Saturday Was Awesome.

[Bird Watcher]

There are many opinions and experiences out there and this debate will always exist as different folks have different main reasons they fish… i.e. food or fun, or a combination of both. Here are the facts. MDC manages each fishery with the knowledge (based on both surveys and angler creel information) of what species are in there, how they interact with each other, how fast they grow, what the food availability is, year class strength (spawn success), etc. The creel limits are set based on what the lake can support being harvested and still maintain a quality fishery. There is a portion of the population that harvest black bass for consumption, and current regulations allow for that while maintaining a quality fishery. And as is commonly known, the environmental conditions of a given year are far more important to the size of a black bass year class than the number of spawning individuals.

It is hard to deny the fact that if all the keeper bass that are caught were kept, the population size structure would suffer and a notable decline would be observed in catch rates. BUT, we know from angler creels that this is not the situation. According to past creel surveys conducted on both Stockton and Table Rock, anglers released approximately 70-75% of the legal bass they caught. In addition, of the 25% of bass that were harvested on Table Rock, 79% of those were harvested during a tournament, which means they were likely released later. I haven’t got all of the last 2 years of Table Rock creel data analyzed yet, but my suspicion is that this percentage of released fish probably increased. Just look at some of the data from 1995 and 1996, anglers only released about 35-40% and the fishery did well then. With these numbers, we are not at all concerned that too many bass are harvested on Table Rock or Stockton. Stockton is scheduled for another creel survey next year, so we should be able to get some more updated information then.

Shane Bush, Table Rock

Adam Boman, Stockton

MDC Fisheries Biologists

Emailed to me today.

Thanks for taking time to get the information straight from the source Phil.

[dprice]

I find the info on this site. Is excellent I have always understood bass over 5 pounds ran a 50 percent chance of being infertile ? Same is true not all bass spawn in same locations or times? Stockton had always been extremely sensitive to pressure! This lake is every bit as good as tablerock or even lake of ozarks in my thoughts for big bass surface acre sizing plays the biggest role? Water supply and quality versus acidity Dprice

[dprice]

Lake seems fine

[Terrierman]

Lake seems fine

Get that fish back in the water STAT!

[Phil Lilley]

MDC Creel Study Attached.

2006-2007 Table Rock Lake Creel Summary.pdf

[9LB]

Dont't eat it !

[dprice]

Yes Phil. That's it.

[9LB]

I was just teasing about the Lakes. Table Rock has much better bass according to the magazines, pro fisherman, Bass Pro, KVD, The Branson Belle, The Presleys and the Baldnobbers so DO NOT come up to little ole Stockton. However the Table Rock Forum is far superior for finding out some good quality info. I can check it on the way to the Rock and literally ALWAYS get information. Some weeks you wont see a post that has any information let alone any tips on where the fish are.

[Phil Lilley]

I think it's sheer numbers... I can't get individual page counts on the forum but I bet if I could we'd see that ppl looking at the TR forum verses the Stockton forum is vastly different. Plus the TR forum took off from the very beginning and it took Stockton years to develop into the forum it is today. Its' the #2 most visited forum, at least by members posting on it. And both will only get better with time.

[REDSOXWSCHAMP]

does this mean we are all good now boys?