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LL Striped Bass Stockings

8K views 57 replies 13 participants last post by  shadslinger 
#1 ·
You would think with all the past stockings of Striped bass, your could walk to pine island on their backs. I realize the floods contributed to the missing numbers but WOW that's a lot of fish. At least you should be able to walk on them below the Dam.
Also, why don't I see 2019?
 
#3 ·
Gofish2day,

Since 2015 just about everything stocked above the dam has been washed out to below the dam.

The stocking numbers may be a little misleading...at 1 million fingerlings that is an average of about 9 fingerlings per acre...not a huge sum at all and certainly not enough to walk across, lol. :cheers:

When you consider that one 12 pound female striped bass will normally produce about 850,000 eggs in one spawn that kind of puts that stocking rate into perspective at just a little over what one 12 pound female would produce....for an entire large lake like Livingston.

Below the dam many are consumed by predators both in and above the water....and many of them go all the way to Trinity/Galveston Bay where predators pick them off all along the way.

The TP&W is often slow to update that stocking table.

Even if the monsoon rains abate, it will be at least three years before the striper fishing on Livingston returns to the glory days of 2006 - 2015...and abatement sure doesn't look like its happening any time soon.
 
#4 ·
I came across a picture of the floor full of LL stripers the other day. Reminded me of the glory days of LL. Chasing massive schools on top clear across the lake. 6" top water baits.
Fun stuff indeed.
Somerville seems to be the Hybrid stocking winner. I have been up there 3 times now for crappie and learning the lake. Have done well for a new to me lake. Very pretty lake to fish.
 
#5 ·
Yep, it was fun while it lasted. Just for fun, many times I've tracked huge schools of stripers moving out from Pine Island to deeper water in summer..usually loosing them in 65 fow. They move fast!

The "Striper City" made famous by one poster on 2cool, who was the only one other than myself that ever fished it, would often hold thousands of large stripers just waiting to be caught. Those were the good old days.

By the way, studies show that about 10% of the fingerling stockers survive that first year. That also helps put those stocking numbers into perspective.
 
#6 ·
I have followed however I could the fate of the stripers that get washed out through the dam. And have come to the conclusion that Alligator gar love them and that they eat the living snot out of them when they try to follow their instinctual behavior which is to head into the gulf waters as adults, the white bass too, the Alligator Gar eat them like candy.
I think that there could be an adaption period when the fish make the transition to more saline waters like Trinity bay. And that makes them more vulnerable to gator gar and other predators.
Downriver there are many hot spots for them until you get to pretty much brackish water around Wallisville, then I hear only of occasional catches all the way to HL&P spillway. No big concentrations of them like around as far south as Liberty.
The Sabine river seems to have a larger population of big stripers, many in the teens and over are caught in the lower stretch until Lake Sabine where catches reports die out.
interesting because TPWD stopped stocking them in Toledo Bend in 2002. LA stocked a variety of striped bass( gulf and Atlantic strain past that, mostly Atlantic strain striped bass until 2009. I have not found any data since then.
I do know some dedicated fishermen who fish the stretch just above Sabine Lake and they catch some very nice stripers over 10 pounds up to high teens.
Chuck Uzzle wrote a good article about them in 2009.
 
#7 ·
I have followed however I could the fate of the stripers that get washed out through the dam. And have come to the conclusion that Alligator gar love them and that they eat the living snot out of them when they try to follow their instinctual behavior which is to head into the gulf waters as adults, the white bass too, the Alligator Gar eat them like candy.......
I remember years back talking to one of "The Gar Guys" at the lock 'n dam. He said he had seen gar brim full of whites..... to the point they couldn't swallow another one.
 
#8 ·
Working in New Orleans last week and Next. Drove in so brought my fishing poles and and lined up a couple trips. Could not wait to run the marshes again and fish reds and trout. Needless to say I am at work this morning. Stormed last night, drizzle rain this morning with gusts to 35. May as well work.
Sure miss running the miles and miles of marsh lands in this area catching fish.
Way back when we would not dream of passing a day like today but my friends with boats are not that made at them anymore...….
 
#10 · (Edited)
Meadowlark you state that the floods of the last few years is the main reason for the vanishing Stripers, if I have it correct.
Is this according to you or Mr. Bennett?
Because the floods have a huge impact on Stripers not being in lake as adults, but I know of no scientific studies done to verify that last statement in regards to striped bass in the 90 mile stretch from dam to saltwater.
It’s more like “ a while back” statement.
But please post them if you have links to that effect.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
#11 ·
What part of "Livingston" did you miss?

