Smallmouth Bass For Truman Lake

[Ned Kehde]

To Missouri Department of Conservation and Concerned Anglers:

A sizeable number of anglers want the Missouri Department of Conservation to stock reservoir-strain smallmouth bass into Truman Lake by following the practices that the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation have developed during the past 20 years.

For example, the KDWP has developed a dynamic smallmouth bass fishery on the upper reaches of Truman’s watershed at Melvern Lake. And elsewhere in Kansas, significant smallmouth bass populations exist at Coffey County, El Dorado, Milford and Wilson reservoirs. And in 2008, the KDWP will begin stocking reservoir-strain smallmouth bass in Clinton and Perry lakes.

Likewise, the ODWC has created a number of fine smallmouth bass fisheries, stretching from Lake Texoma in the south to Skiatook Lake in the northeast and at several venues in between.

In the August-September issue of the FLW magazine, Hal Schramm, a fisheries biologist who writes for a variety of publications, wrote about the manifold benefits of the ODWC’s stocking program at Skiatook, noting that smallmouth bass were stocked in 1990 and 1991, and through natural recruitment the population grew more than threefold by 1999.

The Oklahoma state-record smallmouth bass is an eight-pound, three-ounce specimen that was caught by Steve McLarty on March 4, 2006 at Lake Eufaula, and some knowledgeable observers note that the limnology of Eufaula and Truman are similar.

In addition to the Oklahoma reservoirs, such as Eufaula, that have established smallmouth bass populations that reproduce naturally, the ODWC stocks smallmouth bass every year in a few reservoirs where the smallmouth bass are unable to recruit. Lake Hefner is one of those. This water-supply reservoir lies within the Oklahoma City metropolitan area and receives a yearly stocking of 5,000 to 10,000 fingerling-sized smallmouth bass.

At Truman, the nursery areas for the largemouth bass have diminished as the reservoir has aged. Consequently, its largemouth bass recruitment has suffered, and the largemouth bass fishing has dramatically deteriorated from its heydays. This decline, however, has created a fine nursery area for smallmouth bass recruitment. All that is needed is to have the MDC stock reservoir-strain smallmouth into Truman. And because of the great successes achieved by the fisheries biologists in Kansas and Oklahoma, we suggest that MDC’s fisheries biologists consult with their Kansas and Oklahoma colleagues, such as Leonard Jirak of Hartford, Kansas, and Gene Gilliland of Norman, Oklahoma, who will explain the ins and outs of how a vibrant smallmouth bass fishery can be created at Truman.

Sincerely,

John, Ned and Roger Kehde

[creek wader]

I'm all for it.

[WebFreeman]

Sounds good to me.

[RSBreth]

I think it's a pretty good idea. We will see if MDC thinks so.

And for those who don't know Mr. Kehde, he is a long time contributor to In-Fisherman magazine, and we would be fortunate to have him continue to post on this board.

[Phil Lilley]

I would love to see the stats from Kansas and Oklahoma's smallmouth stockings. Any other data/studies to bolster Ned's case.

[Ned Kehde]

Mr. Lilley ask for some data.

Here is one example:

In 1994, 394 six-inch smallmouth were stocked into Melvern Lake, which lies on the Marais des Cygne River and eventually becomes the Osage River and flows into Truman Lake.

Melvern is a flatland reservoir. Its waters are relatively stained. According to most anglers’ perspectives, the clarity ranges from several inches at its worst to about five feet on the best of days. (Secchi disc readings, however, might be a tad better than the eyes of anglers). Melvern’s shoreline is graced with miles of rock and gravel, as well as long expanses of riprap, which provides smallmouth bass with many suitable areas for recruitment.

And those 394 smallmouth bass have done a splendid job of recruitment. Nowadays, anglers who use finesse tactics can regularly catch 30 to 100 smallmouth bass an outing from mid-April to mid-September. Occasionally, an angler will tangle with some three- to four-pounders or bigger specimens, but most of the smallmouth bass range in size from 11 inches to 14 inches. Melvern has an 18-inch size limit for smallmouth bass. And unless an angler is in a tournament-frame of mind, getting 30 to 100 bites an outing from a gaggle of medium-sized smallmouth makes for an enjoyable outing indeed.

[Ned Kehde]

It should be noted that anglers at Grand Lake, Oklahoma, are petitioning their fisheries biologists to stock reservoir-strain smallmouth bass. But it looks as if that will not occur because it is feared that the reservoir-strain smallmouth bass will adversely affect a genetically distinct strain of smallmouth bass that abide in several of the streams that feed Grand Lakes. The Oklahoma biologists note that the mixing of the gene pools would result in the loss of native stocks," and that is a serious and legitimate concern. The smallmouth bass, however, that abide in Truman’s feeder streams are not a unique strain.

[dtrs5kprs]

Looking around the forum today as I wait to leave for Table Rock in the am...I live in KS and we do have some viable smallmouth fisheries thanks to stocking. One big difference that jumps out at me though (besides the overall size of Truman) is the amount of fluctuation in the pools. Might be off, but I don't believe the KS lakes have anywhere near the history or potential for high water years, tending to be low. Might not hurt the Truman effort, but it does bear investigation.

[Ned Kehde]

Dear dtrs5kprs:

Your ponderings about the adverse effects of the radical fluctuations of Truman Lake's water levels on smallmouth bass are interesting.

We can note that Melvern Lake, which lies at the headwaters of Truman Lake in Osage County, Kansas, experiences similar fluctuations. What’s more, Melvern’s water clarity isn’t clear as Truman’s. Yet despite the stained water, Melvern’s smallmouth bass are recruiting, and the smallmouth bass fishing is better at Melvern than it is at Stockton Lake, Missouri.

We suspect that one reason why the smallmouth bass fishing is better at Melvern is because its Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks’ biologist, Leonard Jirak of Hartford, Kansas, stocked reservoir-strain smallmouth bass into Melvern, but the Missouri Department of Conservation didn’t stock reservoir-strain smallmouth into Stockton. Instead, Stockton’s smallmouth bass population is a river-or stream-strain species that abided in the streams before Stockton was impounded, and often they don’t fare as well as reservoir-strain smallmouth do.

In addition, the bountiful populations of smallmouth bass that abide in Jacks Fork, Eleven Point and Current rivers are regularly plagued by wild fluctuations of water levels.

The only way that we will know if smallmouth bass will flourish in Truman Lake is to have the MDC stock reservoir-strain smallmouth, and they should do it several times throughout a span of 10 years.

To our dismay, we must note that we haven’t received a reply from any of the folks at the MDC to whom we sent our letter asking them to consider stocking smallmouth bass into Truman Lake.

Sincerely,

John, Ned and Roger Kehde