After a dismal day Saturday in the OB&T TX with only one fish. Brett along with a wonderful guest of Mr. Grant Strickland and myself, tried our best to give Lanier a whooping! Instead it gave us one...LOL.

On a side note: We marked bunches of fish all morning and afternoon, with only having 3 fish on and two spit the hook at us.

Well Sunday Brett and I decided that enough is enough, and we would get on some fish if we took our time. So the morning was slow as expected, but not futal. We scored on two fish early and then went looking for big fish in the vast ocean.

We targeted 100' water or better and found some fish very deep in about 3 places. We then worked on them very slowly and ended up with 6 fish with two of them in the upper teens and one in the low twenties. The down side was that I lost a very big fish at about 11:00 This fish made a run with a very tight drag and 16# leader of 134' and I could never even turn the handle.
I knew this was going to end in the trees because I could not even gain an inch, and of course trees were near by, and I wasn't lucky enough for the fish to come up.

All in all take the good days when you can get them!!!

A good day indeed. Nice fish fella's!

Great to hear. Days like Saturday make us appreciate the good days I guess.

Good job Dano..It's supposed to be good fishing for numbers during the summer time since the majority of the biomass of fish should be in the lower 1/3rd of the lake...for the most part either we don't have good numbers or we are in the wrong place at the right time these days ;-)

I'm looking forward to hearing what the DNR has to say at the Oakwood Striper Club meeting on Tuesday evening since I missed the other 2 meetings.

Thanks! Jim, Clay, and Bill. Yes Bill the fishing has been very different the last few years. I am sure that they are aware that the numbers are down. Anthony expects the next few years to be better. Yes it is interesting to hear what they have to say regarding the up and coming years.

What is very troubling to me, is July and August is usually numbers from many different crks and bays from mid lake to south end creeks. This year, seems especially smaller schools in way more confined area's of the lake, rather than spread out lower lake wide.

We will talk at the meeting regarding what some of us fishermen think regarding these issue's. I look forward to seeing many of you guys there.

Anthony says the best way we fishermen can help, is to supply data to them, in the form of our personal creel data. So what would be benificial to them and ultamately us as end users. Would be an on line daily creel data from us fisherman, regarding how many caught, size and how many hours on the water to catch what we submit. If any of you have some idea's regarding how to do so would be a big help. It could be generic without names or fishing spots. This way some people that don't want to supply data such as this, might be more willing, if they felt they were not giving away there personal holes or names.

Before and during the drought a few years back the Lanier Striper Club and Ken Sturdivant started a program on his site where you could log that information. Back then the concerns were the same as what you are talking about now. Numbers were down and fishermen were getting concerned. Some folks didn't want to participate because they feared a few guys that had access to the data may have been using the data for their own personal use. Supposedly the data was given to the DNR when Reggie Weaver was monitoring Lanier.

Keep in mind that in order to form a useful trend on Lanier, you need years of samplings of data. Each year the percieved population of summer stripers on the south may change. I think there may be several reasons were not seing big schools. Population decline caused by pressure being the obvious. Lake stratification being more broad this year on the south end being another. I've seen more scattered fish this year than in previous years. Absolutely, not seeing big schools may be a concern this year, but it could be a blessing also.

I heard that it is extremely important for the 1" fish to be able to find food very soon after being stocked. Is there something that the fishing community can do to help improve the survivability of the newly stocked fish during May ?

it seemed there was very little that could be done to impact the survival rate. The biggest factor to survival seemed to be the water quality (DO levels and recent weather impact). What I heard was that they have no way to wait a day, week or month for conditions to be optimal. When they go, they go. I asked a few questions around the topic but didn't go to deep because as mentioned above, they just don't have the data. The question I was left wondering was that if they waited for optimal conditions before releasing the fish, would the survival rate be higher than the casualty rate caused by leaving them in the fishery longer.

The data was all very interesting but it seemed their thought was that they don't have enough of it. My thought was that they might have enough but weren't using it in the right ways. While you are watching the presentation, keep in mind that the charts can become confusing if you aren't the one looking at them on a daily basis, but 10 years of data should tell a story that allows action to be taken. The only action I heard from their data was to dump as many fish in as they can and hope for better survival next year.

Having said all of that, I don't grow fish for a living, but I do look at data day in and day out.

