Notropis

The gases in the bloodstream are dissolved gases absorbed by the gill fillaments of the fish from the water which has various concentrations of them depending on temperature. Not sure how that's converted to the actual gas in the bladder that controls the size. I don't doubt there are dissolved gasses in other tissues of the fish (muscle, organ etc) but I don't think it's as concentrated as in the blood.

You're actually on the right track fishinwrench. Fish with air bladders can extract gases from their blood stream into their bladders through a series of tiny capillaries and veins in the bladder wall. That's how they adjust the size of it to remain neutrally buoyant at different depths. It's a slow process and takes time, which is why deep caught fish can have issues with overly expanded bladders. It makes sense that a fish bladder, adjusted to be the right size to hold neutral buoyancy in deep water will try to expand when the fish is brought to the surface and experiences much lower pressure. I don't remember the process the fish uses to reduce the gas in their bladder (been a long time since I took Icthyology) but I assume the gas is slowly reabsorbed into the blood stream through capillary system. Hope this was helpful!

After looking at the photo, I agree with Bill and others who call it a largemouth or possibly a hybrid largemouth-spotted. Tongue patches are mostly accurate but I have encountered an occasional largemouth that had them. It does have a little bit of a spotted bass look but the shape and color says largemouth to me. If it is a hybrid, it's pretty rare. I've seen hundreds of hybrid smallmouth and spotted bass in Beaver Lake when we were trying to re-establish smallmouth in Beaver by fingerling stockings out of the Beaver Lake Nursery Pond. Several years after stocking the smallmouth, we started seeing significant numbers of the meanmouth bass in our fish population samples but I can't remember seeing what I thought was a hybrid largemouth-spotted bass. That doesn't mean that they don't exist but if they do they are fairly rare, at least by my observations. I agree with everyone that it's a very nice fish whatever it's genetics are!

Well, I knew sooner or later something would cause me to come out of my self-imposed retirement from posting on this forum. When I helped manage the fish populations on Beaver Lake from 1986-2014, there was one correlation regarding high water levels that I had the most confidence in. High water, especially water levels that remained high throughout the summer produced the best spawns and the most favorable conditions for the young fish to survive in the future. Fish that were affected the most were the sunfish species (bass, crappie, bluegill etc.) High water in the Spring would produce large spawns because of plentiful spawning habitat but high survival and growth of the fingerlings depended on continued high water in the summer that provided excellent nursery habitat (flooded brush, grasses) for the young fish to forage and escape predation. During normal and low water years bass fingerlings spawned in the Spring averaged around 2-3 inches in August usually numbered 100-200 per acre. Years when the water levels stayed high in the summer produced bass fingerlings from 3-5 inches in length and some years numbered over 1000 per acre. The best year classes of bass in Beaver Lake were almost always produced during those types of years! I wouldn't worry about the corps plans too much. They may want to keep the levels lower but mother nature dictates the levels far more than corp policy. Some years they have no ability to reduce the water levels especially those flood years that fill all the White River Lakes creating a situation where they are forced to hold high water in Beaver.

Nice summary Quillback! I'm glad to see Jon and staff are continuing to add habitat to the lake. Beaver has lost a lot of habitat since it was first flooded. When I first started working on the lake in 1986 there was considerably more standing timber and other woody habitat. We did habitat projects back then but didn't have the equipment to do it on a grand scale. We worked mostly out of an 18 foot flat bottom work boat but still managed to do some good with the help of volunteers. We counted on the help of several fishing clubs during the years when we utilized discarded Christmas trees for habitat. It was a lot of work gathering, hauling and sinking them in the lake and we couldn't have done it without the volunteers. Fortunately Jon and co-workers have some great equipment to handle a habitat project big enough to make an impact on the lake and that it's a cooperative effort with many other groups and agencies participating. The additional habitat will help the lake on many levels but most importantly, help anglers have a better chance to locate and catch some fish!

