Warsaw Friday

[slider]

i just got done knocking the sides of a limit of crappie from the tailrace. had one white to go with it. 2 of the other guys had 15 to 20 fish each they had about an even mix of whites and crappie. i just never could get the whites to going fore some reason. it looked like opening day of trout season about an hour before dark. every body was catching some fish. i would like to know how many fish are caught from the tailrace each year. has to be a big big bunch. slider

[jscheetz]

Hey Slider - man you are right about the number of fish being caught there. I am sure there are literally over a thousand fish caught there on any given day of the weekend. Kind of concerns me being a conservation guy - I wonder if anyone knows if hybrids are stocked near there - or do most of the fish come from downstream? As fishing drops off a bit I wonder if it is due to fish moving back downstream or just numbers being taken out, or a combination. I haven't seen any changes in the regs, and yet there has been definitely more people there everytime I have went for the last couple of years than there used to be - so more fish taken out - don't know how that will effect fishing in the future - but the last two times I was there I heard guys complaing about there not being any big crappie. Of course everyone they caught that was big enough to keep - they kept. Guess they couldn't see the irony in that situation. Anyway, just wanted to see what anyone knows about the hybrids - as a guy who fishes there for sport and not meat, you can take all the crappie and walleyes out of there you want - they're kinda like catching a dish towel or something but would be cool if they would develop the hybrid fishery by imposing limits relative to the number of people there.

JS

[Wayne SW/MO]

The Wiper fishery has been going on for decades and I'm sure it will as long as they keep stocking them. One reason that some years are better than others depends on how many days they run the water. A good flow brings up the Shad and others who feed on plankton and such, and the predators are never far behind. Humans are no different, run the water and they will come.

[slider]

jscheetz i think they stock the hybrids in the lake every year or two. one thing i would like to see is a minaum length limit on them its not hard to tell a white from a hybrid if you just look at the broken lines down the sides. im sure there are more put on a stringer when they are small. it is kind of a shame that such a fish with there size potential are caught before there time. as fore the crappie you can catch tons of small 5 to 6 inch fish about any time. i would like to see the length limit raised to 10 inch. there are so many fish caught that are just 9 that one more year might be a good crappie. while im preaching here i would like to see hybrids stocked in bullshoals and tablerock but that is another story fore another day. slider

[jnorman]

Are most of the fish still being caught on the north/east side?

[jscheetz]

Yeah - that is one thing that I would like to see there - a minimum or slot on wipers. I really think if they did that and then put signs up telling people what they were catching it would help - kind of the "this is a rainbow trout, this is a brown trout" sort of signs. And while I know it is sometimes hard for people to tell the difference - last year I was down there and when I got there asked the guy down from me if he was doing any good, and he said "a couple nice white bass" - when he left he took his stringer with two wipers that must have been 6 pound each! Which was fine - it is just that I really don't think he even knew what he was catching, and I think that is a problem there. If there was a length or slot then education would be helpful. Could turn into a real nice hybrid fishery. But until then - - - the hybrids should start taking the topwaters better soon with this warmer weather!!

JS

[slider]

yes we were catching our fish on the north/east side. the water is really swift on the other side. slider

[Wayne SW/MO]

The regulations have been amended many times and, if I remember right, there was a 2 fish limit on Hybrids at one time. The difference between Wipers and Whites can be subtle, in fact I believe I've read that some Whites will have some breaks in the laterals. I believe they may have changed the regulations because of the difficulty of identification and the fact that there isn't a lot of pressure on the Hybrids.

There is a 4 fish limit on 18"+ fish.

I doubt they will put Hybrids in the BS, Arkansas does a lot of the stocking there, and I don't know if they do Hybrids. Walleye seems to be the fish of choice for BS, and thats where they put the money. I wish they would add Hybrids and Spoonbill, the economic addition to Forsyth would be notable, IMO.

[slider]

wayne i dont really know what the whitebass fishing was like in swan or around forsyth this spring, i didnt fish but one time because of the water being so high. i know the past 4 to 5 years the whites havent been so good that would be my reasoning to stock in bullshoals. as fore tablerock they come threw around the james shocking the fish fore the eggs to produce hybrids so why cant they stock them in table rock? if we have to suffer the whites not biting fore 2 or 3 days after they shock why cant we reap some of the benifits from some hybrids being stocked in the rock? just my opinion. slider

[Wayne SW/MO]

I'm with you Slider, but the MDC is determined that the Jack Salmon, now Walleye, will be the fish of choice. Personally I don't think Walleye have been worth the effort overall. While Wipers would probably run to the dam every time water was run, the 'eyes are unpredictable. I've also heard that because true bass are wanderers that they are reluctant to stock them, but that doesn't fit with the Norfolk, Beaver, LOZ and Texoma fish, all of which can run a long way once they pass the dams.