Quillback

Saw this in the AGFC weekly newsletter: HOT SPRINGS – Fisheries biologists with Arkansas Game and Fish Commission are always interested in evaluating how stocking programs are working in the many waterways of The Natural State, all while working to get the agency, the resource, and the people of Arkansas a good return on its investment. One way AGFC hatcheries are improving both largemouth and Florida bass production is by rearing advanced fingerlings to stock in area lakes. In the past, hatchery staff have reared bass to fingerling size, about 1½ to 2 inches, and released them in lakes in AGFC’s stocking program. Hatchery staff have been researching and evaluating different techniques to rear bass to approximately 4 inches for a pilot study. When these advanced fingerlings reach about 4 inches, they are branded with liquid nitrogen to create an identifiable mark and then taken to study lakes as part of an ongoing research project with the AGFC Black Bass Program. Dennis Fendley, hatchery biologist at AGFC’s Andrew Hulsey Fish Hatchery, said “When a bass reaches approximately 2 inches in length, its diet shifts from eating insects to feeding on fish, and that often means dining on their smaller cohort. In a production setting this increased cannibalism leads to a reduction in numbers of fish available for stocking. This is the same trend seen with walleyes, stripers and other predatory fish.” A pilot study for rearing 4-inch advanced fingerlings is underway for largemouth and Florida bass at multiple AGFC fish culture facilities. At these culture facilities hatchery staff are evaluating how different feeding regimes and food sources affect the growth rate of bass fingerlings. With the assistance of the hatchery staff working to increase the size of stocked bass biologists hope to increase the survival rate of stocked fish against bigger bass and other predators within the system. A larger fish, in theory, has a better chance of survival. According to Colton Dennis, AGFC Black Bass Program coordinator, “When you stock bass fingerlings that are 1-2 inches long, a 15 percent survival rate is considered a success. One question we are trying to answer is, ‘can a better survival rate be obtained by stocking fewer but larger bass?’ The biologists also have to determine if the value of the stocking contribution outweighs the cost of rearing a larger fingerling.” Fendley says it’s not just a matter of food. “It costs more to feed advanced fingerlings, and it takes more pond space that could be used for more production of smaller fingerlings so there is a trade-off.” Fendley stated “The hatchery can rear larger fingerlings to meet the needs, but you can potentially only rear 80,000 to 100,000 advanced 4-inch fingerlings in the acres where a million 2-inch fingerlings were reared, increase quality but decrease quantity.” Jeff Buckingham, AGFC Black Bass Program biologist, has designed a pilot study for the program to evaluate the stocking contribution of the stocked branded fish in selected study lakes. “Biologists will start sampling the study lakes approximately one month after stocking,” Buckingham said. “Bass will be collected and examined for the identifying brand, add an additional identifying mark, and then release them back into the lake. The additional identification mark will serve to identify fish that have already been collected at least once during sampling to avoid those fish being counted more than once in the study. Sampling will continue until the spring approximately every 30 days to search for branded fish in the study lakes. “During sampling if we collect and release 100 bass from a study lake and 10 have a brand then that’s a 10 percent survival rate. If it’s 20 fish? That’s even better,” Buckingham said. “The overall goal is to provide a bigger bang for our buck for both the resource and the people of Arkansas. Sampling data of the study lakes stocked with the 4-inch advanced fingerlings will also be shared with AGFC fisheries pathologist. Ongoing genetic testing of bass fin clips will provide agency staff a better evaluation of the success rate of Florida bass stockings and how Florida bass coexist with native largemouth bass in Arkansas lakes such as Millwood, DeGray, Ouachita, Columbia, Chicot, Atkins and SWEPCO. Dennis says there are a lot of moving parts in the pilot study, and will take a combined effort of hatchery staff and field biologists to pull it off. “We are evaluating a lot of different strategies with our bass right now,” Dennis said. “Everything from how we rear bass on our hatcheries, to the effectiveness of our stocking programs, and evaluating a couple of different things on stocked fish once they get recruited into a lake.” The branded advanced fingerlings are being stocked in different study lakes around the state. Branded Largemouth Bass in the study are being stocked into Lake Frierson and Craighead Forest Lake, while branded Florida Bass are being stocked into Gurdon Lake and Dr. Lester Sitzes III Bois D’Arc Lake.

