Explains why it has slowed down

http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/08...obileshort_home

I don't know much about fresh water fishing but wouldn't large mouth have the same problem ?

"Where is the EPA? They need to immediately stop this rainfall!!!!!"

I call BS. If rain killed fish there would ne none. What about when hurricanes come ashore and it rains a week? Another loony sports writer.

They're stocked fish

Not exactly nature

Do stocked fish breath differently? No, The Blue Herring mentioned were put in the lake by fishermen. It will result in schooling bass and bigger bass in the lake. as long as I've been fishing there I can tell you that you never see schools of baitfish like other fertile lakes. The Blue Herring will change the lake for the better. I've seen what they've done on Clarks Hill and what they did on Lanier.

You and I will have a little talk Saturday, so get your chit together. (If you only knew something about fishing.)

all I know is I've seen 6+ floating each of the last few weekends on the water.

we assumed it was because everyone else was catching them and trying to release them (they always die, might as well keep them).

this explained a lot for me if they're just dying for other reasons.

and if you read the article, Chris Greene, assistant fisheries chief for the Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries explains the issue. Not a loony sports writer.

large mouth can deal with warmer water. the warmer water isn't lacking the oxygen

They are generating so much it has sucked the cool water out of the lake. The stripers need cool oxygenated water to survive. They should of let some excess water out of the gates and it would of kept cool water down deep. There are other ways of getting the extra water out besides generating.

It's been going on for about the past month. I was down there last weekend playing and while standing about waist deep felt the water temp change 5-10 times over about 30 min. Cold then warm, etc. Fish can't find a comfortable zone to stay in.

The water temperature at Martin is relatively cool compared to Augusts in the past. 87 or so, getting up to 90 later in the day. (Surface)
As for the bluebacks, I hope these condtions wipe them out. They feed heavily on eggs and fry and it's not clear whether they add a significant weight gain to stripers, spots, or largemouth.
The bluebacks will have a negative effect on crappies, bluegill, and shellcracker just by adding another predator to their environment.

WSFA just did story on it.

Says volunteers have picked up over 100 dead around Goat Island near dam. They're burning them to kill smell

I'm sure our Freshwater Fisheries can make it alright. No problems here. Just put in another non-native species.

Stripers are cold water fish and need cold oxygenated water to survive. Smaller stripers can handle higher temps better than larger ones. When the big ones stay in water over about 80 or so degrees, they quit eating and die. All the rain means they have had the dam running nonstop and there is so much water rushing through that all the water in the lake is pretty much the same temp. Normally in the summer the lakes are pretty still and they stratify, basically making cool layers in the lake where stripers can live. This is why smith and Martin have bigger stripers as a rule than say Logan Martin. The deeper waters give the larger fish summer refuge. Martin just has very little summer refuge right now.

And for the last time. STRIPERS ARE NATIVE TO EVERY RIVER IN ALABAMA THAT TOUCHES THE GULF.

I don't know what killed them but last weekend when I was on the lake there were dead stripers floating everywhere near chimney rock and the damn. Stripe are not native to lake Martin because they can't get past the damns to get up river. They were introduced in the 80's.

Thanks. You said that before. They weren't native to lakes when they backed them up. A completely different enviroment than rivers. BTW, glad this is the last time.

So are dinosaurs.

Doesn't mean they're there naturally

Yall do know WHY they are in there right??
they actually do serve a purpose other than sport fishing.

No, but I'd like to know

Sport fishing has always been fine by me

The real purpose?
Or the gubberment one.

the stripe are there to keep the gizzard shad populations of the lakes in check. Now with blue backs they will be doing double duty.
But yes, the sportfishing is a welcome side affect and one im happy with

Never heard of gizzard shad in Martin, only threadfin. And controlling these shad was the propaganda put out.
Wasn't long ago, they said the threadfin shad population was too low. Instead of reducing the striper stocking more than they did, they stocked yellow perch, supposedly to give the spots another forage fish.
Well yellow perch have been in the Tallapoosa and Lake Martin since time began. The yellow perch have never taken much of a foothold in Martin since 1928. This was when they backed the water up.
I can almost bet that the DCNR either put the bluebacks into the lake, or know who did.
Stripers were put into the lake as a sport fish, revenue producer. Alabama looked around and saw the economic impact at Santee-Cooper and the result of other states where they were not reproducing as S-C was and them being stocked and jumped on the bandwagon.
The stocking of stripers to control the threadfin population was purely a wildass decision, or just stupid. Threadfin usually have a dieoff every so many years, anyway.
Since they were stocked,it has been a little of this, a little of that. Like trying to level a dining room table with a chainsaw.
As usual, the spots, or Alabama bass, get the short end of the stick.-- Put yellow perch in the lake for these fish. SHITHOUSE
Just Shithouse

There are gizzard shad in martin absolutely.
I guess the real reason was to ruin the bass fishing. It was a conspiracy to railroad the number 1 sport fishing resource in the state.. Everyone knows the stripe eat all the crappie and spotted bass.
The blue backs were brought over by stripe fishermen from Lanier im pretty sure. They dumped their leftovers not thinking anything about it.

