Stripers on Whitney disappeared because TPWD doesn't monitor guides

I have a pretty good idea why the stripers have disappeared from Lake Whitney. There was a guide on Whitney until about 3 weeks ago running 4 boats, and each boat was taking 4-6 customers every morning and every afternoon. All 4 boats were communicating with each other, so when one boat got on the fish the others went to that spot. All four boats were bringing in limits of stripers in the morning and again in the afternoon. If each boat only had 4 people, that is 160 fish per day. This guy was doing that 7 days per week. That is over 1100 stripers per week that he was pulling out of Lake Whitney. When you ad all of the other guides to that number who fish Whitney it is easy to see why the Stripers have disappeared.
About 3 weeks ago the 4 boat guide realized he had fished out lake Whitney so he took his boats down to the coast to fish for King fish. As soon as king fish season is over he is planning to bring all 4 boats back up here to work Richland Chambers. If he runs morning and afternoon trips with 4 boats like he did on Whitney it won't be long before he has depleted the fish from Richland Chambers as well.
TPWD keeps no records of how many fish the guides are taking out of the lakes. If TPWD required guides to report on the numbers of fish they take, then TPWD would know how many fish they need to put back in the lake after a guide like Cory over fishes it.

WOW! That guide must have a great marketing plan. 8 trips a day for 7 days. He does not appear to be breaking any laws or rules.

Tawakoni and Texoma are the same , fishing is good and then they are gone .You have some good guides and some that keep to many fish and over fish the lakes that we all pay to keep stocked . I wonder how much fish actually gets consumed . Do guides pay more for a license and have any extra fees to pay yearly ?

Sound like he has a good business. To stay that busy. Also sound like he hasn't broken any laws

This is funny! Fish are NOT gone - they just are roaming fast above the thermocline and fishing is tough this time of year (85-90 degree water)

As for what guides pay - fresh water guide lic - $130

So you’re saying that the guides are killing off their own livelihood for a couple bucks “right now”? I’m curious how you imagine they don’t have expenses or bills to pay, no matter what the fishing is like. My point is, these guides you criticize have serious investments in the consistency, health and production of the fishery. While there will always be exceptions, the guides want the rules followed perhaps more than most of us.

First off no guide is going to be running that many trips and catching that many fish week in and week out. End of the summer also have guides getting slammed for the end of the summer rush. Also since 2015 TPWD has stocked approx 2.5 MILLION stripers. I don't think guides are going to put a dent in the numbers.

Fish are not gone , but the striped bass fishing is harder with the amount 100000 $ guide boats on the water for sure . Nobody can deny that .

Somebody has had a hard time finding fish


Having 4-5 great Striped fishy reservoirs within a hour from one of the biggest metropolitan areas in the country we are fortunate enough to have the light pressure that we have. Unfortunately, this is probably due to video games and non-sportsman environment that seems to be prevalent. I

Always somebody else's fault

Couple of bucks ? That is an insult to guides .... some make over 10000 a month profit and some 1000 a week in the slow season .

So are you saying its $100K guide boats that make catching fish or the skill set of the guide. The reasons guides catch more fish is time on the water. Most weekend fisherman aren't successful consistently is lack of knowing where the fish are and not paying attention to details. If anything technology has made striper fishing easier.

I blame good bait tank manufacturers.

Hahaha I'm with this guy.

Ya'll are too funny! Summer fishing is tough, I'm sure the stripers are still there. My buddy sent me a screenshot this winter of a ton of stripers on SI and he said it went on for close to a mile.

that was before this fella with 4 boats ate them all

We were skiing at Whitney this weekend saw HUGE schools of little striper all over the boat ramp at Loafers Bend East. I know they were striper as we caught a few of the 6” ones trying to figure out what they were. I think the population is fine and that there are always new generations of fish. I just think fishing gets hard in the summer and doubt that guides are the cause of not being able to catch fish in the summer. Over fishing = the gulf coast of Texas and redfish.