I think the biggest factor for the survival rate of fingerlings is water levels during and after the stocking. When we were in the drought a few years back, the small fingerlings had less of a chance for survival due to the lake being down 15-20 feet and the shoreline structure for the small stripers to forage and hide from predatory fish. When the levels came back up, the small fingerlings had all the new grass and shoreline structure to grow up in. I would say in part, the reason for the percieved drop in populations could have been caused by the drought and the loss of shoreline structure.

Back during the drought years, there wasn't nearly as much bait as we see today. When the lake levels came up, the spawns were incredible on Lanier and our other surrounding lakes. All of that new shoreline mean good survivability for bait and growing fish. I started seeing large clouds of small threads everywhere. I can remember coming down lake at West Point during the evening hours and seeing thousands of pods of threads across the glassed over lake. Same with Lanier, the bait was everywhere.

Water quality is always very good in May so I don't see water quality and DO levels being a factor during the stocking period and after unless we are in a drought period. I believe April/May is probably the optimal month for stocking under normal conditions. After stocking it's all up to Mother Nature; not much we can do to help them grow up.

If us fishermen are going to try and trend this sort of thing, we have to think "long term data", therefor a system has to be set up for long term data entry.

Jim,
That seems to point to a few positive possibilities worth exploring. COVER AND and the FOOD SOURCE for recently released 1" fingerlings.
As an example: Can additional habit be built to help the fingerlings survive that critical period immediately after stocking. Might mimic the shore cover you point to.
Tom S

I might not be at the meeting but it may be worth asking. I wonder if there is any statistical data on the effects of the drought on the striper population. In my opinion, there should have been a decline in the population of stripers stocked during the years the water levels were either dropping or bottomed out.

I guess you could look at historical data for lake levels and figure out how big those stripers would have been about now. Probably about schooly size by now if they would have survived.

Case cracked. I'm going fishing. Woo Hoo!!

All you would need is some sort of "Striper Fishing E-Log" on a website. It would cost almost nothing to do and the DNR could put it right on their website or any website for that matter. You would think they would have already done something like this but I don't know how the internals work for DNR. I'm sure everyone on this board would be willing to give any information to help the striper fishing on Lanier and in Ga. Who cares if the info is viewable to the public, as long as it helps the striper population. You can encourage fishermen to log their fishing info for the DNR by allowing the users to view their personal information they have logged for their own personal logs.

You could also setup paper logs at all the parks with boat ramps but I think logging the information electronically would be more productive and accurate.

Nick this is exactly what we need to make this work. A website tied to the DNR website where we as fishermen could log in as our user name and list the hours spent on the lake, number of fish caught, or not, and what section of lake north or south.

Have it where the DNR would be the only one to collect the raw data, but we as individuals could log in as our user name and collect our own data. Now you would have your own logbook even if you don't keep one.

Lets face it if the DNR has to do anything more then just collect the raw data, it won't be done and we know it.

I don't know anything about doing websites, but this is what needs to happen. IMHO and you know I am not all that humble...LOL

Great points!

Be sure to get them to put the site in spanish and the other foreign languages as well. Why talk down the DNR for all they do for the state? They put the silverfish in the water for you to try and catch don't they? Don't think a paper fill out sheet at the ramp will work either. To easy for data to be skewed. What if you live on the lake are you really gonna drive to a ramp and fill out some paper? False recordings could be recorded as well. Remember this is a renewable resource we are talking about.

Who was talking down the DNR, they also put them in the lake for you to try and catch as well!!! just simple facts FF they are covering 3 to 4 impoundments each, and are 40% down in staff from cutbacks.
Where you at the meetings regarding these matters? or are you just living out your dream of negative comments.

Must be some mighty good knowledge that comes out of that Chattahoochee Striper Club! why don't you let us all in on where they meet, so we can get some of that profound knowledge you bring to the table.

NIce job guys. Somebody get Brett some Sunscreen! LOL

Frank, We are not talking down the DNR, just stating the truth. Yes, any data collection(for anything) is not 100% accurate but it is a start to something to HELP the DNR plan for future years. Any data collection is better than none. Also, the resource is renewable but not if the funding for the resource is not there. With all the crazy idiots in Washington(ALL OF THEM), I don't think stocking stipers is top priority on their list of things to fund with the state of the economy. If the DNR has proactive fishermen in data collection, then it will allow the DNR to spend its diminishing funds more accurately and smarter by using free raw data.

