ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 23, 1996 TAG: 9606240137
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-10 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: OUTDOORS
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
State fish officials are going to follow grandmother's advice: ``Don't put all of your eggs in one basket.'' Or even two baskets.
The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries will be adding new stocking sites when it releases striped bass fingerlings into Smith Mountain Lake in early July.
In the past, the annual allotment of about 300,000 fingerlings has gone to two spots, Hales Ford Bridge and Penhook. In addition to these locations, this year's plans call for stocking fish upstream, at Indian Point Marina and Magnum Point Marina, said Mike Duval, a department fisheries biologist supervisor.
``Maybe just something as simple as releasing some fish upstream, where the productivity is a little higher, may give us a little bit better growth,'' Duval said.
Studies by Virginia Tech and the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries have revealed that rapid growth of the fingerlings is the key to their survival. If they don't go into the winter carrying a good fat reserve, they won't make it into the spring with the potential to provide sport for fishermen.
At first, biologists thought predation might be inhibiting the survival of the 11/2- to 2-inch fingerlings being stocked. But research now being completed has shown that bass and other species aren't feeding on the baby stripers, said John Ney, a Virginia Tech biologist.
Survival is a matter of the stripers being able to switch to a diet of alewives. When they do, they grow like crazy, Ney said.
``They get up to 8, 10, even 12 inches [long] by late fall,'' he said.
But another group of stripers doesn't make the conversion to a fish diet. These reach only 3 or 4 inches in length by the time the cold weather sets in, and these face starvation.
``So we have a 4-inch group and a 10-inch group,'' Ney said. ``We aren't sure what triggers it. Is it just because some are a little bigger when they go in? A couple of silly millimeters bigger?''
While spreading the stocking around isn't necessary from a predation standpoint, ``It probably is a good idea so that these little guys aren't competing for food,'' Ney said.
If so, it will be an easy fix for a complex problem that has baffled fishermen and fish officials. But most likely, survival will depend on stocking larger fingerlings. That's going to mean major changes in the operation of the state's striper hatchery.
Money has been appropriated to rebuild the Brookneal hatchery, which suffered major flood damage last year. There are opportunities for a new design to hold captive brood fish that can produce eggs earlier and for culture facilities to grow fingerlings more rapidly.
Ney is confident the bottleneck that has limited the survival of fingerlings can be overcome. A three-year study has begun to determine how many fingerlings can be stocked without adversely impacting black bass.
The study is funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and is viewed as having national significance. In a number of sections of the country, there is growing resistance by black-bass fishermen to the stocking of striped bass, Ney said. Legislation recently was introduced in Tennessee to stop striper stockings in Norris Lake, where black-bass fishermen claim the fish are eating their bass.
``All the studies done around the country, including what we did at Smith Mountain Lake, show that doesn't happen,'' Ney said. ``But at some point, you can stock too many.''
The Smith Mountain Striper Club, an advocate of increased stockings and sometimes critic of the game and fish department, has pledged support for the study. Members are being asked to provide stomachs from the striped bass they keep so researchers can determine what the fish are eating.
Ney holds the opinion that the lake can support greater numbers of adult stripers. Getting them from fingerling to bragging size has been the problem, something even increased stockings of fingerlings won't resolve, he said.
``We are going to solve that, one way or another,'' he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 76 linesby CNB