01/05/1998

Striped Bass Coexisting Well with Crappie on Weiss Lake

CENTRE, Ala. - In the early 1990s, anglers fishing for crappie on Cherokee County's Weiss Lake noticed a decline in their catches and began to suspect that striped bass, which had been introduced into southern waterways, were eating crappie. Research conducted through the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) and Auburn University has shown that striped bass are not feasting on crappie and may even be expanding fishing options on Weiss Lake.

"Crappie is the major sport fish in Weiss Lake and a lot of the county's income relies on crappie," explained Mike Maceina, professor of fisheries and allied aquacultures at Auburn who has been helping clarify the controversy. In the early 1990s anglers were catching fewer crappie and more young striped bass. "There were concerns that the crappie fishery would crash if the striped bass were eating crappie or possibly eating enough shad to compete with the crappie," he added. Shad, which are abundant in Weiss Lake and other Alabama waterways, are a favorite meal of both stripes and crappie.

For the past eight years Maceina has been examining crappie reproduction on Weiss Lake. He has found that lower angler catches in the early 1990s were caused by poor crappie reproduction in the late 1980s due to drought and lower lake levels. Ample production of young crappie occurred in 1990, 1993, 1994 and 1996 and crappie fishing is now thriving again at Weiss Lake, as is fishing for largemouth bass and stripes.

Despite these findings, concern has lingered about the impact striped bass may have on native fish populations.

According to Steve Smith, a district biologist with ADCNR, game and fish authorities in several southern states began stocking striped bass, a long-lived saltwater fish that can grow to more than 40 pounds in size, in the 1970s to offer anglers the opportunity to catch a trophy-sized fish.

"Alabama last stocked stripes in Weiss Lake in 1986 and only stocked them five times over a 14-year period (1972-86)," said Smith. "Georgia began stocking stripes in Allatoona and Carters reservoirs in 1972 and 1991, respectively. They have continued to stock stripe fingerlings on an annual basis in both lakes, each of which is about 100 miles upstream from Weiss Lake and part of the Coosa River system.

The stockings involved two different strains of striped bass - an Atlantic and a Gulf strain. Initially, natural resource officials believed the fish they were stocking would not reproduce in southern waterways because striped bass eggs require specific environmental conditions to hatch.

"Striped bass eggs require 36 to 48 hours of free-flowing water to hatch and they only spawn in March and April," said Maceina.

For many years, officials were correct. Mother Nature, however, changed the conditions. After those dry years in the late 1980s that caused water levels in Alabama's lakes and streams to drop, the early 1990s brought abundant rainfall. "Apparently, in the early 1990s, conditions were ideal in the upper Coosa River system in Georgia to allow striped bass eggs to hatch," said Maceina.

Responding to concerns about the proliferation of stripes in Weiss Lake, ADCNR officials began sampling young-of-the-year stripes in the lake during 1994. Before sampling began, there was some speculation that Weiss Lake was receiving escaped fish that had been stocked in Allatoona and Carters reservoirs during previous years. With the help of Auburn University and the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station, genetic testing was done on captured stripes to find out which strain was reproducing or if they had escaped from either of the two reservoirs upriver (Georgia had changed from stocking Atlantic-strain fish in 1992 to stocking Gulf-strain fish in 1993 and 1994). DNA tests revealed the stripes were of the Atlantic strain, confirming that natural reproduction within that strain was occurring somewhere in the waterway system.

Biologists also examined the stripes' eating habits. Maceina helped identify the prey items in captured striped bass and found that crappie are rarely eaten by stripes. So far, some 440 stripes have been sampled from Weiss Lake, and of the 2,500 total prey items found in the stripes' stomachs, only six were crappie.

"Those six crappie constitute a tiny fraction of the total prey items found in the fish we sampled," said Smith. He noted that 94 percent of the prey found in the stomachs of the stripes was shad.

"Striped bass are not eating crappie," stated Maceina, "they are eating shad."

Smith noted that big fish commonly eat smaller fish (in fact larger crappie will even eat smaller crappie, but they prefer shad). Though crappie and stripes both compete for shad, there appears to be plenty of shad to go around.

While these results are helping calm the waters of controversy around Weiss Lake, it also has confirmed that the Atlantic-strain stripes are migrating down the Coosa River system into reservoirs that have been historically stocked with Gulf-strain fish.

Both Smith and Maceina agreed that the stripes may benefit Alabama's recreational fishing industry. "I think people should be happy because it gives anglers another fish to catch," said Maceina. Sure enough, anglers on Weiss Lake are gearing up with heavier tackle to land the stripes, perhaps creating additional fishing options for Weiss Lake and other fisheries in Alabama.

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News from:

Office of Ag Communications & Marketing

Auburn University College of Agriculture
Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station
3 Comer Hall, Auburn University
Auburn, AL 36849
334-844-4877 (PHONE) 334-844-5892 (FAX)

Contact Jamie Creamer, 334-844-2783 or jcreamer@auburn.edu
Contact Katie Jackson, 334-844-5886 or smithcl@auburn.edu

01/05/98