Fellow hybrid fishermen,

I've received the following invitation from John Tibbs with TPWD out of Waco to get the ball rolling on hybrid stocking in Lake Waco (the reason is interesting). His text is in bold below.

Reasons you might consider attending this:

1. To have a local alternative to Belton for hybrid fishing (when flooded, when fishing is poor, etc.)

2. To relieve some pressure from Belton.

This meeting will be held at 6:00pm on Monday, 16 Feb., 2009.


The City of Waco approached TPWD with a request to stock hybrid stripers in Lake Waco due to recommendations made by their consultant examining ways to improve water quality. The consultant proposed that increasing the numbers of top predators in the reservoir would reduce prey densities, thus reducing predation on zooplankton. The zooplankton consume phytoplankton, which are the source of many taste and odor problems. While it is doubtful that this approach alone will have a noticeable impact on water quality, the entire package as presented by the City should.

After much negotiation, the proposed approach is:

1) Stock hybrid stripers at 5 per acre. This is the lowest stocking rate TPWD normally recommends, but it should still provide a fishery.

2) Plant native vegetation throughout the reservoir. This will help sequester excess nutrients and will provide important habitat for largemouth bass, crappie, and their prey.

3) Treat hydrilla in sensitive areas, such as beaches and marinas. This will maintain access while allowing vegetation to grow in the rest of the reservoir, a better alternative than grass carp in this situation.

4) TPWD will provide more frequent monitoring of fish and plant populations.

The City of Waco, Texas Parks and Wildlife, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are all partners in this effort.

A public meeting will be held at the Lake Waco Wetlands building, located at 1752 Eichelberger Crossing. Take Hwy 6 west out of Waco to FM185. Go north and then take the first left, which is Eichelberger. Follow that road about a mile and a half and the white stone building will be on your right.

John Tibbs
Texas Parks & Wildlife Dept
Inland Fisheries District Supervisor � Waco
254-666-5190

This will be great for Lake Waco!!

I would love to see Lake Waco get hybrids. Take some pressure off Belton

That would be cool to get some hybrids in waco. I think waco could make a pretty good hybrid lake. If coleto creek can maintain hybrids waco should be able to do it.

I would like to see Hybrids in Waco. Does anyone know when they going to decide on this?

Heck yeah! I love the idea it would make waco an even better lake. I will be at that meeting on monday.

Kyle

Heads up...The LMB boys are rallying against this. Make your opinions known!

i spend alot of time in a years time fishing for stripers,however i don't think we need stirpers and hybrids in every lake.lake Waco is a great crappie,whitebass lake and a fair becoming good LMB lake.how much do you think you can get out of one little lake.something will have to suffer for it....rick

I can only speak from experience at Bridgeport. Back in 2004, There was a huge effort to terminate the Hybrid fishery. TPW listened to the anglers and a nice compromise was reached.
Now, We get 65,000 fingerlings every other year. We are a bit above the minimum to have a good fishery. We don't have the numbers we had in the late nineties, but our fish are a better average size than most lakes. The key here was forage fish (Shad). Once the Shad rebounded in 2005, It seemed the lake reached a nice balance of bait and gamefish.

I'll be the first to admit that Hybrids can overun a lake, but they do not reproduce and their live span is fairly short. They are the perfect "put and take" fish. If the lakes balance is aversely affected, they can be "adjusted".

Belton has had Hybrids for many years and it is still full of shad. The LMB Klan just does not want to to share the lake. They think it is LMB or nothing Fishtoad you almost sound like a striper guide on Whitney.

LMB

What would this do to the crappie and white bass population. The last couple of years the white bass size has increased considerably and it has always been a good crappie lake. Since they have raised the lake level all fishing has gotten better. I think adding hybrids to the lake would have a negative impact on the rest of the fish population. If stocking hybrids will help the water quality I think stocking native species would acheive the same thing. But, they would not choose that option cause it would probably cost more.

man the argument that they will adversally affect a lake is just plain crazy!

I fish Lewisville at least once a week the lake if full of big LMB tons of whites more catfish then you could imagine.... oh yea they put hybrids in every year too and they are LOTS OF FUN.

actually they should stop stocking LMB in all the lakes because they eat the hybrid fry and they also reproduce... and as many people who C&R LMB there is no reason to stock them.

Hybrids will not effect your lake. Stripers, most likely will (the Stripers are so fast, they hurt the other fish - all the others can just not compete with them).

The hybrids, no problems (they just add to the value of the lake).

if you can get them get them in that lake adds to all the fun...good luck...clete