your TN turkeys at LBL.
But before you go with this, be sure to check early next year, as things are constantly changing.

LBL turkeys count "same as statewide" just like buck deer, even if drawn for a quota turkey hunt, i.e. they still count towards the respective state's annual bag limit.
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Thanks,I will sure check the regulations next year for Kentucky before going to LBL turkey hunting.
 
It should be a one buck limit in each state but it is not.

I studied the data when they used to publish online.

It basically takes or did take 2 or more preference points to draw on TN side. Not so on KY side, I have drawn a tag in 3 different areas for 4 straight years in KY. I don't mind sharing because I am likely done hunting LBL now.

We started hunting KY side because the NR youth license was free in KY. We even hunted an area that only allows hunting once a year during the youth hunt. I saw 3 fallow deer there in the road which is rare now.

The KY side does have fewer deer than the TN side for some reason.

The pigs have taken over up there.

We always had at least one good oppuutunity on a good buck but never connected.

Beautiful place but not easy to hunt.

Guy killed a booner in my area last year on first hunt. All I killed was two nights in Wrangler cabins, scrounged for firewood in the rain, cooked steaks by myself on the grill, and about 10 hours round-trip driving. After about 6 years straight, just going to hunt elsewhere this year. I think. Life is short.
 
That is the reason for asking about the KY side of LBL. We have taken some dandy bucks on TN side on the rifle hunts in the past. But I no longer put in for the rifle hunts. I usually hunt Missouri for a week around the first of November but the illegal dog hunters have ruined the area I hunt. So, looking for other options for late Oct early November archery hunt. Are the hogs as bad on the KY side as the TN? Area 16 was full of hogs the last year I hunted it.
TheLBLman said:
If you're a TN resident, buying a KY non-resident license, hunting the KY portion of LBL, could allow you to have your normal 2-buck limit in TN, plus take a buck on the KY portion of LBL.
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Ky seems to get alot more attention as far as taking care of the ground. LBL said it right, about the best area being the one you get most familiar with.
 
Geesh, what a bunch of convulated BS. I just thought WY non-resident rules were confusing 😂. My grandparents settled there in 1916 and I hunted there a bunch in the 60's. Of course that was before the term "LBL" was invented. Never saw a deer track back then, but plenty of bunnies & quail . Aawww, for the good ole days.
 
tellico4x4 said:
Of course that was before the term "LBL" was invented.
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The area today known as LBL was earlier known at the "land betwix the rivers", as prior to 1960-something, there was no "Lake" Barkley and the TN River had only a couple decades earlier been dammed at Paducah in creating KY Lake.

tellico4x4 said:
Never saw a deer track back then, but plenty of bunnies & quail . Aawww, for the good ole days.
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Yes, lots of quail back then. Near extinct there now. Still some rabbits.
 
My dad was a TVA control room operator at dam when they closed the gates & flooded lake. After full pool was established, excess land was offered to TVA employees for $10/acre. He went to bank & bowered $200 to buy 20 acres of waterfront property. Couldn't stand being in debt, sold 10 acres @$20/acre & paid off the note. He passed in '88 & sometime in the 90's mom sold remainder for a tad more.😉

Grandfather graded roads in LBL once it was formed until he retired.

Lots of history in Western KY, born in Paducah. Still plenty of kin in McCraken & Calloway Counties, but have never deer hunted there.
 
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tellico4x4 said:
My dad was a TVA control room operator at dam when they closed the gates & flooded lake. After full pool was established, excess land was offered to TVA employees for $10/acre. He went to bank & bowered $200 to buy 20 acres of waterfront property. Couldn't stand being in debt, sold 10 acres @$20/acre & paid off the note. He passed in '88 & sometime in the 90's mom sold remainder for a tad more.😉

Grandfather graded roads in LBL once it was formed until he retired.

Lots of history in Western KY, born in Paducah. Still plenty of kin in McCraken & Calloway Counties, but have never deer hunted there.
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Sounds like a deal....but I think the people that got relocated from LBL should have got first dibs on buying any of that land vs. TVA employees. Thanks for sharing.
 
tellico4x4 said:
Agree 100%, should never ejected them imo.
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I agree. Should have been done more like how Cades Cover was done, where those living there could stay until they died.

But at issue, was not just the people forced out of LBL. Before LBL there was all the families living & farming the fertile bottomlands along the Tennessee River. Thousands of acres of the area's best farmland was submerged with the creation of KY Lake.

One of my childhood friend's family was forced to relocate their farming operations from near the TN River. So they bought new farmland near the Cumberland River on the other side of the county. A few years later, they were forcefully removed from there as well, with the creation of Lake Barkley.
 
Rackseeker said:
That is the reason for asking about the KY side of LBL. We have taken some dandy bucks on TN side on the rifle hunts in the past. But I no longer put in for the rifle hunts. I usually hunt Missouri for a week around the first of November but the illegal dog hunters have ruined the area I hunt. So, looking for other options for late Oct early November archery hunt. Are the hogs as bad on the KY side as the TN? Area 16 was full of hogs the last year I hunted it.
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3 years ago hogs had it overrun. 2 years ago not bad. Last year saw zero sign. They got rid of em somehow.
 
Rackseeker said:
I have been hunting LBL on and off for 30 yrs but all on the TN side. Just wondering how is the KY side compared to the TN side. I would assume about the same but thought I'd ask. Thinking about giving the KY side a try for a few days before the youth rifle hunt.
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less hogs maybe the only plus
 
I saw hog sign/evidence in April along the TN/KY border, and further south into TN.
 

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