I could go warmouth, I was split between green sunfish or warmouth.

I'm thinking possibly a green sunfish?

Always liked his humor. Too bad he stopped his cartooning, but I believe he just ran out of ideas. One of my favorites:

Nice catching on the smallies.

I was wearing my usual fishing attire - buff, sun gloves, Speedo and Crocs.

It is all about being in the right place, I found them yesterday, if I had not found them in that spot, I probably would have only caught 5 or 6.

Welcome back, thanks for the report!

I bought some of these "Cush-its" for some of my rods. They look dorky, but they work, saved me a combo that I accidently knocked into the water a couple of weeks ago. Probably won't help if a striper swims off with one, but in most "rod overboard" situations it will save you time and money. The Inshore size fits most fresh water rods. http://www.basspro.com/Luna-Sea-Cushit-SlipOn-Rod-Butts/product/1206280436378/ Speaking of point 5, my neighbor got an 8 lb. striper there a few days ago.

Found some deep fish today off a gravel bank. They were playing a little tough to get on the drop shot, but switched to a 1/8 o Ned and did much better. It takes that Ned a while to fall to the bottom in 30 FOW, but it was working. Sometimes they would bite it as it was falling, or when I would slow roll it back to the boat right off the bottom, and sometimes when I would fish it vertical underneath the boat. I was able to stay with them for about 2 hours and boated 25 fish. Mostly spots with a couple of keeper sized largemouth mixed in. Picked up a few more fishing jigs and the drop shot off gravel points and chunk rock banks, but never got into them again like I did with the schoolers.

Champ has a trained mink that he taught to attack people when they are fishing one of his spots, but it lived up the White river arm (I had a run-in with it once, but fortunately I was able to fire up the big motor and get out of there before it got in the boat). I guess it is possible Champ may have relocated it to the Cape Fair area. Darn fish, you'd think with this cooler water they would be biting like crazy.

Nice fish. It was chilly yesterday, saw a bit of frost on the top of the neighbors roof yesterday morning.

At Tackle Warehouse. Anybody tried these? I haven't fished them myself. Curious as to what would be a good trailer to use. http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/NuTech_CrazyBlitz__/descpage-NTCB.html

"He should have armed himself..." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vw7d6LSWmk

Love those smallies!

I am up for coming down Thursday night and staying until Sunday AM. I can bring cole slaw and ketchup for the fish fry and plastic cups/plates/utensils. Since I am reliant on the kindness of others for boat rides, I will be happy to order some zig-jigs and pass them out. Seems like tri-color olive, ginger, and black olive, in 1/16 and 1/8 pretty much get it done, but any other colors? They have that stout hook version now, but I don't know if it is needed for trout.

What nights do you guys want to stay? Are we talking Friday and Saturday nights, does anyone want to come in Thursday night?

Gave you a vote, I like the originality.

Nice fish Dan - Now I know how to find your spots, look for the guy in the chartreuse shirt - should be able to spot you from along ways away.

5 days to here, and it is every time. Only time I have experienced slow shipments in when they have a big sale. I'll usually pony up the $5 and get it here in 2 days. If it leaves TW the day your order it and it takes 7 days to get to you, it's something to do with the shipping company.

Well, looks like 12/3 is the date. We'll need to have everyone state what night(s) they'll be staying so we can figure out what place to rent. And we'll have to get a handle on who is bringing what as far as food and boats.

Depends what you want to defend yourself against, grizzlies? Humans?

That is it, when it comes to money, people are going to want to see the fish. And in the big money tourneys there is the drama of the weigh in.

Didn't mean to imply that I would not give money to charitable causes, but that would require more thought on where I would send it. And this is all daydreaming anyway, I'll never have anything as far as money that is even remotely close to JM money.

Yep, I'd have a boat and a house on a lake in the south somewhere. And probably another set-up some place north like Sturgeon Bay. And I would have at least a 640 acre section in South Dakota where I'd have my own lodge to stay at and have the rest of the land set up for pheasant habitat. Heck, make it 2 sections. Of course there would be jaunts to Alaska and Montana.