Originally Posted by
R19
In reference to the results of the USA Bassin weights I spoke directly to the KDFW biologist about the health of bass in GRL. There is a direct effect to the reason why the bass populations is more healthy than it has ever been and to my surprise it is also the same reason white bass are struggling...Alwives...It seems that several years ago someone introduced alwives to Green River Lake. They are not native to the lake so it is speculated that someone who was live bait fishing introduced them. This is the exact reason why it is illegal to catch live bait from one body of water and use them in another body of water. This is also why stores who sell live bait can only buy bait from vendors who are registered and certified to sell only specific types of minnows.
Alwives roam in open deep water. They have more protein than the shad that are already present in the lake. This is the reason why 15 years ago you rarely heard of multiple fish in a tournament over 6 pounds and 20 lb bags were only caught in a brief window in the spring. Now its not that rare to have multiple big bags and multiple big fish. It's not easy but it's not as rare as it was several years ago. Now as for the white bass their habits are totally different and the alwives effect them in a negative way. White bass make a run in the spring to find current to lay their eggs. They do not make a nest in calm water and have a male guard it like LM,SM or Spots. They lay in current and the male will fertilize the eggs as they turn over in current. Once the white bass spawn all the fingerlings migrate back to the main lake and here is where the alwives cause them problems. It is a two fold problem...large alwives will feed on fingerling white bass because they are occupying the same space in the water column. Fingerling alwives feed on the same plankton that fingerling white bass white bass feed on. This is why the white bass population on green has been so poor for the last several years. The white bass population actually got so low that KDFW stocked them 3 years in a row not long ago. It was within the last 5-6 years if my memory is correct.
Now that the biologist explained it to me and I reflect back I can see exactly what he was talking about. I remember in the 80's,90's and early 2000's having a huge white bass run. Then around 15 or so years ago it started to diminish and within the last 7-8 years it has really been slow. Also looking back I remember bass fishing in the late 90's and early 2000's and remember when just catching a limit would get you a check. I remember fishing the Green River Bass club early 2000's. The AOY was always won by someone who did not zero a tournament at green. Teams would have fish at Barren,Cumberland and Nolin but it was the team who did not blank at their home lake of green who won AOY. I don't recall the exact year but I am thinking 2002 ish I specifically remember Rodger and Dwight (the tournament directors at the time) saying this was the first year there were multiple anglers who weighed in fish every tournament. Now you had better have a limit and have 2-3 good fish and the others need to be solid fish on Green. The days of cashing a check with a small limit are just not there anymore. Anyways it was a few years after that green started to really improve with the bass catch and really started to decline with the white bass catch. This was all due to the introduction of alwives. If you're hesitant to believe this theory then name me a lake that has alwives and it also has a healthy population of white bass. They may have white bass but not large numbers. The KDFW biologists I spoke to was really a nice person and opened my eyes to how one thing can totally have different effects on two similar things. If your interested in learning about your local water I highly recommend talking to you local fishery biologist. He told me it's not often that he gets to interact directly with the fisherman so the conversation was welcomed buy him.
All lakes go in cycles for one reason or another. I remember when people would drive right by Green and go to Barren. Now Green puts out better numbers than Barren and you have a few people who have migrated over to fishing Green. Look at Cumberland for an example. The draw down for several years allowed the brush to grow on the bank and now we are seeing a better and more healthy population of bass. Mother nature and humans have a way of impacting things. We have to rely on the KDFW to regulate things to keep it in check. What happened at Cumberland was they sold out the fishery for tourism and mask it by saying it was for a mortality study. You will have a had time convincing me otherwise.