Alabama striped <b>bass</b> family tree roots likely all now sprout from rearing ponds

O.P. Harrison of Mobile caught this 12.6-pound striped bass on a live shrimp in late February while fishing for speckled trout in the Theodore Industrial Canal. (Courtesy O.P. Harrison)  

MOBILE, Alabama -- On the same day news broke that 65-year-old James Bramlett of Dora had caught a potential state- and world-record 70-pound striped bass from the Black Warrior River in northeast Alabama, pictures of a 12.6-pound striper landed near Mobile began circulating through social media.

O.P. Harrison of Mobile was fishing for speckled trout in the Theodore Industrial Canal that late-February day when the fish hit a small live shrimp he was fishing on 6-pound-test line.

While Bramlett's fish will most likely replace the 55-pounder Charles Totty pulled from the Tallapoosa River in 1959, Harrison's will be admired simply because not many people in the southwest part of the state have ever seen one in its scales.

Few people around Mobile target stripers. Like Harrison's fish, they are rare bycatch that eats a bait a fisherman is using to target another species.

While Bramlett's huge fish was the result of intensive restocking of Atlantic and Gulf striped bass in reservoirs above dams across the Alabama River since 1979, the genetic origins of Harrison's fish are a little bit murkier.

Striped bass were once common in the rivers and estuarine environment of the northern Gulf coast, according to information from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has overseen an interstate fishery management plan guiding the species' recovery since 1986.

They were found from Texas to the Suwannee River in Florida, and inland hundreds of miles up the Alabama River and Tombigbee River systems and to St. Louis on the Mississippi River.

Historical reports indicate the fish were landed commercially from the late 1800s through the early 1960s. Except for a remnant population of Gulf-strain striped bass in the Apalachicola River system in northwest Florida and infrequent catch reports in a few other river systems, they are no longer common throughout their range.

While the Alabama conservation department Web site contains information stating that there "may" still be a native population of Gulf striped bass migrating through the Mobile Bay estuary, Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division District V chief fisheries biologist Dave Armstrong, who's based on the Mobile Bay Causeway, said not enough is known to say if native Gulf-strain stripers still swim state water.

"As far as if we have a run or not, I believe we are more likely sustaining a semi-resident population derived from previous stocking efforts," Armstrong said. "These fish do have the instinct to run and they'll cover a lot of ground."

Armstrong said that instinct likely contributes to the large congregations of striped bass - and some hybrid bass - that gather just below Claiborne Lock and Dam on the Alabama River and Coffeeville Lock and Dam across the Tombigbee River.

James Bramlett and his wife Janice stand with the 70-pound striped bass he caught from the Black Warrior River on Feb. 28. The fish broke the existing 53-year-old Alabama state record for the species by 15 pounds and is potentially a world record for landlocked striped bass. (Joe Songer/jdsonger@al.com)  

"Those fish are most likely resident fish that are taking advantage of the abundant shad numbers just below the dams," he said. "They also prefer to live in the cool, running water just below the dams, especially during the hotter months."

Ben Raines, an avid diver and knowledgeable fisherman from Fairhope, reported seeing a single 10-pound striped bass as he and it swam along the rock jetties at Perdido Pass in 2008.

Raines said there could have been other stripers around that he just did not see.

The reasons for the decline of native striped bass along the northern Gulf coast are speculative, according to the USFWS.

Along with the impacts of commercial fishing, environmental alterations, the construction of dams across traditional spawning corridors and industrial and agricultural pollution have also been implicated as probable causes of the drastic decline of striped bass.

Alabama's Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division began restocking reservoirs above dams in the northern part of the state in 1979.

In 1985, the first striped bass were stocked below the dams across the Tombigbee River at Coffeeville and at Claiborne on the Alabama River, according to WFF stocking data provided by Armstrong. Those fish were Atlantic-strain stripers, which were stocked for the first seven years.

The first Gulf striped bass fingerlings were stocked beginning in 1992 and the Atlantic-strain fish have been used in only two years since.

Including that first stocking, more than 2.1 million Atlantic and Gulf striped bass fingerlings have been released at the confluence of the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers, where they form the Mobile River.