Love it when a guy can't find fish it is a guide caught all the fish. Or they all went over the spill way during last high water
Johnny

or a guide complaining about other guides who are on fish

https://texasfishingforum.com/forum...te-opening-tomorrow-whitney#Post13166578

I thought it was the Asians?

I know this is a different subject but does the tpwd monitor guides. I have never been checked after a guided trip salt or freshwater. The guides I have always gone with kept a close watch on fish counts cause they didn’t want to lose their license. What are the requirements to become a guide? Do you pay your license fee and make a website? I think there should be some kind of requirements like every other trade to keep the rif raff out. What do you think?

I know offshore captains have to keep harvest log

Got em!

There are plenty of striper in Whitney. You just have to know where and when they feed. And I'm no guide.

the fish are still there, we had some issues with a thermocline developing with the lake 23ft high. they released all the oxygenated water, and left the striper in survival mode. the guide service you are referring to runs 10 to 12 trips a week. so at 20 fish per trip. that's 240 fish a week. but Oct-March 4 or 5 trips per week. whitney gets between 250k and 1 million striper per year, plus fish from pk granbury and cleburne now. been going on for years, and hadn't been a problem yet. this guide has alsobbeen fishing whitney and chambers for 20 years with multiple boats. so why now is it causing a problem. I see in your post history that you consider yourself as a guide... do you stop your trip before limits???? I have marked mega schools in multiple spots the last few days. you may just rethink your strategy. due to the huge amount of shad in the lake the fish are acting like winter. not relating to structure, and hauling tail chasing bait..... also it is the dog days of summer.... if you think the striper are gone show up in November on a cloudy day.... you will see plenty. also I have dates available If you would like to book a trip.

also if you could book 4 boats 7 days a week... I bet you would be ok with it then.

Just fish next to the four boats! They know where the fish are and should be easy to spot...

Could’ve been the White Guys?

Don The Angler, nobody said anything about the guide breaking any rules or laws. Why would you even say that?

so TPWD should be monitoring guides to ensure that they don't do things that don't violate laws? Am I getting this right?

04champ, are you lost?

Everyone is just going have to wait till winter when the stripes gather up . Then all the nay sayers will become heroes catching the elusive stripers.

Sounds like Corey is on the fish and you cant find the BlueSea. I have fished with Corey before and he always puts you on the fish. Maybe you should ask him if he needs a 5th boat to help him out so you can learn how to Guide on Whitney. Dont come on here bad mouthing another Guide just because he is on the fish and you arent.

Hahahahaha bringin that FIIIRRRREEE

Hmmmmm . looks like monitoring


https://www.kxii.com/content/news/F...dUG1DV31d5Htzx7Tlh6z-YJcHM7fzqk-ylLMPZzQ

That is awesome first time I have seen a story like that. Hopefully I can remember to follow up on the case and see what the actual outcome is. I agree with that there should be harsher penalties than monetary

Not mine: But a quote from a friend.
"Well, when Whitney got hot New Guides came out of the woodwork. We went from 6 guides to 26 over night. Young guys quitting good jobs to start guiding, retired guides coming back, guides that left and moved to other lakes returned, and yes, Whitney has been raped so to speak. Was raped and now they've all left to go rape the next hot lake. Pisses me off but what do you do. I wish they'd only allow X amount of guide license per body of water depending in the size. Something, anything to keep lakes from being raped like Whitney has. The OP valid and I've been a part of it. But, LOL, I was here long before the invasion of guides and I'll be here, hopefully, long after. "

First of all I doubt Whitney is out of fish.
Summer thermocline makes for tough fishing.

Fish are a public resource. They belong to all People that purchase a license from TPW.

What you need to remember is they also belong to people who hire guides.

Are guides using public resource to make a living. No
The customer is exercising his or her right to that public resource by using a guide to catch his limit.
I don’t let my customers catch my 5 fish over 18 inches.
I only let my customers catch there limit allowed by law. A limit that they have just as much right to catch as anyone.
TPW puts those fish in Whitney for the public to catch. TPW encourages anglers to fish. They like guides because guides take people fishing that otherwise would never get to experience fishing.