I understand that the bluebacks were put into Martin on purpose. Maybe, maybe not. If there were so many gizzard shad in Martin that stripers were needed, not questioning your statement, I would have thought that I would have seen one since I have dressed bass from there for 48 years. Never saw one floating, never talked to anyone that did. I could have very well missed something along the way.

As far as a conspiracy to affect the population of spots and crappies. You seem to be jumping a little off the grid.

LOL^^

Gotcha, I'm from there and have fished it for over 40yrs myself. Why you haven't seen one is beyond me. I have seen them in the stripe I have cleaned. Maybe the bass favor the threadfins, I don't know. It's really a mute point though, the stripe serve as a top predator to regulate shad, both gizzard and threadfins and the hybrid of the two. I'm glad they are there since it gives me another species to Target.
I have heard for years that the stripe eat all the young bass and crappie etc from bass and crappie fishermen and that they are the reason their catches are down. Not saying you said this but I have heard it form LOTS of others. I asked a taxidermist who regularly mounts stripe what he sees in their belly. He told me that 90% of what he sees are gizzard / TF shad, then maybe some of the others, bream, crappie , bass etc. but they make up less than 10%.
We caught some a few years back that actually had some of the biggest crawfish I have ever seen come out of them. Only time I'd ever seen that

I caught a couple on bream in Lake Martin a few years ago that were full of gizzard shad.

They don't eat bream according to an expert. If they were full of gizzard shad, a one pound gizzard shad would have been a lot if it was mature.

They use rainbows on lake Lanier.

They are a predatory fish and will eat whatever they can fit in their mouth. I've caught them on shad, bream and in the early spring my favorite big fish bait is a red horse sucker. I've caught them in areas that hold crappie in the spring so I'm sure they are feeding on them as well. But from 25 yrs of targeting them specifically and talking with some of the best stripe guides in the state, there is not another bait that outfishes gizzard shad on a consistent year round basis. Nothing even close.
Yes they use rainbows on Lanier and I'm sure you can could catch a fish or two on martin with them.

I stand corrected, but I've never seen one on Martin. Haven't seen other things that obviously exist. They aren't as prolific as threadfins, and somtimes they didn't shock any and sometimes a bunch. Not as many as on the hooch, but obviously lots of them. You are right Buzzard. The statement about stripers not eating spiny fish isn't mine, though.

The 2 15 pounders I caught on Martin didn't get that expert's memo, apparently. I was catfishing, and using palm-sized bluegill for bait, caught the 2 stripes back to back, then lost another at the boat, later.

We good Gotcha.
now go out and get you some gizzard shad and catch a few Stripe 😂

DoA , I've used those hand sized bream many a time when I couldn't get shad and will use them again

I just wish the state would quit stocking those non native Florida strain largemouths and I wish there weren't f-1 tiger bass being stocked at every marks tournament. They are just polluting the lakes with these non native and genetically modified bass and they compete for food with the stripers which are native to our rivers.

Agree completely!! You are coming around TFD.

*L* I had caught a couple of small (+/- 5lb) flatheads the year before, and was looking for a bigger one. Imagine my surprise when my big flathead turned out to be a striper!

Any of y'all Lake Martin stripe fishermen that would like to swap a
an informal - informative trip for some gas/bait money give me a holler. We have a place on Sandy Creek, but deep water stripes are a little out of my realm.

I caught a few back in the early spring trolling with planer boards and black salties. They seem to be hitting the smaller bait fish better than the large ones in the spring. As the water continues to cool off the stripe fishing will get hot again in the early fall. I haven't been back up to the lake and three weeks.

Is it stripers that they are finding dead. I know goat island and hump at the power line is where I always troll. Hate to hear that if it is true.

Yes, dead stripers around goat island and power line.

I've seen dozens, they say they've found 100+

Heckuvit, I didn't see a striper yesterday, but did see 8 or 10 bluebacks struggling on top.