Kentucky has more than 700 largemouth in the Thoroughbred Bass screen

Kentucky’s Thoroughbred Bass Program is still in the collection stage. An interim progress report dated October 2026, written by Adam Martin, chair of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources black bass team, says the program uses genetic markers — single nucleotide polymorphisms — linked to trophy-sized largemouth bass. The plan is to breed native largemouth that carry those markers and stock public waters with fish that have a better chance of growing large.

As of October 2026, staff had collected more than 700 potential broodstock and were still collecting. Fin clips from those fish will go through a trophy-marker panel. The highest-ranked largemouth stay at the hatchery as broodstock. Fish that do not make the cut go back to the wild. Every Thoroughbred Bass in the program will be a pure largemouth.

Fall collecting is aimed at fish over 12 inches so a high-probability fish is mature enough to spawn next spring. Martin’s report says the parent fish do not already have to be trophies. A smaller bass can carry the markers and simply be young, or living in water that has not let that growth show yet. This is a hatchery-breeding progress note, not a creel change.

This is a The Gillnet news desk summary, not a reprint.

Source: KDFWR — Thoroughbred Bass Program interim progress report, October 2026 (Adam Martin, October 2026).