Reports

[J-Doc]

Just curious, let's say hypothetically of course.....people did not practice catch and release on Beaver. Would it hurt the tournaments weights? Afterall, that's what's most important on this lake. Tournament weigh in and bragging rights on how much bass you caught and how big they were. And how much money you won.

Not my preference. Just the perspectives of some as expressed on other forums. I catch and release bass.

Sometimes I wonder, with the population of Bass in this lake, if catch and release is actually hurting it. It's why deer limits get regulated and practiced. To control population and the overall health of the population. Too many deer in an area stunts growth and survival rates. Take out some of them and they all flourish better. Which could be why beaver has a reputation of not having a lot of large bass. Even though recent years has produced 20+ bags every week in the winter early spring.

Just curious on your thoughts Notropis. Since you have the credentials and years of experience on this.

[Champ188]

Just curious, let's say hypothetically of course.....people did not practice catch and release on Beaver. Would it hurt the tournaments weights? Afterall, that's what's most important on this lake. Tournament weigh in and bragging rights on how much bass you caught and how big they were. And how much money you won.

Not my preference. Just the perspectives of some as expressed on other forums. I catch and release bass.

Sometimes I wonder, with the population of Bass in this lake, if catch and release is actually hurting it. It's why deer limits get regulated and practiced. To control population and the overall health of the population. Too many deer in an area stunts growth and survival rates. Take out some of them and they all flourish better. Which could be why beaver has a reputation of not having a lot of large bass. Even though recent years has produced 20+ bags every week in the winter early spring.

Just curious on your thoughts Notropis. Since you have the credentials and years of experience on this.

Stunting occurs when there are more predators than the forage base can support. Beaver Lake is anything but short on shad. I've read that right here. Many times.

[mjk86]

Take heart fellow OA forum members, you're fishing in the most challenging conditions possible in Beaver Lake. High water levels, high water temps, a scattered fish population and massive forage fish production. The good news is the spawn of all fish species, this year, will be highly successful with excellent survival of fingerling fish and much better than average growth rates (because of all the cover and forage). I referred to extreme high water years as bad for fishing currently but great for future fishing. This year class of fish will make for some great fishing the next few years.

Some things to look forward to from this year class of fish:

The white bass population will be the first to make an impact on fishing. This year's spawn will create large schools of white bass in 2016 ranging from 8 to 11 inches, small but fun to catch with light tackle and pretty good eating. Some biggest schools of white bass I've seen came the year after a high water year.

Both spotted and largemouth bass will have large spawns and good survival and growth. This year's largemouth spawn will have much better than average growth rate with some individual fish growing up to 8-10 inches long before winter (compare that to an average of 2-5 inches in normal years). The spotted bass will impact fishing earlier than the largemouth, since they a legally harvestable at any size. The largemouth will reach a harvestable size about three years from now and many of the individual fish from this year class will be larger than normal for that age due to the great start they got as a yearling. The smallmouth bass spawn will be the least affected since their primary nursery habitat is gravel and cobble, not the submerged vegetation the spotted and largemouth fingerlings will thrive in.

Crappie spawn, survival and growth rates will also be elevated this year creating a strong harvestable year class in 2-3 years.

All stocked species such as striped bass and walleye fingerlings will have similar strong survival and growth, creating good year classes. Striped bass from this year will be legally harvestable in 2 years while the walleye will be in 2.5- 3 years. The walleye that were spawned naturally in the lake will have enhanced conditions also, contributing to this year class.

Game fish of all sizes will benefit from this year's large spawn of forage fish (shad, sunfish, minnows etc.)

I can't guarantee all the things I mentioned above will happen but they are typical conditions that I've seen resulting from extreme high water years on Beaver Lake. We think it's safe to say we can all look forward to some really good fishing the next few years but unfortunately we have to get through this year!

Cheers

Does this go for most Midwestern waters that jave been running way up? Is it because the fry have flooded vegetation which protects from predators? Also do you think the extreme water temps and lack of oxygen will prevent survival? Last one...why dont the walleye naturally reproduce well in the lakes, but there are small native populations elsewhere in ozark rivers? Thanks in advance for answering any of these auestions.

[Notropis]

A lot of good questions, I'll answer them the best I can.

