I've read that the striper population will force LMB into shallower water closer to the bank than they might otherwise inhabit.
I've also read that Texoma has a healthy SMB population in the northern part of the Washita fork area.

Any truth to either of these statements? I'm new to fishing Texoma, but I like what I've seen so far.

Not sure. I've caught striper in Texoma that had pretty big LMB in their stomachs (at least, big for the stripers size). So it's possible that they displace black bass.

I've havent fished texoma in years as I moved away from that area but I fished it in the 60's and 70's a lot. It was sand bass heaven. At Madill, the little town where the red lite is upside down, they had the sand bass festival every year with a sand bass cook off. Thousands of people showed up every year. They were talking about putting in stripers and a lot of people objected fearing it would ruin the sand bass population. I guess its worked out ok but I'm sure it cut into the sand bass numbers

The biggest impact when you introduce striper to a fishery is on the sand bass population. The striper just out compete the sand bass. In 25 years of guiding for striper I don't think I have ever seen a largmouth bass in the stomach of a striper. In a healthy lake you should see a good population of shad with all sizes present. Weather has more effect on shad populations than striper. When you see shad stacked up in a certain part of a lake thats not really a indication of the shad population. It just means that is a nutrient rich or preferred temperature area or possibly better O2 levels.

I think Steve Barnes is right. PK had two years of striper spawns with the rains. Those stripers are now of significant size being 2-3 years old. The shallow green lights on Gaines bend that were covered in sand bass last year had only a few this year. There were huge schools of big magnum perch eating ghost minnows in the lights this year, where last year I could take friend and watch them catch hundreds of sand bass. I would dare them to drag a jig across the lights and not catch a sand bass. It was impossible.

Striper fishing has been real good at PK this year. They are big and fat. In the future I think the TPWD needs to adjust PK's striper limit to match what they do at Texoma when that lake gets enough rain to create striper spawns. Last year I was in a cove near hells gate and it was completely full of 8-10 inch stripers. There must have been millions of them. Texoma is the only place I've seen them in numbers like that. There is no doubt in my mind that when the Brazos gets enough rain for PK stripers to spawn the numbers of stripers become astronomical.

Interesting that Texoma went through a phase when the sandbass were prolific, and the striper were hard to find. Now the sandbass are very hard to find and the striper are abundant.

Size matters when it comes down to who eats who.

What holds true for stripers seems to hold true for sandbass/striper hybrids. My home lake has a good population of hybrids, and I've noticed lots of changes.

https://youtu.be/vW7Ptkts_MM

Here�s the documentary...Landlocked

I would consider Lake Tawakoni as a Shad �Mecca� lake. Well Beyond average on bait fish. We have Striper.

Thanks Fishwrangler!

We all wish our home lakes were as productive as Tawakoni.

Part of the determination in stocking striper is to decide whether or not the fishery has the food base to support them. Once a reservoir reaches the point in its life cycle it has usually flipped from being productive in the shallow areas, offering less forage and cover and new nutrients coming into the fishery from the newly flooded soil and plant material. The watershed's fertility and nutrients also contribute. White bass and striper populations are not supported by thread fin or gizzard shad populations at the root. They are supported by the zooplankton and phytoplankton populations that support a healthy thread fin or gizzard shad population. If the biomass of producers is not great enough to support its primary consumer, then stocking programs are generally not recommended. Stripers and Hybrid stockings are not solely based on whether or not people will fish for them. The entire ecosystems are taken into account and generally you'll notice that reservoirs with sustainable fisheries for Stripers and Hybrids, and even Sand Bass are older, or aging reservoirs with water chemistry and plankton levels stable enough to support large shad populations. As one person mentioned above, shad are sensitive to cold, sensitive to spawning conditions and water chemistry. Anytime a shad population crashes, there are several contributing factors. If you want some light reading just google Top Down-Bottom Up Ecology.

I will pass and take your word for it!

The TPWD recently stocked hybrids in a local San Angelo lake (Nasworthy) The goal is to remove large gizzard shad that other fish can't eat.
Apparently when there is an overabundance of large gizzard shad they don't reproduce. So the TPWD's goal is to remove those large gizzard shad so the lake can produce other types of batfish. (I assume threadfins or baby gizzards.) I'll see if I can find the post or the article about the introduction of hybrids to Nasworthy.