Thread: SC Stripper info, Wylie fishermen alert!

Guys, if we start a campaign of contacting these folks about Wylie strippers, we might get somewhere. call (803) 734-3886 in Columbia

WE ARE PAYING FOR STOCKING IN OTHER LAKES!


The S.C. Department of Natural Resources recently completed the stocking of over 4.2 million hatchery-raised striped bass fingerlings throughout the state. Over 2.5 million of these fingerlings were stocked in the Santee Cooper system, split between Lakes Marion and Moultrie. That’s well over half of the striper fingerlings for the entire state, which is good news for us.

The stocking by the S.C. Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) is intended to supplement natural reproduction that has historically maintained the Santee Cooper striped bass population. Hatchery personnel and management biologists have increased the number of stock locations around the system in order to facilitate survival. In addition, the fingerling size at stocking has been increased, which should also help survival.

For information on DNR’s freshwater fish stocking program, call (803) 734-3886 in Columbia. Striped bass fry for the Santee Cooper stockings were produced at the SCDNR’s Jack Bayless Fish Hatchery in St. Stephens. Once produced, the fry were grown out at one of SCDNR’s four warm water hatcheries and in Orangeburg at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Federal Hatchery to one to two-inch fingerlings prior to being stocked in the lakes. Funding for the Jack Bayless Fish Hatchery and the striped bass stockings comes from license fees and Sport Fish Restoration Funds, which are derived from a federal excise tax on selected fishing gear and motorboat fuel. This is one good example of how our license fees do come back to help the fisherman and the fishery resource.

In addition to the stocking in the Santee Cooper system, striped bass were stocked in Lake Greenwood, Lake Hartwell, Lake Murray, Lake Thurmond and Lake Wateree. None of these lakes currently have natural spawning populations.

Unless the politics change, Wylie will never get stripers from SCDNR. The political issues are between NC and SC and have been locked in dispute for over 20 years. I have called several contacts in SCDNR and there seems to be no hope that they will change. Wish they would.

The way it has been explained to me is the NC folks wanted to stock stripers in Wylie, but the SC side vehemently fought against it

Truthfully, Wylie would be a better lake for stocking hybrids than pure stripers as the hybrids are more tolerant of the warm water

A striper or hybrid introduction would help balance out the white perch too