Watts Barr Commercial Fishing Ban

[dlancas]

Take a look at the URL below.

According to the Biologist, shad make up 94% of a stripers diet, followed by 4% sunfish and 2% mics. If there are any negative effects of stocking stripers it appears that it would be competition for shad. The Biologist estimate a possible 4-5% decrease in the biomass of other preditory fish. So instead of catching 20 bass you may only catch 19 in a day. Or instead of a catching 10 LB he may only weigh 9.5.

There are several lakes in SC that are heavily stocked with stripers. Two of which are on the top weight catch list for BASS tournaments (Murray and Santee Cooper).

http://www.arkansasstripers.com/norris-reservoir-striped-bass-cotroversy-tennessee.htm

 

[drumking]

Back 20 or 30 years ago, all of our TVA lakes were in their hey-day as far as fishing success is concerned. Every lake that I have ever read about has always had a boon of fishing after the lake is first impounded, followed by leaner years as the wood, vegatation, etc has rotted out. That doesn't mean that the fish have all been eaten up or have disappeared. The fish have simply moved to different structures that aren't easily detected and thus are harder to figure out. But, once a fisherman figures out where the fish have gone, it won't be long until he figures out how to catch the fish. He may be fishing alone for a long time, but it would be hard to convince him that the fishing was bad.

This pattern follows on all lakes, not just the TVA lakes that we are all familiar with. If my memory isn't failing me (and it could be on this point), it seems to me that the stripers were introduced as the bass/crappie fishing were already in decline and it was thought that the striper would make a great alternative to some really good fishing for everyone. Most everyone thought (wrongly) that the stripers were eating up all the bass and crappie.

Now, suddenly with the re-appearance of the milfoil that TVA poisoned out of our lakes a few years ago, the fish have suddenly re-appeared and folks are beginning to see more bass/crappie caught. Why do you think that this is possible if the stripers were eating all of the game fish up?

Fishermen spend countless hours and money putting out brushpiles around shorelines, under docks, etc to improve the fishing. That's a good thing, but with nature being what it is, it is a constant never ending job as the trees decay every year and have to be replaced.

I'm sorry if I have hijacked this thread as the subject is commercial fishing ban, and I haven't made a comment about that on this particular thread. I have discussed it on other similiar threads, so I won't repeat myself here.

 

[dlancas]

One more thing that I found interesting on the striper predation subject (excerpt from TWRA document linked below):

Although lepomids were eaten by striped bass and several other predators, black basses were eaten only by other black basses. By weight, black basses represented 9% of the diet of largemouth bass, 3% for smallmouth bass, and 14% for spotted bass.

http://tennessee.gov/twra/fish/Reservoir/Research/stripedbass.html

 

[DHaun]

cheez - 1/9/2008 6:35 AM

3391 I guess I will be the first to ask. Why would TWRA not stock stripers in Chickamauga Lake?

Good question Cheez. Someone on CFF was told by a TWRA person in an email last year that gill netting is the reason why they don't stock Chickamauga with stripers. If there are other primary reasons then I was hoping 3391 could elaborate on them.

 

[Guest]

Everywhere stripers are they get a bad rap as crappie/bass eaters. It has been proven time after time that their primary food source is shad. Alabama and Georgia did seperate studies on the striper at Weiss and on the Coosa River. Both came up with almost identical results that stripers eat 95% plus shad. Look at it this way, nowhere around has more stripers than Weiss Lake and nowhere around has more crappie than Weiss. That alone should be enough evidence that stripers don't harm other species. Weiss is also one of the best bass fisheries around as well with a 10 fish creel limit and no size limit.

 

[price]

The TWRA commission voted to close Watts Barr to all forms of commercial fishing due to contamination warnings. I contacted the TWRA office and was told that the proposal to close Watts Barr was OK'd (Jan 16-17 meetings). I want to thank all the people that wrote letters or sent emails regarding this issue.

 

[SpurHunter]

Man, I hope this aint baaaaad news for Chick, and Nick.

 

[shsimons]

Well at least we have the 1 per day 34 inch limit. That ensures that a bunch of the big cats will be put back. I'd hate to see more commercial guys pulling big cats out of places like the nuke, where they are in relative abundance considering the number of fish over 20 lbs caught each year.

I know some guys break the rules. I hope if anyone sees this done, that we make sure to post it on the board and report whatever violation it is.

 

[EricM]

Sam, I (and I hope a lot of other CFFers) have put the poaching hotline into my cell phone, and will use it if I see anything illegal.

 

[Fishin Fool]

shsimons - 1/23/2008 11:44 PM

Well at least we have the 1 per day 34 inch limit. That ensures that a bunch of the big cats will be put back. I'd hate to see more commercial guys pulling big cats out of places like the nuke, where they are in relative abundance considering the number of fish over 20 lbs caught each year.

I know some guys break the rules. I hope if anyone sees this done, that we make sure to post it on the board and report whatever violation it is.

Sam from everything I hear, the 34" limit will be under attack again this year at the TWRA meeting. Everyone needs to keep an eye on this and make sure we let the commission know how we feel.

 

[fluke]

I hope this doesn"t cause a bunch of problems on the chick