For years and years TPWD has been stocking LF with Florida strain fingerlings. But never venturing beyond the boat ramps where they dump them because they felt that putting them into boats to take to the back of creeks to many would die before they got in the water.

Yesterday with organization mainly by the Lake Fork Sportsman's Assoc putting together a plan and then providing the volunteers to spread them thru out the lake in the back of creeks. Members in boats mostly from the Lake Fork Anglers,
a couple of guides, and some individuals. The live release boat with a crew of 4 took over 150,000 fry to disperse into Birch Creek (you'll have to ask them where).
And 10-20 individuals with coolers took many more to distribute.

First all of the buckets, live wells and LRB tanks were filled with lake water to at least 6 inches. Then the baby bass were bagged much like you do with shiners for crappie using lake water, with oxygen being added to each bag so that they could do at least an hour before being released. The bass were free swimming in the 300 gallon tanks on the LRB and lifted out with special nets that were previously placed in the bottom for that reason.

Despite the fact that it was blowing very hard and the lake had 4' rollers about the time the boats left everyone was able to disperse their passengers into the back of many creeks.

The fisheries folks said there were 276,000 altogether. And that in about 6-7 years when they start doing the DNA studies on those SAL's they will know if it worked by their DNA.

We hope in the future that the scientists will again make use of the volunteers in future stockings.

Thanks for sharing that Bruce and thanks for all the volunteers for going above and beyond. It will take efforts like this to maintain Lake Fork as a premier lake into the future. Now if we could just get the hydrilla back.

Great work, thank you to all involved.

Awesome!!! Thanks to all who participated! Put the word out and I'm sure you would have many more willing and wanting to participate!

+1

thanks to all that helped

the hydrilla is back, very thick in some creeks to the point that you can't hardly get thru it

Caught several fish out of it during today's tournament on the main lake shorelines

Nice work. Thanks Bruce for sharing. I appreciate your organizations hard work.

Thats great news.

Great job to you all.

Great job to be sure. Partnerships are the most cost-effective and efficient way to get fisheries management projects done.

Standard procedure is to boat-stock largemouth bass. Fork has been boat-stocked with largemouth bass in the past. This is what the TPWD stocking procedures manual says:

"Largemouth bass
� Fry and fingerlings should be stocked from a boat into the best available inshore habitat (vegetated areas are preferred).
� No more than approximately 10,000 fingerlings should be released per 1-km transect.
� Stocking locations should be no closer than 2 km apart."

what ever it said in their instructions was not happening. They were afraid the fry would die before they reached a destination in the back of creeks so for the most part they dumped them at the 154 and 515 east ramps.

Some years back someone said they were crappie fishing on the 154 bridge and a whole bunch were dumped from the bridge.
And the water was boiling with sand bass eating them.
Not confirmed. Second hand info.

The LFSA has now identified 12 locations on private boat ramps where they can bring their 5th wheel trailer truck in with the fry and be able to turn around where they can be placed in the back of creeks. With permissions from the owners. But on Wednesday they were going with the volunteer participation.

Once again Bruce, thank you for all you do.

Once again, the fact is that TPWD has boat-stocked LMB in Fork in the past. Saying that it has never happened is incorrect. If a bunch of laymen can safely transport fish, so can TPWD. If they've never been stocking Fork properly it sure doesn't seem like it from the number of trophy largemouth bass fork has produced over decades.

It has to do with their perception of how long the fry will last before they think they will begin to die. That is why they put oxygen in the bags of fish like is done with some shiners you buy. They figured that the fry would live at least an hour.

When they were stocking by boat, which was not very often they felt they had to dump the fish no more than one mile from the ramp.

That is what the fisheries biologist told me. I believe him.

I spent several hours in his boat back in the spring while we were planting button bushes in cowhead and glade. I have known him for a number of years and have no reason the disbelieve what he has said.

At least one tracking study found that caught bass that were tagged so they could be followed would return to the areas of the lake they came from. I'm not sure how bass do this, but I know birds and butterflies and homing pigeons and salmon do it, so maybe not as developed as in these species, but . . .

Well, one suggestion related to sensory powers in bass said they can "smell" even things down to one part per million and use this power as a clue to navigate home.

If so, I generally like the idea of a broad dispersal of fingerlings. And, back in the coves and other protected areas with lots of vegetation to hide in makes perfect sense. If it doubles or triples survival rates from predation, this will pay off dividends in a few years.

I have only seen it once, when TPWD came out and dumped about 200,000 walleye fingerlings into Wheeler Branch.

Pretty cool! Glad to see they are working on improving protocols to increase the odds of survival!

Brad

i cant get the www.LFSA.com site to work?

I know of two studies done regarding the movement of bass back to the area where they were caught despite what BASS says. One in Maryland and Virginia and the other at Lake Fork. Both are at least 30 years old.