Armstrong said the site is used because it provides the fingerlings with more than one option in deciding which way to swim upon release, the water's deep and cool and there's plenty to eat.

Over the past seven years, an average of 65,000 fingerlings have been released between May 14 and June 2, according to the WFF data.

Fisheries biologists have concluded that natural reproduction is occurring in the upper Coosa River near Rome, Ga., resulting in large numbers of naturally produced striped bass showing up at Weiss Reservoir in northeast Alabama and other Coosa River impoundments, according to the WFF.

Studies on reproductive possibilities among striped bass stocked just above the Mobile-Tensaw Delta have not been done, Armstrong said.

No one can say for sure, but 2.1 million-to-1 odds suggest that O.P. Harrison's fish was probably a 6- to 8-inch long fingerling when it was stocked as much as a decade ago and more than 30 miles from where it was eventually caught.

It's intriguing to believe, however, that at least one true Gulf striped bass still swims along generations-old migration routes in Alabama, especially if it has a mate.

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It&#39;s peak season for blackfish and striped <b>bass</b>, trout stocking programs <b>...</b>

Kenney: Plenty of fish still in the sea - New York Daily News NYDN Home?CollectionsKenney: Plenty of fish still in the seaALEXANDRA KENNEYThursday, November 22, 2012

Welcome to the season for holidays and hibernating. Various plans for rebuilding our area’s hurricane-damaged shores are being discussed or are even under way. And in a couple of months the marine industry will launch its showbiz schedules as planned.

So anglers, don’t be discouraged from enjoying our first-rate saltwater and freshwater fishing. Remember it’s peak season for blackfish and striped bass. Check with party boat captains for cold-weather schedules. Some switch to res-only charter bookings. A hardy few fish year-round. You might also head to Wakefield. R.I., to board one of the cod-capturing Island Current boats wintering at Snug Harbor Marina.

Freshwater fans are reminded that trout stocking programs are now underway, especially on Long Island and throughout New Jersey. That means the trout are big and hungry.

In terms of a progress update, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have all posted have all posted helpful Hurricane Sandy updates on their fish and game websites. The U.S. Department of Commerce recently approved New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s request for a federal fishery resource disaster declaration which will trigger coordinated federal efforts to help rebuild decimated fishing industries in both New Jersey and New York.

Plus the Army Corps of Engineers has begun working to close storm-caused breaches on the east and west sides of Long Island’s Moriches Inlet. So rebuilding progress is being made.

This weekend’s nautical notes include a Fishermen’s Flea Market on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Knights of Columbus building, 400 Broadway, in Lindenhurst, L.I.

Flipping to 2013 calendar pages, the New York Boat Show anchors at Javits Center from Jan. 3-6. Browse, maybe buy, one of the vessels on display. That includes luxury motor yachts, sport fishers and performance boats.

The agenda includes interactive boating seamanship workshops, a daily series of fishing tips and a new power-boat docking challenge. The show also features an indoor heated pool, providing a chance to scuba dive or paddleboard. Adult admission is $15 and accompanying youths under age 16 are free. Purchase advance tickets or view special event schedules at www.NYBoatShow.com

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Fall Striped <b>Bass</b>: The Bucktail Jig

The Fall striped Bass migration is about to begin. About 90 percent of the fishing I do through out the year is with jigs and soft plastic baits. Over the next week I will be doing a series of short blogs outlining some techniques I use with jigs and soft plastic baits that will hopefully help you land more striped bass this Fall.

The Bucktail Jig

The bucktail jig is the most popular method with inshore anglers to catch striped bass from a boat, kayak or the surf. A basic setup for boat or kayak fishing would be a fast action 7 to 7 1/2 foot  rod rated for 1/2 to 1 1/2 lures. I use a 4000 size reel filled with 20 pound Power Pro or Sufix braid. I tie on 4 to 5 feet of 30 pound fluorocarbon leader with a Uni to Uni knot. To make sure I get the proper action out of the bucktail jig I tie it on the leader with a loop knot or use a clip like the Tactical Anglers clip. I use Uncle Josh Split Tail Sea Rind or 5 or 6 inch curly tail grub style soft plastic baits. I prefer the soft plastic baits and will switch to the Sea Rind if the bluefish are tearing the plastics apart.

