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Home › Waters › Kentucky › Red River
River · East-central Kentucky, the Red River Gorge in the Daniel Boone National Forest, from Hazel Green down to the Kentucky River · Kentucky

Red River Fishing Guides

Kentucky's first Wild River, cutting the sandstone gorge of the Daniel Boone National Forest with clear smallmouth water.

Mist lifting off a river between wooded Appalachian ridges
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Red River

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About the Red River

The Red River cuts through the sandstone of the Daniel Boone National Forest in a gorge of arches, cliff lines and hemlock that is better known to climbers than to anglers. Its upper reach through the gorge was designated Kentucky’s first Wild River, and the protection shows in the water, which runs clear and cool over bedrock ledges in a state where a great many streams do not.

Smallmouth bass are the fish. The Red holds a good stream population of them along with rock bass, which locals call goggle-eye and which will take a popper all day in summer. Largemouth show up in the slower pools, channel catfish work the deeper bends, and Kentucky stocks muskellunge in the lower river, which produces occasional fish of genuinely startling size for water this narrow.

Most people fish the Red from a canoe or a kayak, and the classic run is the gorge section, which combines easy Class I and II water with scenery that makes stopping to fish a slow business. Flows govern everything. The river is small and rain-driven, so it can go from too low to float to too high to fish inside a day, and the gauge is worth checking the morning of a trip rather than the night before. Wading the upper river in low summer water is the other good approach.

Access is through the national forest, with Kentucky 715 and 77 reaching the gorge and a network of trailheads and low-water crossings serving the rest. The area is heavily used on summer weekends by climbers, campers and paddlers, so a weekday trip is a different river. Wild River designation carries its own rules for the protected reach – check the current regulations for the section you intend to fish.

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Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

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We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

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Posting to Red River.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Access

Kentucky 715 - the main road through the gorge with several river accesses.
Copperas Creek - a well-used put-in for the gorge float.
Rock Bridge Road - access to the upper river and the Wild River reach.
Bowen and Nada - lower gorge access points near the Nada Tunnel.
Sky Bridge Station - a paddling outfitter and shuttle point on the gorge run.
Daniel Boone National Forest trailheads - foot access to the wading reaches.
Clay City - the lower river takeout above the Kentucky River confluence.

Seasons

Spring: high rain-driven flows, strong current and the best muskellunge fishing of the year.
Summer: low clear water, prime smallmouth and rock bass fishing, and heavy recreational use.
Fall: settled flows, thinning crowds and the best combination of fishing and scenery.
Winter: cold and often high, with limited float opportunities between rain events.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Red River?

As of Sep 17, 5:30 am, the USGS gauge RED RIVER NEAR HAZEL GREEN, KY reads 4 cfs. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Red River?

Anglers target Bluegill, Channel Catfish, Largemouth Bass, Muskellunge, Rock Bass, Smallmouth Bass on the Red River in Kentucky.

Where can you access the Red River?

Kentucky 715 - the main road through the gorge with several river accesses. Copperas Creek - a well-used put-in for the gorge float. Rock Bridge Road - access to the upper river and the Wild River reach. Bowen and Nada - lower gorge access points near the Nada Tunnel. Sky Bridge Station - a paddling outfitter and shuttle point on the gorge run. Daniel Boone National Forest trailheads - foot access to the wading reaches. Clay City - the lower river takeout above the Kentucky River confluence.

When is the best time to fish the Red River?

Spring: high rain-driven flows, strong current and the best muskellunge fishing of the year. Summer: low clear water, prime smallmouth and rock bass fishing, and heavy recreational use. Fall: settled flows, thinning crowds and the best combination of fishing and scenery. Winter: cold and often high, with limited float opportunities between rain events.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Red River?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Kentucky agency site: https://fw.ky.gov/FishBoatGuide/Pages/default.aspx