They aren't a threat to white bass populations in Livingston...or stripers for that matter. The effects of continued sustained rains for years and years through out the watershed is far more significant to reduced striped bass numbers than anything else....and that's a fact!
 
#14 ·
Now we're getting somewhere...WBF admits that alligator gar are no threat to white bass population in spite of having heard that someone once saw a gar stuffed with white bass years ago...and SS can't admit he missed "Livingston" in my post so he could create a diversion off topic on “90 mile stretch from dam to saltwater.”

LOL, you guys are funny, hilarious. Can't make this up.

Now maybe the thread can return to Gofish2day's original topic of stocking striped bass in Lake Livingston....maybe, LOL.
 
#17 ·
Well I think it is gonna freeze over today !! I never thought I would agree with " the self appointed know it all of stripers". In my early days of fishing Livingston I had seen gar blow up on schools of whites. Saw this in the upper portion and in Bedias and Chaulk creeks BUT I don't believe this hurts the striper or white population. Collateral damage maybe. The heavy rains during the spawn will have more of an impact on stripers and whites than the alligator gar. On years that we did not have much rain during the spawn you could see the water turning white looking from all the whites spawning. The following years after this fishing would be awesome. Years that we had floods and the water stayed muddy the falling years could be down or really bad catching. Along with the heavy rains migration south has a big impact also.

Now far as stocking I wish they would stock more stripers and continue to hold back on the hybrids. Since Livingston is one of the places they get stripers for stocking they should concentrate on keeping a really good and healthy population of stripers.


Just my 2 cents.
 
#20 ·
Since we talked stripers washing thru the dam. We also talked about gar eating all the Stripers and White Bass. The thing that doesn't add up is fishing below the Dam. Come on Gar cannot eat that many. Whitebass fishing below the dam should have been off the charts. It wasn't. Yes, there was WB there and I did catch. There was schooling action.
I didn't catch a striper a single time but caught a lot of Hybrids. Years past there were more fish down there. Huge WB and Stripers busting shad everywhere. Why not this past year?
 
#21 ·
There are several reasons for the changes in fishing below the Dam.


It changed a lot when they reworked the water flow and forced it down the middle. Before that it took a lot longer to drain the basin. The water stayed higher longer. Before the Wallisville locks were operational there was a higher flow, more often than not there would be three gates open instead of the one these days.


The Wallisville locks also changed the interaction of salt and brackish species with the freshwater. There used to be lots of mullet and blue crabs that far up river, now not so much.


The river is shallower and warmer than it used to be too.


As for the Striper and what happens to them after the water goes down well that is a million dollar question. I know some things and some are quite the mystery.


Do they survive in large numbers in the River down stream? If so where are they?


I know they do survive down stream, but how many I don't know and I don't think TPWD has good handle on it either. They did some studies on if they spawn or not but not much has been done on how big or small the River population is.


I know they are caught and in numbers to make it worth while. I also now that there are very few people trying and very very few public access points. I have caught striper from the dam to out in Trinity Bay. I have caught whites from the dam down to within a mile or so of the brackish marsh starting in Old River Area. I have caught lots of juveniles in even that far down while throwing a cast net. That's a lot of River and Creek miles of water for these fish to spread out in with hardly any one trying for them.




On another note years ago (twenty or so) I once talked to a Game Warden at the Dam. I had caught no stripers and saw none caught. The water was just a single gate open. I asked him if he had seen people catching them down river because they sure wasn't at the dam. He laughed and said that there may be some down river but in his experience most of them stay right there hugged up to the apron in the fast water. After many days and nights of fishing the River I am still not sure if he is right or not. But I have talked to others with even more experience than me and they say he is.


I will still seek them out in the River downstream. There is a whole lot of River miles that no one hardly ever fishes except for the occasional local cat fisher man in his flat bottom.
 
#22 ·
The main thing I am seeing as far as changes is above the cable is now very very shallow. The missing key still seems to be the White Bass. They should be stacked down there.
I don't much WB fish anymore. I go for the stripers and hybrids but nice to see everyone fishing rafts of WB popping out the water after shad. Cool thing to see and fish. It did happen but small fish and not as much.
 
#23 ·
Just a dream idea, but I wish the TP&WD would change which lake they used for their Texas striper brood stock. I don't claim to have much striper knowledge, but I don't think Livingston is considered very good habitat for stripers because of being warm and not deep enough water. They are so stressed here that they can't survive being caught and released during warm times. Hybrids would do great here, but obviously won't be stocked here to compete with stripers.



I don't see much change in the future, the TP&WD has their mind made up. I trust them though, they probably have their reasons.
 
#31 ·
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