No More Hybrid Stocking On Beaver.

[hoglaw]

Funny. Dragging a ned was an easy thing for me because that's how we fished the little craws for white bass. Man we used to hammer them doing that. It was a lot of fun. 

I really don't fish the lake. I'll go up war eagle every now and then, but my boat doesn't touch beaver except for the spring runs. Last year I caught walleye on a flicker shad (casting), and on a keitech rigged on a stand up head. So you're telling me I can drag a ned for them too?  If I can get lose in the next month I'll sure give it a shot. 

Total thread hijack. Do hybrids spawn?  Will there still be a population if they don't stock them?

[Ham]

19 minutes ago, hoglaw said:

Funny. Dragging a ned was an easy thing for me because that's how we fished the little craws for white bass. Man we used to hammer them doing that. It was a lot of fun.

I really don't fish the lake. I'll go up war eagle every now and then, but my boat doesn't touch beaver except for the spring runs. Last year I caught walleye on a flicker shad (casting), and on a keitech rigged on a stand up head. So you're telling me I can drag a ned for them too?  If I can get lose in the next month I'll sure give it a shot.

Total thread hijack. Do hybrids spawn?  Will there still be a population if they don't stock them?

hybrids are not supposed to be able to spawn successfully.

[Stump bumper]

Being a cross of a white and a stripper they cannot reproduce on their own, that is why they are used to control shad populations in small lakes that whites would over run if stocked. I might be possible to produce one in the wild if whites and strippers were spawning close to each other but about as rare as a black pearl. There are several year classes of hybrids in the lake, I have caught them this year from one pound up to 15lbs so missing the one stocking of 3inch fish will not affect hybrid fishing for 3-5 years and if they only skip one year most people won't notice.

The fact so many are removed at 1 to 2lbs by white fishermen that don't notice the difference is what hurts the rates of catching those 10-15lb fish. I would much rather get into the hybrids and strippers than walleye or bass but they all have to share the lake. 

[Bill Butts]

First of all, this has been and continues to be a very good discussion. Thank you for reporting the presentation info from AGFC to stimulate this dialogue. 

As many of you know, AR decided to discontinue Hybrid Striper stocking on Norfork Lake, too. Greer’s Ferry will continue to receive only hybrids as they have for a long time. Their other marquee striper lake, Ouachita, will continue to be stocked only with stripers.

The reason of impact on the crayfish population in Beaver is fascinating, surprising to me since all the Temperates (Striped, Hybrid Striped and White Bass) are known to be pelagic (open water roaming), but nonetheless hard to argue with if they did stomach sampling.  I hope they did the stomach sampling several times to be sure it was not just an anomaly of seasonal timing. 

Though I reside in MO, I have spent countless days on the White River above Beaver in the spring over the past 18 years. It is well known, even if you don’t bait fish, that crawdads are very effective bait for whites and hybrids (and walleye) during the spring spawning period. I’ve seen fishermen use all sorts of live minnows, including shad and (not live) shad guts, and even chicken livers. (and I thought those were best wrapped with bacon and grilled)

On Norfork Lake, one of the strong reasons for discontinuing the hybrid stocking that was communicated by AGFC fisheries folks was the low importance of the specie (hybrid stripers) on that fishery.  In angler surveys, Striped Bass on the Norfork fishery were far more highly valued and preferred by a very large margin. I would fully expect the same to be true on Beaver, if they studied angler preference.

You have to respect the focus and commitment of requiring scientific data to support stocking requests by the AGFC upper management staff. That has to be fundamental to long term successful fisheries management, regardless of the species. AR, MO and OK all have wonderfully dedicated fisheries folks, and we should all take the time to express our gratitude to them, and their upper level management, whether in person or by written/electronic communication.

That being said, I really appreciate and agree with the former AGFC employee, “Notropis” (his board name, and contributed to this discussion, sorry I don’t know him), that it is truly sad when the Commissioners of any of the states carry a personal agenda to influence and override solid fisheries research.  I’ve seen it in MO an AR over the years.

For those who have followed the Bull Shoals Striped Bass stocking discussions over the past several years, before MO jumped into the arena, you may recall that AGFC fisheries proposed an official stocking plan for stripers in their management plan. I was in email communication with them in 2009 when they requested 22,000 stripers to be stocked yearly or every other year. That requested plan was denied, and I’ve never seen any further communication that indicated a proposal for any stripers to be stocked in that fishery.

Apparently, the AR fisheries staff fully believed there was scientific support for stocking Stripers in Bull Shoals or they wouldn’t have recommended it. Their fisheries staff for Bull Shoals and Norfork has changed since that time, so it would probably be a moot point to even attempt to reconstruct that process, but their proposal would be documented somewhere in the fisheries proposals of the state despite being denied.

Regardless, and as I previously mentioned, we have wonderfully dedicated fisheries folks in AR, MO and OK who truly care about improving the viability of all the species they support in the short and long term.

Let’s agree on our mutual and wonderful fishery opportunities, and approach our differences with effective and respectful communication to work toward the best solutions.

[J-Doc]

"approach our differences with effective and respectful communication to work toward the best solutions."

 

Totally

Agree