“come get it Andrew,” I said, looking to the crew’s youngest member, 13-year-ancient Andrew Dunlap. Andrew hesitated.
“Go on over there and take the rod,” Steve Patridge told his nephew, giving him a nudge in the back.
The huge fish was still taking line when Andrew took the rod.
“You know how to fight him?” I questioned, showing him the pump and wind method of gaining ground on a fish.
Andrew soon began getting the fish closer. Steve and I cautioned against the usual — getting slack in the line and winding while the fish took drag. But Andrew needed small coaching.
The fish had taken lots of line, so it seemed like a long time before we finally saw the barrel swivel that marked the beginning of the leader. then the fish appeared, silver with black stripes showing up through Smith Lake’s clear water.
“Whoa,” Andrew said.
The fish made one plunge and then glided into the net Steve had ready.
Andrew immediately wanted pictures. in demonstrating how to hold the fish, I dropped it and it came dangerously close to bouncing back in the lake. Andrew later laughed that I “tackled it” to keep it in the boat.
“Is that your first striper?” Steve questioned as he snapped a picture.
Andrew nodded affirmatively with a huge smile before we dropped the huge fish on ice.
Smith Lake, at the headwaters of the Warrior River, harbors some of the state’s largest striped bass in its deep, cold water. It’s ideal for a fish that doesn’t tolerate the heat well.
“Striped bass are in the temperate bass family,” said Nick Nichols, assistant chief of the fisheries section of the Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries. “They can handle somewhat warm waters. But once the water gets up into the 70s they begin to hurt, particularly the adult fish.”
The Department of Conservation introduced striped bass into Alabama’s Freshwater impoundments beginning in the 1960s. They are now stocked in Smith Lake, Bankhead Reservoir, Lake Martin, the Coosa River chain of lakes, Jones Bluff on the Alabama River and in the Mobile Delta rivers.
Smith Lake is important because the striped bass there are the pure Gulf strain of striped bass. while Anglers would tell small difference between the Atlantic and Gulf strains of striped bass, biologists learned that they are genetically distinct. and the state along with Georgia, Mississippi and Florida are working to preserve the Gulf strain as a distinct species.
Several lakes had been stocked with the Atlantic strain of striped bass in the past. Smith had not.
“One of the first things that was chose was that we needed some repository where we could stock fish of known native origin,” Nichols said. “Smith Lake was the only large reservoir that had not been stocked with striped bass. since we were trying to conserve the genetics of our native fish it was important to find a lake that had never been stocked with striped bass.”
Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries now uses stripers from Smith Lake as brood fish at the Marion Fish Hatchery in Perry County. Biologists know the fish they get from there are Gulf strain.
The Gulf strain is a bit of a misnomer since the striped bass rarely if ever run into the Gulf of Mexico. unlike the Atlantic Striped Bass, which make regular forays into the ocean, the Gulf stripers rarely even get into saltwater bays and then only in winter. while they are called saltwater stripers, the Gulf’s waters are too warm to support Striped bass most of the year, Nichols said.
“Striped bass in the Gulf states were more of a riverine species,” Nichols said.
Stripers rely on deep lakes with cold water or places where cold springs run into rivers for survival. Biologists crossed striped bass with white bass to produce the hybrid stripe. it can be stocked in warmer waters but doesn’t grow as large as the Gulf striper.
Changes in the river system interrupted the striped bass population’s ability to breed. in the spring they swam upstream to breeding grounds. Stripers lay and fertilize eggs in open water and there must be enough current to carry the eggs 30-40 miles without settling to the bottom before they will hatch.
The system of dams along Alabama’s rivers impedes the ability of the fish to swim upstream. and even if they get to their spawning grounds, there isn’t enough current to carry the eggs the distance required before they will hatch.
Biologists use hormones to artificially induce spawning at the hatchery. The eggs are hatched and then hatchery workers put the fry in ponds where they are grown to fingerlings about one inch long.
“We’ve probably got more striped bass swimming in Alabama now than when the Europeans arrived because they have more habitat in these large reservoirs,” Nichols said. “But they’re only there because we’re stocking them. If we stop stocking them, they will disappear.”
There is one breeding population of stripers in Alabama above Weiss Lake on the Coosa. But those are Atlantic strain striped bass, not Gulf strain.
The state stocks stripers for anglers’ enjoyment. The state record is 55 pounds and the muscular fish frequently run over 20 pounds. when caught near the top, they have an explosive strike and they are a hard-fighting fish.
Some bass fishermen worry that they compete with spots and largemouth. Nichols said studies indicate striped bass don’t compete with black bass for food.
The striped bass eat shad nearly exclusively. and while bass eat shad, the two species are chasing different bait, Nichols said. Bass eat shad that relate to the bottom, in shallow water or around structure. Striped bass are pelagic and eat mostly fish swimming in open water.
Their diet can make a stripe fishing trip into a complicated expedition. Catching the shad stripers love to eat in Smith Lake or Lake Martin isn’t feasible.
Steve spent the day before our striper trip standing on the front deck of his Pro-Line bay boat below the Seldon Lock and Dam near Eutaw throwing a cast net for shad. then came the hard task of transporting them live to Smith Lake. Shad are easily killed and take a lot of care nearly like a ritual of alchemy.
Steve has a large bait tank with a pump that constantly filters and aerates the water. We were plagued by electrical problems that threatened to kill our bait.
While live bait is probably most effective, anglers troll bucktail jigs and spoons for stripers and use a large, hard plastic artificial called a Redfin.
Nichols offers a word of caution to anglers using live bait. The blue back herring is an invasive species that Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries wants to keep out of Smith Lake. It’s fine to use threadfin or gizzard shad but if something odd shows up in the net, don’t use it, he said. Blue back herring have been linked to declines in spot and largemouth populations wherever they show up, Nichols said.
Andrew’s nice striper turned out to be our only fish of the trip. The fish weren’t showing up in the spots that are usually winners for Steve.
“Even if we don’t catch another,” Andrew said as we drifted over 180 feet of water after dark. “it was worth it.”
