Stripers - Bull Shoals Fishery Meeting

[Champ188]

Hey rangerman, for the record ... I do not look down my nose at you or any other angler for keeping a mess of fish to eat. It's very seldom that my freezer is without a bag or two of bass fillets. I've spoken my mind several times on this site about how all of the management tools and regulations in the world do absolutely no good without some harvest.

Not saying I'm right or wrong about the stripers or that anyone else is. We're all entitled to our opinions. Mine just happens to be I hope they don't stock any more of them.

[Phil Lilley]

I spoke to a couple of biologist- both from MO and ARK at the meeting.

They are suggesting stocking 19k 2-inch fingerlings in 2012- that's less than 1/2 fish per acre compared to Norfork, Beaver and another lake in ARK who stock 7 per acre. AJ Pratt said they would pull the plug on the stocking if they saw it wasn't working. They wouldn't be suggesting this unless they believed the lake could sustain the additional fish population.

There wasn't that many people at the meeting- may be 20. But I left before 7 pm. I left a comment card.

[Wayne SW/MO]

You'd have to convince me stripers would make any difference about that. Like everybody, I've caught some nice bass and catfish from under surfacing white bass on Bull Shoals

There were always some blacks under the sand bass in Texoma and they did the same with the stripers when they were introduced.

As far as weights being different in table Rock? They always have been. The lake didn't become famous because it was the equal of the other White river lakes. It was producing big time in the 70's long before stripers were introduced into the watershed.

The one thing I question is why not do Hybrids? Hybrids are controllable to a large extent.

[rangerman]

Thanks Phil for the info,

Champ, I wasn't pointing fingers, especially with you. Thats why I said some. Not all, by any means. I feel I do my part in releasing all the big smallies and black bass I catch. Only keep kentuckies here and there. Another conversation we already covered in the past soooooo we good.

[Champ188]

10-4 rangerman, no problem at all. I did note that you said "some" and appreciate that. Hey, you're exactly right in that there are some real egotistical jackasses out there among tournament fishermen and I'm as put off by them as anyone. You and I obviously agree on releasing the LM and SM and eating some of the K's. Also enjoy eating the occasional walleye. Looking forward to being at Bull Shoals for a week in May. When we were there that time last year, we couldn't beat the 17 7/8-inch "Walters" off our grubs and finesse worms. They were all over the lake, from the dam on up, seemingly on every point. Hoping a bunch of those have grown at least 1/8 inch in the past year. Will definitely be packing the ol' fillet knife and some quart bags.

[powerdive]

Wow, I haven't heard anyone talk about catching "Walters" since I left Wisconsin 13 years ago! I guess not too many folks around here are on a first-name basis with the walleyes--and that's OK with me.....

[exiledguide]

I have to agree with Champ, I lived in central Arkansas for 8 years and they were pretty much a neglected resource for the reasons stated by Champ, only one person I knew had a striper boat and had any luck fishing for them. I might be wrong but there wasn't that much demand for striper guides on Lake Ouchita.

[Samkam1]

Got to put in my 2 cents! stripers are a big challenge to learn and can be a lot of work, but it is so much worth it when you hook into a fish that pulls out 150ft of line in a few seconds :-) out of that cool clean water they are up there with walleye as far as table fare goes, we keep the freezers stocked. I would love to see them put a few more in BSL as it would be a little closer to home and easier on the gas tank.

here are some of our amateur videos to get the striper fever going (got to be careful not to add an extra T in there lol)...hope this weather warms up, we are ready to stretch some lines!! :-)

SK

fishing vids --once on the channel, click on 'see all' over to the right to show all the videos

[hogwall]

OK I'm from Wisconsin and I bought a place on Lake Ouachita because of the great Stripers fishery they have there.I will say that the Stripers on Ouachita bring money to the area as there are plenty of guides and they seem busy.I do know one and talk to him every trip down there and he is always busy and very helpful to us.We do catch stripers without using live shad but not like the guides do.Ouachita also has a great Bass population and we do very good on them as well as some big white bass and crappie.Of note we only keep spotted bass to eat and release all largemouths.There are many Bass guys that hate the stripers.I feel a lake should be managed for what the habitat is best suited for and Ouachita has some of the best striper habitat of any inland lake with at least 1/2 the lake well suited for stripers during the hottest of summer.Norfork is very border line as the stripers must stack up at the dam.Bull Shoals is know to have better summer oxygen levels thus would be better suited for stripers than Norfork and the Bull would make a great trophy Striper lake if they stock at low levels to keep growth rates high.I agree many of these lakes have to many rough fish(gars,drum,ect)and they should be removed as a lake can only support so many fish per acre just like a farm field.Hybrid's are best suited to lakes that lack the deep cool oxygen water as they can handle warm water well.Not every lake needs all fish thus Table Rock should be left alone unless the people there really want a larger fish.I have fished all these lakes over the years and settled on Ouachita due to the striper fishery,further south so better winter weather,and its by far one of if not the prettiest lakes in the south.So my vote would be leave Beaver and Table Rock the way they are,turn the Bull into a trophy striper fishery and make Norfork more of a hybrid fishery if oxygen causes the stripers to stress and stack right at the dam.As far as walleyes go,they are great on the table and should have a place in any of the lakes where they can reproduce at good levels.Good Luck guys from snow and ice filled northern Wis.

[taxidermist]

It has worked back years ago and works now. look at the trophy size of the stripers and it does not effect any species of fish.

Lake mentioned above Ouachita works and they even allow speargun for bass.

The key is to develop and hold Bull Shoals as a trophy striper fishery.

You dont need a special boat to fish for stripers, just go a fish and an incidental catch makes the trip even better.

I had talked with several people over the past couple of years about yearly stocking of 20,000 fingerlings for the next ten years, that give a 30 year fishery for stripers with not a lot of fish per acre. Nothing close the the number that go into Norfork or Beaver.

Back in the 1980's there were the huge stripers coming form Bull Shoals and it did not hurt the other fisheries in anyway. Yea thats before most of you seem to have discovered Bull SHoals. I grew up fishing the lake and the worst thing to happen to it has been bass tournaments.

In summer most of the stripers will be int he cold deep waters where the AGFC use to stock rainbow trout, they only stock 20,000 rainbows these days and thats not enough to count.

We will just have to agree to disagree about stripers, I have seen the lake both with and without stripers and know that with stripers you dont know the difference, you did not know the difference until this meeting in most cases!!!