P a r t n e r s i n C o n s e r vat i o n
Catch The Fever! O
ften times, we talk about wildlife and habitat without giving our fisheries resources much consideration. But the state of Tennessee boasts world-renowned opportunities for largemouth and smallmouth bass, muskies, trout and other species. One of the most unique – and early on, most controversial – is the striped bass.
those years, when the issue rose to the level of the Tennessee General Assembly, and outspoken critics were working to get the stocking program shut down. The group changed its name and its focus to include a statewide reach, and built a coalition in support of the striper fishery, based on biological research.
The striper is a temperate bass, a saltwater species that doesn’t reproduce in our waters. They are spawned in hatcheries and stocked in numerous reservoirs across the state, and they grow to be large, hard-fighting fish.
“Mississippi State University fisheries biologists did a study in 1989 through the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, and there was no stocking during that period,” Cox says. “They determined that the impact was negligible, and we compromised at three fish stocked per acre versus five. It’s been the same way ever since.”
The Tennessee Striped Bass Association (TSBA) was formed as the Norris Lake Striper Club when the first striper stocking project was underway. It was simply a local club enjoying the resource when turmoil began surrounding the stocking project. Some thought the striped bass were having an impact on native species’ reproduction rates. Norris Lake fisherman Ezell Cox was the TSBA’s president during
More than a dozen Tennessee reservoirs now play host to trophy striper fishermen, including Boone Lake, Cordell Hull, Percy Priest and Watt’s Bar reservoirs. But Cox says it could have been a different outcome if it weren’t for a number of conservation partners that came to the TSBA’s aid. Chief among them was the Tennessee Wildlife Federation, who rallied their Camo & Casting Coalition to support striper fishing for the state’s residents – as well as the visitors who generate considerable economic impact. TWF helped bring to the support base other conservation organizations, from Trout Unlimited to the Fur Trappers Association. Each realized the power of numbers, and in the end, the compromise was a reasonable solution. “You look now and we have trophy smallmouth, largemouth, trout and stripers,” Cox says. “And our Agency does a great job of managing them and adjusting the regulations based on biology, and they are willing to listen to the sportsmen.” Cox says the controversies that sometimes surround fish populations are typically the result of natural cycles that occur in all waterways, along with other introduced factors including contaminants and invasive pests.
TSBA Advisor Ezell Cox with an early April striper out of Norris Lake. 4 | Spring 2012 | www.tnwf.org