The DNR works to keep OUR natural resources for future generations and I think our voices DO need to be heard whether it is good news or bad. Its America! I love the DNR but I do think they could use our help with data collecting and I'm sure they would welcome it.

Please don't talk my club down either. Sorry I don't meet you're high expectations either. Some people are not able to drive to the Golden Corral. Not a negative person here. Just trying to throw ideas out like you.

Good thinking. Maybe a Striper Unlimited like a Trout Unlimited would be good. Looks like the trout guys have a program for this type of thing. I know the TU guys work with the DNR with trout tracking and data collecting.

I was all gooped-up and still turn red!


Mike Maddelena on behalf of the Lanier Striped Bass Coalition is currently working on a web based reporting method to aid the DNR. Who knows how long it will take before it gets rolled out (if at all), but it is already in the works.

Much of the statistical data projections that the DNR now uses is based upon the data collected from a single individual years ago. Any sampling that can be provided is going to be better than that.

I am always open to ideas! I am not sure that putting the web site in Spanish truly meets that criteria in which you speak does it. Neither of the clubs that I am in, meet at the Golden Corral.

I would not put your club down! I simply asked where do you all meet? and when. I am sure that I could learn something from your club. Who is the acting president? And how do you know what my expectations of you are?

I'm aware of Lanier, Oakwood, and North Georgia clubs, but not these others. Where do they meet, when, etc.? Just curious. Looks like I've been out of the loop too long. Don't mean to hijack the thread.

By the way Fast Frank, thanks for the heads up on where to fish on Sunday it really paid off BIG TIME. I owe you one.

Nice recovery to save the weekend Dan and guys. It was miserable for me Sat. I was wonderinng if Sunday was any better.

Thanks David! I am sure you are glad that it was Sunday and not Saturday...LOL

U aint kidding, I was gonna put that.

Way to go, Dan and Brett... congrat's on a great Sunday. Sorry to hear about a big one that got away, but glad to hear 6 did not. Be glad you caught one on Saturday, too! Saturday was as tough as ever, IMHO. Until Saturday, I had not "skunked" since March!. I may consider possibly avoiding fishing during full moons in the future, if that's what caused such a slow day.

I have been kicking around the idea of putting up an input form on the LSC website that would enable our members to load their data and have it sent directly to the DNR. No one but the DNR would be able to see it. Although I do like the idea of having the ability to access the data which was uploaded under your own idea.

I will speak to our web designer and if the club is willing to pay for it, I'll get it in the works. I told Anthony that I would be in touch about the most important data elements they would need in order to make the data meaningful.

I'll keep you guys posted.

Jim

To TomS - I asked both JeffD and Anthony specifically if there was anything we could do to improve conditions for the survival of the striper fry at the various stocking locations. They said no. They did say that they normally get at least a few days notice of the pending fry delivery and they visit all the various creeks to determine which creek has the best conditions for fry survival at the actual time that the fry are going to be stocked. That is a great question. One thing that we might be able to do, is provide "mobile stocking". Using our boats with livewells that drain into the lake to release fry in even better areas, as the stocking truck is limited to where it can release the fry. I haven't heard back yet on that idea. We cannot use bait tanks as the fry would/could be hurt/damaged by going thru a pump impeller during pump out.

One of the best things we call do is to continue to help the DNR with needed equipment for hatcheries and transportation of the fry. All the clubs have both joined up and done things individually to help with the stocking program.

Keep up the good work everyone!!

Jim and everyone, as Brett mentioned the fledgling Lanier Striped Bass Coalition (LSBC) is in the process of working with a web developer who has worked with the DNR and Anthony specifically and the DNR in getting a web based form going to collect the needed data. I sent an e-mail to the various clubs officers to that effect - perhaps I have some incorrect e-mail addresses.

While anyone is free to do as they wish, I don't think a duplication of effort of the data gathering is productive. It would be harder on the DNR to have multiple sites to collect the data from.

Data collection will consist (ideally) of man hours fished, number of fish caught, length and weight of each fish. Everyone realizes that sometimes getting length and weight is not practical, but any data is better then no data. The collection form will be "Boat" based, not angler based and only the owner of the boat would report on trips. The form would also request what you think your skill rating is. If only guides made the reports, the data would (hopefully ) look better then it actually is.