Start by picking out a the lightest bucktail jig that will hold the bottom. A jig that is to light will not make it to the bottom and be swept away by the current and a jig that is to heavy will limit the action of the jig. I usually start fishing the marsh banks, I will cast  parallel to the marsh bank up tide let the jig sink to the bottom and crank it back only fast enough so that the jig is swimming near the bottom. You can give the jig a couple of twitches on the retrieve but it is not necessary . If you can't cast parallel to the marsh bank you can cast toward it. The bucktail jig also works great when casting under a bridge or working the flats.

The bucktail jig is the 1st lure taken out of most surf fishermen's surf bag when they hit the beach. It cast like a rocket so you can get the jig past the breaking waves. When fishing from the surf I prefer the Uncle Josh Sea Rind over the soft plastic baits, it's more durable and the action of the pork rind in the waves drives the stripers wild. When surf fishing you also pick out the lightest jig that will hold the bottom. The retrieve is simple, just crank it in fast enough so that it swims just off the bottom.

The bucktail jig looks like nothing that swims in the water but imitates everything. You can get bucktail jigs with a lot of hair tied on that will give the stripers a bait fish profile or one that is sparsely tied to imitate an eel. As far as colors go I use white, chartreuse and pink with white being the color I use 75 percent of the time. When fishing for striped bass don't overlook the simple bucktail jig. It's not the number one lure for striped bass for nothing.
Tight lines    

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Outdoors: Striped <b>Bass</b> are worth the trip

By: JIM BREWER | Daily Progress correspondent
Published: July 11, 2012 Updated: July 11, 2012 - 8:19 PM »  Comments | Post a Comment There aren’t any stripers close to Charlottesville, but once there were.

Years ago, several fishermen who frequently visited Lake Anna decided to bring back some of the stripers they caught and released them in Chris Greene Lake. It was illegal, of course, but the stealth stockings caused quite a stir for several years. Anglers with light lines and minnows trying for crappies would occasionally tie into a spool-stripping striper and the fish grew to good sizes feeding on the numerous baitfish of the Albemarle County impoundment. An 8-year old boy, in fact, hooked and landed a 20-pound striper on a small Zebco outfit. The youngster will not likely forget that day at Chris Greene Lake.

Stripers are fish that are hard to forget. They strike viciously, fight hard and are excellent table fare. Unfortunately, local anglers need to travel about 50 miles to Lake Anna in order to do battle with the striped bass.

Striped bass are true members of the bass family and are anadromous — equally at home in fresh or saltwater. They make spring runs up many of Virginia’s larger rivers — the James, Potomac and Rappahannock, for example — following the shad before returning to the Chesapeake Bay or the ocean. Like others in the temperate bass family, stripers travel in schools, feeding in open water on smaller, schooling fish, such as gizzard shad.

In Virginia, Buggs Island Lake has one of only two landlocked populations of stripers in the United States that will spawn in freshwater. The Game Department, in fact, has a hatchery on the Staunton River in Brookneal, where biologists intercept the stripers out of Buggs Island each spring and strip eggs from the females. With these striper eggs, fertilized in the hatchery, the Department stocks numerous lakes across Virginia, including Lake Anna.

Lake Anna is one of the warmest lakes that the Game Department stocks with striped bass. With a shorter growing season, Lake Anna stripers don’t generally attain the trophy sizes of, say, Smith Mountain Lake fish, which can reach 50 pounds. But there is nothing wrong with an 8- to 10-pound striper and Lake Anna has plenty.

Chris Craft, a guide out of Lake Anna Guide Service, says there are currently lots of stripers in the mid-lake region. Live bait, such as gizzard shad and blue back herring, is catching fish for those who are proficient at catching bait with a throw net. Trolling is another option. Deep-diving Red Fins with a bucktail trailer are working, as is the Bill Norman DD22. Chartreuse and blue is a hot color combination along with natural shad patterns. Craft is also taking fish with an Alabama Rig, a multi-arm rig that can be trolled at various depths with a variety of baits.