It is up to all of us to protect the resources. The few game wardens can only do so much.
You witness an infraction, record it, report it!
Forums such as this one can make a difference.

No stripers left in Whitney? OH NOOOOOOO!

Wonder why all these posts always seem to come in August...?

Just a little struggle for the weekend warrior and suddenly all fish washed over the spillway at Richland Chambers, too many Texoma guides moved to Towok and destroyed the fishery, Now evil Cory, his two full time, and two part time guides ruined Whitney....

Richland Chambers- fishing amazing with lots of big fish that never "washed away".
Tawakoni- Still fishing amazing
Whitney- Still LOADED with striper (golden algae ruined that lake years ago, not over fishing)

Yet another ignorant assessment with a reactive vs proactive solution. MORE REGULATION


I've met a lot of great people on this forum. Many others might want to visit the doctor about a probable case of low T

Mr. Stanley,
I am the wife of the guide that you so carelessly threw under the bus. I tried hard not to respond to this post, but I really believe you need to get your facts correct before you start badmouthing our business.

My husband started guiding on Lake Whitney in 1998 part time with one boat. After the fish kill, due to the golden algae bloom in 2003, he relocated to Richland Chambers Reservoir still with one boat on a part time basis. In 2005 he quit his job in Telecom work to become a full time guide on Richland Chambers. In 2006 we bought our second boat and hired a dear friend that still guides for us on Richland Chambers. In 2008 we bought our third boat and in 2012 we bought our fourth. We moved back to Lake Whitney in 2016 because we have family land that we always knew we wanted to live on. We brought 3 of our 4 boats to Whitney our fourth stays on Chambers.

Because you think you know so much about our business you said we run 4 boats every morning and 4 boats every afternoon on Lake Whitney. We only have 3 boats here. Not only that, we decided this year that we were not going to promote afternoon fishing because of the extreme temperatures. Our guides can handle it, but we have experienced customers having heat exhaustion and our customers are more important than the money. This year to date we have had 11 afternoon trips most of which were in March and April. We do try to keep our mornings booked as most guides do.

As far as the number of fish we catch, we NEVER allow a customer to keep more that their allotted 5 stripers over 18 inches, NEVER. Not only that everyone of our customers purchases a Texas fishing license allowing them to keep those fish. Our customers are spending that money to support the TPWD. Not only that, about a quarter of our customers have Rvs that they stay in at various parks around the lake which is again supporting the Corp of Engineers and the TPWD. Then another half are staying at the various cabins and hotels around the lake supporting local businesses.

As far as the fishing becoming tough, that happens every year on both the lakes we fish. Something about a thermocline, which I don't fully understand. My grandfather use to say the lake is turning over.

When it comes to the spots we fish, not only do we share that information with our guides, but we share it with other guides on the lake. Guides on the lake are a community and we try to help each other out in any way we can. If you would have called when you couldn't catch fish most of these guides would have been glad to help you, but instead you have ostracized yourself from this community.

Best of luck to you in the future.

I was at Cedron a few weeks back getting bait with the cast net. Nearly every throw I would get small stripers about as long as your finger. Anywhere from 3 to 10 at a time. I'm no expert but I'd say the population is fine.

Found lots of fish today scattered along the bottom in the usual summer pattern areas. The schools are not stacked in the water column but scattred over areas. Artificial bite is tough but did get a few to hit some lead. Lots of small cats right on the bottom under the stripers

If you think it’s bad there try catching striper on lake o the pines

I hear Livingston is about fished out also

Ed, We try our hardest every year and just can't quite catch them all. Lets go fish out the bay!

For the OP....If you put yourself out there as a "Guide", then act like one. Maybe try putting your time and energy into finding the fish instead of taking you gripes online.

Two things I gathered from this. If I were to hire a guide to fish Whitney I know which guide not to hire. Second thing is I know which guide to hire and he has several boats working together so my odds are much better.