For the Lake Fork Sportsman's Assoc website go to www.lakeforksa.com/

I know for a fact that TPWD boat stocks fingerlings. The biologist meet the hatchery truck at the ramp and take the fingerlings to be stocked into the best suitable habitat. Yes there is some consideration as to how far the fingerlings can safely be left in the hauling tank, and for that reason TPWD alternates the ramps where they send the hatchery truck to. Just because the hatchery truck is sitting at the boat ramp does not mean that all of the fish are stocked at or near that boat ramp. Only the last few fish that can't be easily collected and moved to the biologist boat are actually stocked at the ramp.

In the last ten years I have been physically involved in at least ten stocking efforts and have had intimate knowledge of many others.

Of course these were 95% on Falcon.

The vast majority of these fish have been spread out to the best available cover when delivered..

But there have been several times when the fish were stocked at the ramps available.

Some reasons being that it was a small load of fish, or there were no techs available to accompany the delivery truck that day. Or boat problems, etc.

I believe that utilizing the public is a great way to get some ownership feeling to a lot of folks that truly love their lake.

I believe that the more TPWD gets the public involved in day to day operations the better the relationship with the public will become.

And I think that scattering the fish to the four winds on any lake is a marvelous thing..

Kudos to you guys for volunteering and getting it done..

Last week they stocked over 220,000 pure Florida strain fingerlings (38mm very tiny) into Lake Ray Roberts. TPWD boats equipped with four 50 gallon aireated containers met the stocking trucks at the boat ramps at Pecan Creek and Isle d Bois to carry the fingerlings out to nearby spots with plenty of flooded cover.

Bruce it's been mentioned already
But I believe if you want to grow super bass learn how to
Cultivate Hydrilla so when you stock it with super bass they have a place to grown and live and spread. Out
I'm not talking about the little bit we have, I'm
Talking bring hydrilla back on the whole lake

This!!!!!

They've been stocking the lake for years now. It's done no good. I think its been very noticeable that the number of fish over 13 lbs. has drastically fallen over the years. It started with the loss of hydrilla all over the lake and then the virus that hit after didn't help matters. But the key ingredient that the lake is missing that it had back in the 90's is hydrilla all over the lake.

I think it goes a little further than that too. Back in the day before Internet forums when we got all our info in that little weekly paper magazine I remember reading the reason Fork was so fertile was because of all the dairy farms around the lake. All that run off from the farms made for some very fertile waters.

Now fast forward to today and with all the RV parks, marinas and houses and you can imagine the water isn't nearly as fertile as it once was. The number of docks now on the lake is amazing

The major problem with allowing hydrilla or any other invasive species of aquatic vegetation to establish beyond reasonable control into the reservoir is that vegetation does, in fact, take up space. Furthermore, it doesn't just take up a little bit of space, it takes up an enormous amount of volume when an infestation occurs. That space occupies space that would otherwise be taken up by water. Even though aquatic plants are 99% water, that water is locked up in the plant at any given point in time. Further yet, water gets lost to evapotranspiration, in the case of emergent aquatic vegetation such as hyacinth or water lilies. Even further yet, the chemistry of a body of water is altered dramatically in the presence of large amounts of vegetation. When efforts have to be made to remove, or kill large amounts of vegetation all at once, it can be devastating to a body of water. The added sediment alone is a nightmare for water treatment.

The reservoir is there to store water, plain and simple. The managing authority cannot afford to allow invasive vegetation to take away that much volume from the reservoir, or to lose the water quality. A healthy balance of aquatic vegetation must be maintained and hydrilla is very difficult to control and keep balanced. Keeping native vegetation under control is difficult enough. When hydrilla comes into the picture, it not only pushes out all the natives, it damages the water and substrate chemistry to the point where it is more difficult for natives to re-establish after it is removed or killed. Regardless of the benefits the hydrilla may have to the overall aquatic ecosystem and the resultant quality of the fishing, boost to local economy, and so forth, that is a blip in comparison to the value the reservoir has to flood control and water supply.

To use just one example, the cost of that big shiny new pump station and pipeline behind the dam was right around $200 million. That is just one example of one water control project, albeit a big one, at that reservoir. To compare, the entire annual budget for Texas Parks and Wildlife comes it at right around $375 million every year (give or take 25 million); a fraction of which goes to inland fisheries.

To get back to the subject at hand here, what should be done is to allow native aquatic vegetation to establish healthily into the reservoir and then place the little fingerlings into said masses of native vegetation. Big dreams, big dreams, I know.

Fork was a lot cleaner and clearer with the hydrilla in it. Trust me!

Lake Fertilizer isn't hard to find.....

Dock owners sprinkling chemicals anytime they see any type of aquatic vegetation has not helped Fork.