For summer stripers, Craft suggests that anglers work the 208 Bridge all the way up to the mouth of Plentiful Creek on the Pamunkey side and up to the 719 bridge on the North Anna side. Jigging with Tooth Ache spoons is another secret trick for putting Anna stripers in the livewell.

Craft says that Lake Anna is now at full pool with water temperatures ranging from 84 to 90 degrees. The recent cooling spell will likely stir up the stripers’ feeding habits.

If you need a striper guide for Lake Anna, contact Chris Craft at ccbassn@aol.com or call 540-895-5770.

In addition to Lake Anna, other freshwater striper fishing in Virginia is available at Smith Mountain Lake, Lake Gaston, Claytor Lake, Leesville and Western Branch.

Contact Brewer at j44brewer@gmail.com

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Rigged eel-skin plugs always a winner for striped <b>bass</b>

There are probably as many methods of fishing for striped bass as there are striped bass anglers. Everybody does it a little differently.

For some, it's a big swimmer or nothing. Some cannot get enough of tossing lightly weighted soft plastic shad. The proponents of putting chunks of fresh bait on the bottom are devoted to that system. Tube and worm trollers have an almost religious fervor for that method, while sand worm drifters are another band of true believers.

When it comes to fishing for big bass, it's whatever floats your dinghy (and puts that trophy on your wall).

But if there is one sure-fire technique for hooking striped bass that gets almost unanimous agreement from all segments of the fishing population, it is probably the rigged eel-skin plug.

The trouble is eel-skin plugs, despite their deadly day or night effectiveness on bass, are sparingly used by anglers. Why? Probably because they require quite a bit of preparation before they are ready to load into a surf bag. The idea of getting the skin off of a live eel and onto a lipped plug can be daunting.

But as Jimmy Orifice demonstrated to the assembled members of the Westport Striped Bass Club last week, once the work is done, eel-skin plug fishing is no more of a hassle than tossing a six-inch Danny straight out of the box. Once rigged, a few eel-skin plugs can last at least an entire fishing season and in some cases for multiple seasons as long as they are carefully stored between outings.

I won't attempt to give a step-by-step account of Jimmy's demonstration here; for that, you can go see Jimmy in person or there are several excellent illustrated tutorials on the Internet. One of the better, we found, was by our own Lordship Lure Company (www.lordshiplures.com).

The first requirement for making a rigged eel plug is, not surprisingly, obtaining an eel, and plenty of the slimy wrigglers converge on this area. Jimmy caught his the previous night in the Housatonic River in Shelton, but Southport Harbor or Saugatuck River in Westport are "loaded," Jimmy said. Although they can be caught on a fishing line, an eel trap (available at any tackle shop) baited with just about anything that smells is Jimmy's choice. It is important to retrieve the trap in the early morning; eels are not dumb, and after a while, they figure out how to escape. The eels are killed by putting them in a bucket filled with a solution of water and kosher salt.

Getting the skin off the eel is perhaps the trickiest part of the entire process. The skin is sliced all the way around the base of the head with a razor or very sharp knife. The skin is peeled down like a wet sock using pliers and some muscle. When done, you have an inside-out skin, which is then slipped over the plug of your choice. Jimmy highly recommends the Atom 40 or Junior Atom, depending on the size of the eel. The skin is secured to the plug with either wire, waxed line or -- Jimmy's choice -- simple rubber bands. Treble hooks are attached and the plug is ready to cast. Between fishing trips, eel plugs must be stored in the refrigerator or a cool place in jars or sealed plastic bags filled with more kosher salt.

Fishing the eel-skin plug is the easiest part of the process. Just cast it out and reel back in very slowly. Stripers cannot resist the plug's sensuous undulations.

Get ready for some jarring strikes.

cwalsh@ctpost.com

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Sea Lions, Striped Marlin and Whales, Oh My!

Check out this wild video of sea lions, marlin and whales feeding off of Cabo Sand Lucas, just a few hours from our old fishing grounds in La Paz, Mexico. I’m surprised the guy didnt have a heart attack at the 35 second mark!

By Grant Hartman @ http://www.baja-anglers.com/

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