Hey rzbker, I can't give you specific advise regarding catching crappie on Beaver Lake like Lance 34 who is the real pro or Greg B who is catching on rapidly but I can help you with general information on the crappie population. You'll have a much better chance of catching crappie on Beaver Lake in the mid and upper parts of the lake. Generally speaking there are greater numbers of crappie the further you go up lake. The further south you go towards the two river arms of the lake (War Eagle and White River arms) the denser the crappie population is. The crappie prefer the more fertile upper half of the lake and thrive better there. I'm not saying you can't catch crappie in the Clifty area but you'll have a much better chance of success in the southern parts of the lake. It's a pretty long boat ride from Clifty so you might want to trailer your boat to one of the accesses on the southern end of the lake to be closer to the best crappie action. Hope this helps!

Good article Jeremy! I was focused on the netting crews and didn't emphasis the danger to the hatchery crew and the need to protect them, which is just as important!

I might be able to shed some light on the reasons behind the cancellation of the striper stocking this year. Typically the striped bass brood stock collecting takes place on Lake Ouachita involving several crews gathered from across the state to set and run gill nets designed to capture large fish. The activity involves setting the nets then running them every hour to remove the live stripers and transport them to a fish hauling truck which takes the live fish to the Hot Springs Hatchery for spawning. The activity takes place at night and typically continues most of the night, making it necessary for the crews (which are mostly from out of town) to stay in a hotel located close to the lake. The crews are also dependent on eating at local restaurants while assigned to the project. This happens in early to mid-April, just about the time when the Covid scare began to cause business closings, including hotels and restaurants. I'm guessing they cancelled the project to protect the crews , since they work and stay in close proximity and because the hotels and restaurants were likely closed.

Looks like the crappie are very close to spawning. I remember talking to a person who did behavioral studies on spawning crappie and he indicated the males would move shallow and prepare for the spawn while the female would suspend out in groups in deeper water, usually associated with some type of structure or topography (humps). The females would wait until the conditions were right, usually water temperature, then move shallow to pair up with the males. As most anglers know, this is fairly typical for a lot sunfish species including bass. Another interesting behavior he detected was the effect on water clarity to the depth the fish would spawn. There was evidence the fish were looking for a certain light intensity level to choose the depth they would make their nest and spawn. In other words, they would typically spawn shallower when the water was muddy (less light penetration) and deeper when the water was clearer. He even developed a formula (which I can't remember) that utilized measured water clarity to predict the depth that spawning would occur. I think you're right Lance, we're right on the edge of the spawn and some fish may be already starting. Looks like I need to dust off the old boat and get on the water soon! Cheers!

" I always worry about the crappie having a good spawn in beaver because of the fluctuating water levels, but in reality I suppose nature has a way of taking care of itself. " Greg, that was one of the most persistent concerns I heard from the public. Anglers were worried about spawning success when the lake was being drawn down during the spawn. Most were worried that the nests would be left "high and dry" if the lake level was dropped fast enough. Fortunately I didn't see any evidence of this. Since Beaver Dam has only two generators, their ability to lower the lake quickly is fairly limited, usually less than a foot per day. Opening the floodgates obviously would lower the level faster but the COE rarely used them except to drain floodwater. Fish are amazingly adaptive and react to falling water levels by moving deeper and many times making nests in deeper water. The critical factor for successful spawns and for survival of the young is prolonged high water that floods the shoreline cover providing ideal nursery habitat for the young fish. During years when the lake levels remained high throughout the Summer is when the lake would produce large year classes of almost all species. The years when the lake had high water in the Spring but not the Summer usually only produced moderate or low year classes. In other words there was a successful spawn but the fingerlings didn't survive as well without the flooded nursery habitat. If you check out some of the older posts from mojorig and myself, you'll see more discussion regarding the influence of high water on the spawn. Cheers!

