NEWS RELEASE

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

January 12, 1998

CONTACT: Rick Long (850) 487-1644

STRIPED BASS STOCKING SLATED TO BEGIN THIS WEEK IN APALACHICOLA RIVER

The fish are small right now, measuring only 6 - 8 inches in length. But, give them four years and the 100,000 stripers being released in the lower Apalachicola River over the next several weeks should weigh 8 - 9 pounds and provide anglers with plenty of excitement.

The stripers are being stocked by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in an effort to restore striped bass in the Apalachicola River and provide a viable fishery.

"There’s an excellent food base in the river system and if past releases are any indication, survival and disbursement of the fish should be good," said Rick Long, FWC fisheries biologist.

Long said the young stripers, known in technical parlance as Phase II fish because of their larger stocking size, are slated to come from FWS fish hatcheries in Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana. Additionally, 3,000 tagged stripers are being released to gauge movement and harvest by anglers.

He said the young stripers will be released in the river above Apalachicola near the railroad bridge and in the White City area.

As the stripers grow, Long said they’ll feed primarily on threadfin shad, which are abundant throughout the river. He said some of the stripers may grow to more than 50 pounds and four feet in length.

This century striped bass have been hard hit in rivers along the gulf coast from pesticide pollution and riverine changes such as dam construction and dredging boat channels. Long said advances have been made in pesticide manufacture and application and that problem has largely been overcome.

River modifications on the other hand, are still problems fisheries biologists recognize as impediments to natural striped bass reproduction in several native rivers, hence the need to stock stripers periodically. On the Chipola River, which drains into the Apalachicola, the State of Florida removed the Dead Lake Dam in 1987, and fisheries biologists have since observed stripers in deep springs on the Chipola well above the site of the old dam.

In addition to stocking stripers, Long said this spring the FWC will be stocking sunshine bass, or "hybrids" as some fishermen refer to them, in the Apalachicola as well. He said 213,000 sunshine bass were stocked in the lower river last year and an additional 250,000 are targeted this spring.

Over the past several years Long said there’s been a general decline in fishing pressure in the lower river, Lake Wimico, and Intercoastal Waterway.

"Stripers and hybrids are being stocked to provide an additional sportfish. The fish are there and we‘re certainly glad to provide any information we can to anglers who want to call us," he said.

Regardless of what they’re fishing for, Long said anglers may be asked to participate in creel surveys while they’re on the water. He said the interviewers will take only a couple of minutes as they gather information on angler success. These surveys are very important to FWC’s ability to make informed fisheries management decisions.

The bag limit for striped bass, white bass and sunshine bass is a combined 20-fish aggregate bag. However, anglers are limited to no more than three striped bass, each of which must be 18 inches or longer.

Long said he can be reached at the FWC’s Midway field office at (850) 487-1644.