How stripers affect a lake

I always heard that stripers were introduced to large lakes to take advantage of the very large gizzard shad that were in those lakes. I'm sure the striper eat a lot of them but I don't think the fisheries people thought this out. Those big gizzards spawn many times during the year and keep the lake full of baitfish.

I was crappie fishing at Ray Roberts yesterday and late in the evening I was amazed at the number of shad balls around me. I ended up with a pretty good box of fish but I no idea why my shiners worked in such a fog of shad. Possum Kingdom and even Texoma do not have shad populations like they have at Ray Roberts. Stripers are ocean going eating machines. In very large lakes they can coexist with the native fish but their constant foraging for food and voracious appetites along with the fact that the winter temps that have the native fish sluggish are actually the best temps for stripers clean out the lake of bait fish.

Without stripers PK and Texoma would not be as fun to fish but the amount of bait would skyrocket.

Keep catching all those stripers and then there will be shad for everyone.

You are apparently not old enough to remember Texoma BEFORE the stripers were introduced.

It was a Sandbass Mecca. There used to be a flotilla of boats lined up over the river channel all night long drowning minnows and taking boat loads of sandbass. No limit at the time, and catches of over 100 fish were common. Heck, a buddy and I caught AND Cleaned 162 in one day. I have seen ACRES schooling at one time. Good times for sure.

My understanding is that Stripers were introduced simply as an alternative species for fishermen. Not strictly to control baitfish populations. All this happened during the 60-70's in an experiment to bring better fishing to Texas. There are Books written about it.

Some of us still long for the old days.

I started fishing Texoma in 2013 so I do not remember Texoma before Stripers. My post was just a commentary on how different I see lakes with Stripers and those without them. Once you put Stripers in a lake things will change dramatically.

Stripers decimate thread-fin shad populations(and anything else they can eat) which rapidly reduces other game fish numbers and size. Witnessed it on Mead, Powell & Havasu and it didn't take it long to happen.

Think of it like this, take all the fat ladies away from a Pizza Buffet, and it leaves more pepperoni for you.

^^True statement^^

You are correct. But, the original plan was for Stripers to roam the lake eating shad, or whatever they came across, while the Bass and Crappie stayed home and ambushed prey like frogs, minnows, crawfish, etc. as it swam by. In other words, the original plan hinged on the survival of all species because they lived in different parts of the lake, and fed differently.

I think you are right. The results didn't quit fit to plan.

A lot of it depends on the lake and it’s fertility. Take tawakoni for example, tons of predator fish in there, Stripers, hybrids, and blues, and it has a good Shad population. PK has a decent Shad population as well, although I don’t see as many there as I do at Twok.

There’s no shortage of Shad ( threads and or gizzards) in PK. You do have to know where to find em.

I'm sure stripers do displace some of the other fish species in a lake but they also bring in another group of sport fishermen. I target stripers almost 99% of my fishing time. I also tend to spend some money in the local economies at convenience stores and restaurants so adding stripers to a lake isn't all bad. And as a fish predator, I don't take cats and whites typically, which wouldn't be the case if there were no stripers to hunt.

Kerry: If you threw a net at Buck Creek on Ray Roberts this past week one throw would have brought up more shad than you could use in three days. I've never seen that many shad anywhere and definitely not at PK. PK could use more protected areas for baitfish.

Lots of Crappie close too, as the local Guide Cody Tucker came in with a double limit of crappie for his clients. Those crappie don't eat like striper and neither do the sand bass. The entire area in front of the buck creek ramp looked like someone was dropping rocks from the sky as sand bass were feeding on the shad balls. I was catching a few sand bass fishing for crappie and tossing them back. It would have been very easy to have limited on sand bass that evening.

I was of the opinion the stripers were stocked in the big lakes because here in texas only tbe big lakes are deep enough to have the required cold water for the stripers to survive year around.

I have seen several Shad boom and bust cycles over the years. Cold weather Shad kills do more damage (here anyway) to Threadfins than the predator fish do.

Check out "Striper Fishing in The Carolinas". I saw it on the Documentary Channel, I bet it can be found on YouTube.

Tells the fascinating story of the first freshwater Striped Bass fishery in The Santee-Cooper lake system as well as some of the original Striper guides.

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.

According to TPWD:

"Hybrid Striped Bass are returning to Lake Nasworthy. Last week we stocked ~ 100,000 fingerling hybrid striped bass for the purpose of improving the gizzard shad population.

Gizzard shad are the primary prey species in Lake Nasworthy. However, historical sampling data has shown that the gizzard shad population is composed mostly of large fish (10+ inches), which are to big to be eaten by most sportfish, such as crappie and largemouth bass. Additionally, when large adult shad are over-abundant, it suppresses their own natural reproduction, meaning fewer small shad as prey. As a result, crappie and bass populations have shown slow growth and have been under weight, due to the lack of small prey.

Research has shown that stocking hybrid striped bass, at a high enough rate, can reduce the abundance of large shad and lead to better natural reproduction. The goal of stocking hybrid striped bass in Lake Naswrothy is to reduce the over-abundance of large shad, which should lead to improved shad reproduction, resulting in more small shad for bass and crappie to feed on.

The expected benefits include (1.) improved condition and growth of crappie and bass, and (2.) creation of a hybrid striped bass fishery for those angler who enjoy fishing for hybrids. Keep in mind, this is a long term plan. It will take the hybrid striped bass about 3 years to grow about 18 inches long, and we expect to see the gizzard shad population restructure within 3-5 years. As always, we will continue to monitor these populations to determine if these stockings produce the desired results."

Texoma is an example of all species living together and thriving. Not a lot of lakes you can catch Trophy Black Bass, Trophy Smallmouth and Big stripers on the same day. I have spent the last 45 years in and around Texoma, my Granpa was a guide back in the 70's, my uncle was a striper guide until an accident a couple years ago. And another aunt and uncle owned two large marinas until they retired.

Nothing more fun than catching Bass on a point and a stiper smash a top-water or crank-bait.

I'd say Mother Nature has the most say in shad populations as well as it influences whether or the striper can spawn, which they don't in Tawakoni like Texoma or PK regardless of water level. Hybrids can't reproduce so I'd say they're easier to control the cycle of the fluctuating prey:predator ratio. I'm guessing Nasworthy doesn't have very big Bucketmouth Bass as they should handle gizzards as well as a smaller mouth hybrid, Fork and Ray Roberts don't have a problem lacking Stripers or Hybrids. I'd say both of those species do ultimately have an impact on the number of giant largemouthbass as I believe the lakes in California that Striper were introduced into don't produce the record size black bass they used. I've caught Striper at Texoma bouncing a jig off rocks fishing for smallmouth back when the shad kill happened, like any predator they'll eat whatever moves when they get hungry enough so shad isn't their only prey.