J-Doc, when I use the word "harvestable" I'm referring to the time it normally takes for each of the species to reach legally harvestable size in Beaver Lake. It's up to each angler to decide if they want to keep or release the fish that are legal to harvest. I recognize you were being a little "tongue in cheek" which I can appreciate. Regarding your catch and release question. There are a lot of anglers who advocate for catch and release only and In some situations it could be useful, depleted fish populations, new lakes that need protection for spawners for a few years etc. Most situations require a combination of harvest and protection to fine tune the fish populations. Some species are extremely productive and don't require protection while others may be limited by the conditions and habitat in a lake to minimal spawning success and recruitment (surviving there first year) thus requiring some type of protection. Your catch and release question on bass in Beaver Lake folds in to this information. The largemouth require a little protection since their good spawns only happen in high water years, The minimum length limit helps protect these strong year classes until the individual fish reach a more quality size. Protection of the spotted bass has not worked well, hence the regulation change to drop the length limit and promote harvest. The spots are prolific spawners regardless of water levels, although like the largemouth they do have elevated spawns during extreme high water years. Protecting them with the 12 minimum length caused very slow growth of the individual fish and increased competition for forage between all the bass species. The smallmouth, in my opinion, would not be significantly affected by regulation changes. Most people (about 97% according to creel surveys) release all smallmouth regardless of size. J-Doc, you're certainly not alone when you practice catch and release. The creel surveys on Beaver lake have confirmed that most bass anglers (an average of about 94%) don't keep any bass species. Because of the voluntary catch and release tendencies of bass anglers on Beaver, we had to actively promote the harvest of spotted bass in an attempt to get the anglers to help thin them out and hopefully improve their growth rates.

Champ188, you make a good point, the shad population is usually good in Beaver but it's a lot more complicated than that. A lot of the slow growth is related to the first year of a fishes life. The species that stay close to the shoreline when young (largemouth bass for example) don't get the benefit of the shad spawn since the larvae shad leave the shoreline shortly after being spawned and congregate in deeper water to forage on zooplankton. The shoreline oriented fingerlings are dependent on the sunfish spawn for forage which during low water years is not very good. Consider the information I posted earlier regarding the difference in growth of fingerling bass when comparing high to low water years. A fingerling that gets good growth is far more likely to have continued good growth because of it's larger size and ability to eat larger sized forage fish earlier in it's life.

MKJ86, High water usually results in better spawns but there are some exceptions. The lakes that have good cover for fingerlings regardless of the water levels are minimally effected by high water. An example of this would be a lake that has a lot of submerged aquatic vegetation providing good nursery habitat even during periods of low water. These types of lakes get some benefit from high water because of increased nutrients which promote better zooplankton blooms but the increase in fish production is not as dramatic as in lakes like Beaver where, as you mentioned, the increase in nursery habitat creates great conditions for the survival and recruitment of the year class. Low oxygen which can be affected by extreme high water temperature is typically not problem associated with deep lakes like Beaver Lake, at least regarding fry and fingerling survival. Low oxygen below the thermocline does have a dramatic effect on some adult species (see my posts regarding striped bass and walleye). Regarding your question about the lack of a walleye spawn. Actually, there is good evidence that Beaver Lake is getting a significant natural walleye spawn. This has been confirmed by a recent study involving marking the stocked fingerlings with a trace chemical (otc) and comparing the walleye yearlings with the trace chemical with ones that don't (native spawned walleye). Over 50% of the yearling walleyes were not marked, indicating a pretty good natural spawn.

Hope this information helps! Sorry about the long, run on sentences. It's hard for me to keep them short sometimes.

Cheers

[Champ188]

Very good info, Notropis. Thanks for explaining.

[mjk86]

Thanks so much for the explanation. I appreciate you taking the time.

[J-Doc]

Notropis, your input and years of experience is INVALUABLE on this forum. Thank you.

So the last remaining question, do stripers impact the fishery negatively as a whole and do they in fact, hurt or stunt the bass size or population?

I have observed and caught more large bass than I ever have by targeting stripers. Once I find stripers, I find larger bass.

Are there myths or proof on how stripers impact highland impoundments? Seems other lakes with large fish of both species exist.

I'm curious on what your research has shown over the years as a biologist.

[kwall]

Good info , thanks --

[Green236]

Like others, I've been busy at work with almost more business than I can handle...but I'm not complaining. Off yesterday and today and had 30+ emails, texts, sales calls, ect.

We did finally get on the water today at 10a and had a good 3 hours. I'll post a report with photos in a bit.

[Stump bumper]

I am setting in Denver reading this after a couple weeks in Texas so the reason I don't post much anymore is like everyone else, work. I really appreciate any post when I am on the road because all I think about on the road is getting back on the water.

Thanks to all who have kept me going.