If any of you have personal fishing logs, which includes the above information and you feel like forwarding to Anthony he would love to have it.

Mike,
Thinking that there would be certain areas of the lake that would provide closer to ideal conditions for the fingerlings to survive during the critical post stocking period. Whether it be hours /days in duration. If there is somethings that can that can be done - think we should do them. If we are having 300k-600k fingerlings stocked -- then we can have a very significant impact on the future population by keeping them alive.
Thanks for the good work.

Tom Servas

No doubt that increasing the survival rate of the fingers would be the best thing that could done, after doing what we can to make sure the fry are produced in the 1st place. Anthony has some charts that show some years with low stocking numbers have higher survival rates then some more highly stocked years. So anything we can do to maximze survival rates is a GREAT thing.

Frank. We’re in the south big guy. The only languages we speak are English and Primos wild game calls. If you want to speak Spanish or another foreign language then go to the county that speaks those languages.

What a hoot!

Mike, would it be helpful to include the location of the catch? Possibly by creating a grid (which may already exist) and listing the grid box that the fish was caught. This could help to better understand fish activity relative to various conditions our lake experiences. Thoughts?

Jason, while that might help US catch fish by better learning the patterns of the fish, I don't think the DNR give the slightest hoot of where we catch the fish. Somebody ask Anthony tonight. I am worried that people might not want to report in if they were thinking somebody might use the data to their advantage. I think no names or locations would best encourage the sharing of catch info.

I thought it may help in their understanding of the fish's habits and desires on the lake and therefore make better stocking decisions. I agree it may discourage some from submitting data and therefore may not be considered a best practice.

I would think the location might be very important. Although I agree hat it may discourage folks. That is why I proposed doing it on the club website as opposed to public forum.

If my club members can be assured that only the DNR can see their info they might be more j inclined to share the location.

If they don't want the location then public would be fine.

Great information gentlemen!

Location is just going to add an unnecessary difficulty in reporting and interpolating the data as far as catch tracking and will not aid in stocking locations. The DNR is not as concerned where anyone is catching fish, only how many, how big, date and hours fished. From that they can speculate on angler success and harvest/mortality rates.

I don’t know about the DNR, but it would make it much easier on ME if everyone could just post their GPS coordinates the same or next day they find schools

If they don't want it then it's a moot point.

Location of stocking the fry is dependent on water clarity, temp, etc. They know which ramps have the best survival rate. Balus, clarks bridge, etc

I have all of the Lowrance users GPS waypoints and trails.....for sale to highest bidder....;-)

33°50'5"N 84°20'13"W

The pink pony - NICE!

I’ve been swallowed up by work & family and have not been out at all since mid-June. I haven’t been on this web-site in months. I was planning to go this Friday when I stumbled on this topic.

I do remember Ken’s study. I’m sure the 3 clubs could provide historical data of fish caught with date, weights or length. No locations and no names attached. You could even leave off this year’s results for the over paranoid. When I was a member of NGSC a member put together a power point of historical NGSC TX data dating back years. It’s was extremely informative and interesting. The information showed how over the years the trends stayed the same. The data contained how many fish were caught, lake levels, size of all fish caught, average size and winning size and so on. It was a fantastic presentation. It would not be all the information needed. But it should show trends of 3 different days each month with accurate information from a dozen different boats each time dating back years. IMO it’s a nice way to give back something to the DNR maybe the first project for the Lanier Striper Coalition.

Yep, that's right Steve. We participated in that study of Kens for a couple of years before the drought. I'm sure someone could ask Ken S for the results so they could be matched to more recent studies.

The same topics that are being discussed in this thread were discussed 5 years ago in the two clubs that were around then. We were asked if we would partricipate in the survey. Both clubs had plenty of individuals who provided anonimous data to Ken's site, including myself. I would think that Ken and the individuals who set the program up could help with a new one.

Ken's study information has apparently gone awol is my understanding. Club tx results are not really helpful because they only show the fish weighed or measured in and do not reflect the true catch rate. For example 2 fish were weighed in on a boat because that is the tournament requirements, but how many did that boat catch in total (2, 5, 25, etc), how many anglers were on board, how long did they fish, and what were the size of each fish? Without that information the data is not of a real value.

Sunday on the pond