Catfish trafficking network busted in the South reportedly smuggled trophy cats into pay lakes and across state lines

Law enforcement officials have cited a series of pay lake operators, catfish anglers and other suspects in a multi-state raid. The suspects are alleged to have been involved in illegally harvesting catfish and selling them to various pay lakes, sometimes transporting them across state lines.

A total of nine offenders were cited for 180 violations of wildlife regulations in Kentucky, Alabama and Tennessee, said Cody Fox, a game warden with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife. Outdoor livingIn 2023, anglers from Kentucky and Alabama caught thousands of pounds of trophy catfish (both flathead and blue catfish) without the required permits, then transported and sold the catfish to various pay lakes (these are private lakes where fishermen have to pay access) in the three states.

Noncommercial anglers in Kentucky may only catch one trophy-size catfish per day, and commercial anglers must have the proper permits to catch more than one. Catfish 35 inches or larger are considered “trophy-size.”

One in particular, Green Valley Pay Lake in Glasgow, Kentucky, was the focus of KDFW’s investigation.

“People went to Barren River Lake and caught more than their limit of catfish and then sold them to Green Valley Pay Lake,” says Fox, who explains that unauthorized fishermen charge less for trophy catfish than authorized commercial fishermen would charge in a legal transaction. “The pay lake makes a profit. These people who sold catfish to Green Valley were not legal commercial fishermen, and Barren River Lake is closed to any commercial fishing.”

The illegal sales date back to 2023, and KDFW’s investigation began in 2024. Fox says he was originally tipped off by posts he saw in his social media feeds showing evidence of people harvesting more than the legal limit of catfish at several nearby pay lakes. He notes that many of those operations have since removed significant content from their Facebook pages.

Search warrants and compliance checks revealed that the pay lake operators knowingly purchased catfish caught in prohibited waterways such as Barren River Lake. They kept no records of their purchases and had no information in their files about the source of the catfish in question.

“The owner of the pay lake is required by law to keep certain records of where the fish that end up in the lake come from,” he says. “This is for safety reasons. People catch and eat [these fish]. Well, they could be coming from waters with high mercury levels, or other issues. The operators are required by law to document where they are getting the fish from, which they haven’t done.”

During a series of compliance checks and search warrants, Fox and other investigators also got wind of two Alabama catfish anglers who were exceeding the limits and selling the fish to Green Valley and other Tennessee pay lakes. At this point, KDFW alerted both the Alabama Game and Fish Division and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

Read more: Poachers caught with 71 fish in their backpacks, including trophy bass

The two Alabama suspects eventually caught and sold about 6,400 pounds of catfish to Green Valley before they were caught themselves. Any live transport of catfish outside Alabama’s state lines is illegal, Fox points out, and once those fishermen crossed the state line, they also violated the Lacey Act, which makes any violation of the interstate wildlife law a federal crime. That meant the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service got involved, too.

Many details behind the allegations remain secret as the case is still under investigation and in the early stages of the charging process. But local news station WBKO filed a public information request with KDFW, which revealed the identities and charges of five of the nine suspects:

• Melinda Carter, age unknown, Glasgow, Kentucky, pay lake operator: 81 counts of buying, selling and transporting protected wildlife, 2 counts of violating pay lake operation regulations. Proceedings pending.
• Danny Whitmire, 50, Town Creek, Alabama, commercial fisherman: 7 counts of buying, selling and transporting protected wildlife, 2 counts of violating regulations for lack of a transport permit and a live fish/bait trading license. Court proceedings pending.
• April White, 46, Bridgeport, Alabama, commercial fisherman: 7 counts of buying, selling and transporting protected wildlife, 2 counts of regulatory violations for lack of a transporter’s license and a live fish/bait dealer’s license. Court proceedings pending.
• Samuel Hatcher, 45, of Glasgow, Kentucky, cooperating witness: Pleaded guilty to nine counts of size and basket code violations, resulting in a $450 fine.
• Brandon Patrick, 30, Glasgow, Kentucky: 68 counts of buying, selling and transporting protected wildlife, four counts of violating commercial fishing regulations, additional unknown license violations. Proceedings pending.

Pay lakes are popular with anglers in the Southeast, especially family anglers and beginners, because they tend to have healthy populations of large fish that are easy to catch. But Fox says these types of lakes have also become a problem for the agency because the small operations can easily fly under the radar.

“Pay lakes in Kentucky don’t have many regulations to follow,” he said. “Their negligence…is essentially a black market. These catfish are generally all thirty to seventy pounds, and it can take twelve to thirty years for a catfish to get to that size. We have seventy or eighty pay lakes in Kentucky, and a lot of them do the same thing. This particular pay lake brought in over 9,000 pounds of catfish in one year. Of course, not every pay lake does this, but a lot of them do.”

Read more: 101-pound blue catfish caught on Jugline is officially the new Ohio record

Fox acknowledges that legal pay lakes are valuable to anglers who, for whatever reason, are unable to catch trophy fish in a more natural environment. But KDFW has received a lot of feedback (mostly in the form of Facebook comments) from the public about pay lakes and their detrimental effect on catfish populations in public waterways. Fox hopes this study will prove to the public that they are listening.

“We’re getting more restrictive with commercial catfish fishing and these pay lakes because it’s a conservation issue,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what we post on Facebook. It could be a deer case or a turkey case, and the comments are all complaining about commercial catfish fishing. We’re trying to put a stop to it the best we can and show the general public that we’re trying to conserve these fish.”