What will it take for the Hybrids to make a come back at Cooper? I'm talking the 5Lb.+ models we we're so accustomed to catching every trip.
Will they have to re-stock and is that even an option.
What caused the die off.
There are more and larger schools of Sandies than I've ever seen, get on the right hump and you won't have to ever move.
We graphed giant schools of shad of varying sizes so it's not about lack of bait.

Denny

Cooper seems to loose the majority of hybrids every time there is a flood and they open all the floodgates. TP&WD will have to restock the lake again to ever have large numbers of hybrids. However, the state is probably getting tired of wasting the time and money to do so, since Cooper gets a flood every few years. JMHO

The state put over a million hybrids in the lake the last two years. What happened to them I don't know. Last year 2018 my sons caught a bunch of 18-24 in. hybrids behind the dam when the lake was up. This year they mainly caught sand bass back there. Very few hybrids.

It will take 3 years of stocking without any major flooding to get them back again. This year has been the worst it�s been in the last 3 years. Your lucky to catch one keeper and not catching near as many shorts as the past couple years.

I have had one keeper on each of my last 3 trips. They are just random one each day. I dont know the answer you are looking for, but wish someone could make it happen. We didnt get a stocking this year. Dont know why.

We're patient because the wait is worth it. At least we're seeing jumping threadfin shad 5+ inches again.

We caught a bunch of BIG Sandbass and put several Hybrids in the boat. We were fishing humps and working the edges of the humps in about 19ft of water.