White Bass Overharvest...

[fishinwrench]

What are your thoughts, every Spring anglers put a hurtin' on the Whites at all the usual spots. Knowing that White bass are fast growing but short-lived fish do you think it's possible to overharvest them?

I'm on the fence. I used to load my freezer with as many as I could legally have in my possession and maintain that (after I had eaten a mess or two) until they had escaped me, but I don't do that anymore.

Last year I would only keep 6 per outing regardless of how well they were biting because the previous year I began to notice that fewer big ones were showing up. I'm kinda hoping that I did them a favor and in some way helped make up for a few massive hauls that I'm sure others took home....then probably came back for more.

So is the general consensus that it is impossible to overharvest Whites? Because I worry about it sometimes.

[FishinCricket]

They have a lifespan of how many years?

[fishinwrench]

They have a lifespan of how many years?

I think its been determined to be 4-6 on average.

[Ham]

It is certainly possible to overfish them. I am total catch and release on White Bass s I doubt I'm denting the population much. I think their population is always going to be cyclic with weather variations impacting the success of the spawn, but high rates of fish being kept can impact their spawn as well. I'm good with whatever the Wildlife and Fisheries guys recommend, but it seems like 10 fish a person per trip would be plenty.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Good question. They used to target them really heavy on Texhoma, but they seemed to have bad years irregardless of pressure. I wonder sometimes if the size is dependent on the water and when the females come in to spawn. If they come in at night, like they do more often then not size seems dependent on the males and wether there is a lot of them.

I know I'm not a big fan of frozen fish so I generally only keep one or two meals of crappie or whites.

[duckydoty]

One meal for 2 is all I normally keep a year. Have seen guys leave with a limit then return a few hours later. That can't help

[RSBreth]

I only harvest a couple on my trips - same with Crappie. It may not be possible to really dent the population with regular fishing methods in the long term, but you sure can decrease the size of the overall population by keeping a large number those big breeding females year after year.

[gotmuddy]

It is a problem on norfork, two years ago a group of menonite men were chasing them up into shallow water and netting them by the dozen. I wish I had been there to see it with my own eyes, they would have got yelled at and turned in.

[Dutch]

In general they lay so many eggs that the population should be sustainable. However, there is always a dieoff that comes around like the recent one at Pomme de Terre.

It went from being a very productive lake to having almost none. That also happened to Bull Shoals back about 2003 and it is still in recovery. There are no where the numbers that there used to be down there.

My opinion is that MDC does not pay enough attention to the conditions of white bass and take any appropriate action. I'd really like to see catch and release only until after the spawn, on waters where the populations are down until they improve, but I don't see that happening.

[Wayne SW/MO]

The weather is unavoidable and because of the whites timing and requirments for a good spawn they won't always be sucessful. When the eggs get washed out of the streams with gravel bottoms into the lake bed they're done.