What's Your Opinion?

[dtrs5kprs]

For one thing LM bass are and big Jaws are big time feeders on gizzard shad,along with our catfish population. Our white bass also prey on gizzards. Not unusual at all to pull a 7 inch shad out of a 3 pound white. I have seen our Big K's chasing and eating gizzard shad and have pulled 5 inch shad out of there mouth at the same time they had my Magnimum Spoon in it. I have caught more K's than I can remember on 7 to 9 inch swimbaits on Table Rock and have them tied on now. a 3 pound K can get a 7 inch swimbait all the way down anytime it wants. One of my biggest sets of LM came up the James River on 7 and 9 inch swimbaits. Believe you me, our bass eat gizzard shad with relish and on an everyday basis.

The absolute main forage on Lake of the Ozarks in central Missouri for LM bass is gizzard shad. I think it could be classified as a pretty good bass lake and they for sure munch gizz, as there main diet.

Every lake you mentioned is stocked and everyone of those in Texas is stocked with Florida Strain LM bass. Since 1990 in just the lakes you mentioned in Texas they have stocked 50 million Florida Strain and 50 plus million Northern LM. That is 100 MILLION PLUS BASS. That is a lot of striper food.

Stocking on Table Rock since 1990-----------ZERO.

Table Rock is not stocked and never will be according to the Missouri Conservation Dept. It is a self sustaining renewable resourse. I have absolutely no use for Stripers in the Rock. Yes we have some spill over and that ammount is tollorable. They are eating machines and would not only eat our shad but everything else that swims in the rock, including small children and some of the smaller jet ski's.

We don't want a Beaver Lake here.

Hmmm...if they would help control the jet ski population it might be worth it. Maybe stock them just before the major summer holidays.

[Guest]

Why are gizzard shad considered a bad food source, according to biologists and said experts?

Bella Vista stocked hybrids to get rid of the gizzards. Why?

Those 10lb bass and catfish are eating big gizzard shad.

I dont understand the idea of stocking stripers and blaming it on gizzard shad. Maybe Im ignorant, but I dont get it.

Find something else to stock, like walleyes...

[kyled]

This has been good reading. Its seems like MDC or whatever entity manages our wonderful fisheries has a tougher job than what I gave them credit for. Its hard to make everyone happy. I understand the science could lean towards no effect or little effect on bass fishing. However, science and data can be easily aranged to prove a desired point. I think input from guys on here who spend day upon day fishing a lake might have first hand experiance and possibly a better grasp on where TR is in its constantly changing state. The problem with that is opinions are not science. If I wanted to know how the lake has changed over the last decade I would probably put more emphasis on a fisherman who has spent most every day on it over random samples taken by bioligist. Since the goal is to manage the fisheries for public enjoyment and get more people enjoying the outdoors, the fact that Beaver and Bull are so close give me the OPINION that TR should be left alone. If someone wants to striper fish they have the opportunity. If someone has the opinion that stripers are negative on bass and want to fish in a lake without a large population... they have the opportunity.

[abkeenan]

This has been good reading. Its seems like MDC or whatever entity manages our wonderful fisheries has a tougher job than what I gave them credit for. Its hard to make everyone happy. I understand the science could lean towards no effect or little effect on bass fishing. However, science and data can be easily aranged to prove a desired point. I think input from guys on here who spend day upon day fishing a lake might have first hand experiance and possibly a better grasp on where TR is in its constantly changing state. The problem with that is opinions are not science. If I wanted to know how the lake has changed over the last decade I would probably put more emphasis on a fisherman who has spent most every day on it over random samples taken by bioligist. Since the goal is to manage the fisheries for public enjoyment and get more people enjoying the outdoors, the fact that Beaver and Bull are so close give me the OPINION that TR should be left alone. If someone wants to striper fish they have the opportunity. If someone has the opinion that stripers are negative on bass and want to fish in a lake without a large population... they have the opportunity.

Well said.

[Feathers and Fins]

Why are gizzard shad considered a bad food source, according to biologists and said experts?

Bella Vista stocked hybrids to get rid of the gizzards. Why?

Those 10lb bass and catfish are eating big gizzard shad.

I dont understand the idea of stocking stripers and blaming it on gizzard shad. Maybe Im ignorant, but I dont get it.

Find something else to stock, like walleyes...

It is not that Gizzards are a "BAD" food source, it is the big ones that are the problem 8'' on up as a rule. The primary size preffered by Crappie and Bass are 2 inches and up to 4 inches. Big Gizzards get to the point they are no longer Bass and Crappie food and because of that become in simplest terms useless to the lake and in fact bad for it because they compete with the smaller shad for food. There are only a few freshwater fish that prey on those large Gizzards, Striper, Muskey, Pike, Walleye and Flatheads.

You have to remember the average size bass in many lakes is 2 to 4 pounds NOT 10lbs. You want to have and maintain a very healthy smaller size shad base. Unfortunately there is a lot of research showing that Large Gizzards actually stop breeding so all they are doing is taking up the food source for the optimal size bait.

Of all the prey fish on the big Gizzards I would love to see it be Walleye, BUT, Walleye are KNOWN to feed on Crappie and Bass at will. So I would prefer the Striper for maintaining the health of the overall fishery.

Trust me before I really got into Stripers and started reading the science on it and talking to Biologist I was like many other Bass fishermen and never wanted to see them in "MY LAKE"! But when I learned about them, I started to change my mind and thought of them more as a Management Tool to help my lake.

[Gradyh]

Walleye are "KNOWN" to feed on bass and crappie? Do you have any research to prove that. Many lakes above the Mason/Dixson line seem to support good populations of bass/walleye or bass walleye/walleye/crappie. Of all the "tournament" lakes in southern Mo. north Arkansas to 2 with the consistently smallest weights are Norfork and Beaver. What do they have common besides being at the lower end of the spectrum for numbers and quality? Stripers. They is all the research at this point to tell me the Rock and Bull Shoals don't need stripers.

[roy_eros]

I lost interest in this thread as soon as someone started quoting lakes off the BASS top100... That list is a joke some guy at a desk pumped out in a hour because he didn't have any material apparently..

[Martin]

Sounds to me like the stripers have introduced themselves....Spring floods in 2008 and 2011 required huge releases throught the flood gates at Beaver AND Tablerock dams.....Thing is, Beaver has a pretty good striper population and I'm just guessing that a whole bunch of stripers came through the dam flood gates. More then I would have thought, but I've heard of more then a couple of stripers caught this year, way down here in the lower lake. (Kimberling to dam)....I say have fun with the ones that are here, but I don't think we need any stocking of stripers.....The old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" comes to mind....Obviously, this is just my opinion, but I've been splashing around on the rock since 1963, so I'm with Bill B......Don't need any stocking. We can go to Beaver or the Bull.....

[Feathers and Fins]

Grady, not without searching all over the internet for them now. There were many studies done in the late 90's and early 00's on the subject. I know Minn, and Wis were two of the state's heavily involved and showed the preditation. I havent researched in years but im betting Mo and AR probably have done stomach content checks or some researchers in the lower states.

[bluebasser86]

One of my favorite little bass lakes up here in the KC area went down the crapper when they put hybrids in it. Almost impossible to find a bass over 4lbs in it now, although there is tons of dinks in there if that's what you're looking for. Used to see huge schools of shad getting slammed by 2-5 pound bass all day long during the summer. Now we only occasionally see a few really large shad darting in and out of the weeds. I've never caught a striper and although they do seem fun if I want to try to catch a striper I'll drive to Beaver or Norfolk where they're already at, no need to go putting them in every lake just so we don't have to drive as far to fish for them.