For hunters looking for diverse and breath-taking landscapes, Kentucky’s forests, mountains, and open plains will stay with you long after leaving. Home to the largest elk herd east of the Mississippi and a deer population of roughly 1 million, Kentucky is a big game hunter paradise. In the southeastern part of the state, hunters have the opportunity to pursue the expanding bear population. Not limited to big game, there is a wide variety of small game, waterfowl, and migratory bird species to hunt. These include dove, rail, woodcock, snipe, gallinule, wood duck, teal, geese, sandhill crane, duck, coot, and merganser. Furbearers are species include coyote, bobcat, river otter, muskrat, mink, beaver, red and gray fox, weasel, and striped skunk.
Kentucky is home to over 62,000 miles of streams and the South’s largest reservoirs. With an immense diversity of fish, anglers can find largemouth and smallmouth bass, brook trout, striped bass, blue catfish, shellcrackers, muskellunge, and crappie. Kentucky is the home of the current world record smallmouth.