I always enjoy Lance's posts and pictures. It takes a good angler to have the consistent success that he does. Thanks for the post! Regarding the concerns about the crappie reabsorbing their eggs, it's not unusual for fish to do that if conditions aren't right or the fish are stressed. It's also possible they were early spawners and had already done their thing. It's difficult to tell the difference between the actual eggs and their precursor, the primary oocytes. The oocytes look like eggs but aren't, they divide and develop into eggs in the late Fall through early Spring, depending on the species. When I worked as a biologist, people would call and express concern that they were catching fish in the late Summer that still had eggs, thinking they hadn't spawned yet but what they were describing were the ovaries containing the oocytes, which they have year round. You can usually tell the difference by the size and vascularity of the ovaries when containing the eggs (very swollen with large and numerous blood vessels). Another interesting fact about spawning is that fish rarely expel all of their eggs and can spawn more than once under certain conditions. I think it's nature's insurance policy in case the first spawn is unsuccessful due to harsh environmental conditions (floods, severe water temperature changes etc.). Judging by the amount of success Lance and other anglers have on Beaver Lake, I feel pretty confident the crappie spawn is consistent enough for the population to do well. Cheers!

Bill has a good point, just because the fish are in a spawning mood doesn't mean they're in a feeding mood 24-7. One of the things I learned during brood stock collection for walleye and other river spawning fish is that they tend to bite best before and after the actual spawn. We could usually tell if the walleye were spawning by talking to anglers. Hook and line catching would slow down when we started finding the big females on the gravel shoals ready to spawn. There would be hundreds of males on the shoals looking for females but anglers weren't catching them. I guess they had their mind on other things!

For all you Bill Babler fans (myself included), there's a nice article regarding Bill's record brown trout on page 25 of the latest edition of Arkansas Wildlife, the AGFC publication. Nice picture of Bill and the trout! The article mentions that Bill's trout may break the former world record held by Rip Collins of Arkansas in the same line class. Sorry but I couldn't find a link to the article to post. Cheers!

"I've only provided examples from north-central Arkansas because that is where I work. However, I know the biologists from Beaver and Table Rock could also present similar data because I hear similar results during our annual meeting." I guess that's my cue to weigh-in on this subject. I was responsible for managing fish populations in Beaver Lake from 1986-2014. During that time I witnessed the dramatic effect of high water years on the fish population, not just the bass but all species of fish in the lake including the forage species. The additional nutrients (primarily nitrogen and phosphorus) and the increased available cover (flooded brush and trees) created the perfect environment for dramatically increased spawns and better survivability of the young fish. The combination of these factors usually resulted in a large year class of all fish and a better chance for the young fish to make it through the critical first year of their life (recruitment). Because of the numerous high water years during this period, I witnessed a fundamental change in the bass population from a lake dominated by spotted bass to a more balanced ratio of largemouth to spotted bass. Our fish population samples revealed that the largemouth bass spawn and recruitment was dramatically higher in the high water years when compared to normal or low water. This information was instrumental in making the decision to extend the minimum length limit on largemouth bass in the 1990's in an attempt to help the largemouth hold their own against the more prolific spotted bass. Of course, there was a down side to the high water years, fishing was usually tough due to the fish being scattered and the large amount of forage species available to them. My favorite phrase regarding the high water years was, It's hard on the fisherman but good for the future of fishing. The timing of the high water years was also a big factor. Like mojorig indicated, a high water year every few years was ideal. High water years that were too close tended to change the dynamic significantly. I observed back to back high water years were greatly different because the massive year class from the first year would suppress (consume) the spawn from the second year resulting in a reduced year class from the second year. I realize there are negative effects of high water on the economy that's associated with the lake especially for the marinas and parks but from a fish production standpoint, they are vital to maintaining good fish populations in these large reservoirs. Hope this information was helpful!

Lazy Ike, definitely a blast from the past. It and the Flatfish (similar to the Lazy Ike) were one of my pond fishing favorites as a kid. Quill is right, it had a great wide wobble, even at slow speeds.