White bass and Kentucky's just showed up in my favorite lake... Is the lake in trouble

[clh121787]

. Small 2 thousand acre lake. Known for quality bass. Gates were open for sometime to equalize with neighboring body of water. Now white bass and spotted bass are in the lake Which were never in there before. Can this hurt the lake?

[Bluebasser86]

Spotted bass supposedly can compete with largemouth and effect the max size potential, but I haven't really seen it be a problem in lakes they coexist here. 

 

Big largemouth eat white bass, and white bass are mainly offshore fish except when the water is cooler and their small mouths only allow them to feed on smaller baitfish, so they're not an issue.

[Oregon Native]

Whites are fun to catch and are eating machines and fast.  Downside...I tell my grandkids and others .....DO NOT BRING THEM IN BOAT......let go over the side.  They are pooping machines....!!!!!!

[Chance_Taker4]

I love catching and eating whites but do agree with @Oregon Native that do poop a lot. In the spring once the Walleye are done spawning in the rivers the white bass come up and we catch 40-50 of them daily to fillet up and there is poop all over in the cooler when we get them home.

 

I've never seen whites effect a fishery though. I am not too familiar with spots as there are many lakes stocked with spots near me.

[Yakalong]

Love catching whites, I wouldn't think they would be a problem on a lake. Come fall, tie something on white and have a blast!

[lo n slo]

Alabama spots were introduced to my home lake (32,500 acres) years ago and are now the predominant bass in the lake. we still catch a largemouth from time to time but they’re few and far between. 

[soflabasser]

White bass make good catfish bait in areas you are allowed to use white bass as bait.

[frogflogger]

Since they are in the system you will have to make the best of it - but personally I'd rather they not be in a small system

[Brad in Texas]

We have them here on Lake Athens and our lake, 1799 acres, has no major river system supplying it, few creeks and none of any size. So, the effect is the white bass have no systems to run up into in their seasonal late winter spawn. These bass use windy coves as alternative sites to spawn. The effect is a more limited spawn event, less white bass, but huge ones compared to the size one often catches fishing up in the creeks and rivers in Feb/March here in north and east Texas.

 

I contacted Dr. Richard Ott, sent along some photos telling him what size I had been catching in my cove, not a one was less than 14 or 15" over the 3 day Presidents Day weekend and 6 or so hours of fishing those days and 40 to 50 white bass caught, several over the lake record of 3 lbs. and 18". Dr. Ott (TPWD guy) wrote that, yes, that the greater size was owing to "interspecific" competition. In other words, inter-species competition which resulted in less white bass but the ones we had were really large.

 

At least on every lake nearby here, having white bass in the mix appears to have no deleterious effects on black bass species.

 

Brad

[Russ E]

don't know of any lake over 300 acres in our area, that does not have white bass.

like mentioned above they live have different habits than black bass and do not seem to affect the population. One possible way they could hurt black bass, is if the lake has a shortage of baitfish. 

 One good thing about whites, they are usually pretty aggressive. If the black bass are not biting, they can save the day with some action.

[clh121787]

I'm afraid they'll take hold and greatly decrease  the bait population. I fear over time the number of quality fish the lake is known for will decline. I couldn't care less about catching them. When whites were introduced to fork in many peoples opinion the schooling black bass  were never the same. 

[Russ E]

actually on some of the small lakes around here there are too many baitfish. I think they help keep the population down

[clh121787]

Too many baitfish!?? how is that a problem 

[BobP]

My favorite lake had mostly largemouths with a few spotted bass mixed in about 10 yrs ago.  Now it’s 90% spotted bass.  I don't think it was because the spots out-competed the largemouths, but because the lake owners decided to remove all the vegetation in the lake, eliminating most of the largemouth habitat and tilting the environment in the spots’ favor.  They prefer open water and more depth and move around much more than largemouths.  When you can find them, they are sporty to catch.  But they are not “stay at home” fish like largemouths.  And they are about half the size, on average.  If the largemouth habitat doesn’t change I doubt you have much to worry about.  I bet there have always been spots in your lake anyway if it is adjacent to spot river habitat.  As long as largemouth habitat and sufficient forage exist, I wouldn’t worry.

[Black Hawk Basser]

White bass probably not a problem.  If they are yellow bass, you're likely in big trouble.  Yellow bass can completely ruin a fishery for panfish.  They reproduce in enormous numbers and foster too much competition amongst crappies, gills and perch.  There are lakes here in Iowa that are overwhelmed with them, and you mostly catch lots of 4-8" yellows when targeting panfish.  Only about once every 5-7 years do you get bigger(10-11") yellows that year.  Then back to dinks for years.

 

Aside from Okoboji, every lake I know of in Iowa that has large numbers of yellow bass has suffered from their introduction.