Possible Release Of Stripers In Table Rock Today

[Champ188]

Would be interested to know where MDC got the 16,000 fingerlings. Anyone want to bet they came from Arkansas?

[bfishn]

Nobody's sayin' Champ, could have been Kentucky too, they used to trade stripers interstate a lot.

MDC offers a different slant ( from AGFC's) in their news release (excerpt);

...Thanks to a cooperative effort that involved input from anglers in Missouri and Arkansas, area “striper” anglers will soon have increased opportunities to hook this popular catch at Bull Shoals Reservoir. Later this summer, Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) staff will produce 16,000 fingerlings and stock them on the Missouri side of this popular Ozarks reservoir, which spans portions of Arkansas and Taney and Ozark counties in the Show-Me State. This will be the inaugural event of an every-other-year stocking plan that will use fish raised at MDC hatcheries....

[vonreed]

This sounds like great news to me. Now when the walleye fishing isn't so great a person can have hopes of getting a nice striper if the make good runs upstream. I can't wait for the pothole fishing in about 3 or 4 years. It's nice to have something other than largemouth bass to catch sometimes and not everybody likes catching those.

[Feathers and Fins]

roughly 4 years before they start hitting the 20'' mark and 10 years before they are in the 20lb range.

[Quillback]

From what I can tell, Beaver and Norfolk get around 150,000 striper fingerlings per year (that's an approximation on some 2008 stocking stats I saw). So we're looking at roughly 10% of that number being stocked in BS every other year. My guess is that you'll see a trophy striper fishery, not many will be caught but you'll have a shot at some monsters, once they been in there long enough to grow big. Got the trout stocking program going on down by the dam, the buffet table will be set for these fish once they get big enough to chomp hatchery rainbows.

[Tfsh4bass]

I see both sides of the argument but I have fished some very good bass lakes that have stripers...Quachita, Norfork, Toledo Bend, Pickwick, etc and they seem to co-exists pretty good in there. Guess we will see here in a few years because right now Bull is as good as any lake around. Concerning Beaver it has gotten better the last few years. I usually only go over to striper fish but have caught some good bass the last few years. The FLW boys caught them decent this year with most guys in the top 10 having a 3lb average...with help from the A-Rig including a guy throwing one with 10 swimbaits on it.

[rangerman]

I would have to agree with F@F. Fish the right areas, and big bass will come. I have trolled up a number of large specimans in BS pulling cranks in 35 to 40 foot of water with leadore while fishing for eyes. Bass are indeed a pain in the butt, second in line behind white bass. To each, his own though.....

[Wayne SW/MO]

This sounds like great news to me. Now when the walleye fishing isn't so great a person can have hopes of getting a nice striper if the make good runs upstream. I can't wait for the pothole fishing in about 3 or 4 years. It's nice to have something other than largemouth bass to catch sometimes and not everybody likes catching those.

There will be some surpriese at the Pothole once the population is established. I wonder what kind of survival rate they expect?

BS has more than it's share of state records, including stripers, so I doubt any detrimental impact will happen.