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Why Largemouth Bass Should Be
Stocked in Clinton and Perry Lakes, and How It Can Be Accomplished
On Oct. 1 and 2, 2005, Topeka received nearly 4
inches of rain and as much as 12 inches fell on areas north of
the city in Jackson and Jefferson counties. Mother Nature's deluge
washed an untold number largemouth bass into Perry Lake. Consequently,
in the spring of 2006, bass angler began catching scores of 1
12 - to six-pound bass, and that great bass fishing lasted until
May of 2007. Even during the winter of 2006-07, when the surface
temperature at Perry registered 38 degrees, some bass anglers
caught as many as 34 good-sized largemouth during a four-hour
outing. Throughout 2006 veteran crappie anglers were astonished
by the number of largemouth bass that they inadvertently caught
at various coverts across the reservoir's main-body. What's more,
crappie anglers who plied the Delaware River several miles downstream
from Valley Falls reported catching an unusual number of largemouth
bass.
From this experience and similar ones in decades
past, it is obvious that a stocking program similar to the volume
that Mother Nature rendered in October of 2005 could be replicated
by the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Park.
This could be accomplished by adroitly managing
several dozen ponds that are stocked with largemouth bass that
are fed and cultivated until they are two and three years old.
It is essential that the largemouth bass are stocked as adults
rather than fry and fingerling because white crappie predation
would quickly destroy a stocking of fry and fingerling in Clinton
and Perry.
A minor program of this kind has recently occurred
at Melvern Lake, and several bass anglers report that it has
worked well.
On a much larger scale, Chinese fishmongers and
fish farmers have shown the world that it is a relatively easy
task to raise largemouth bass. Consequently since the turn of
the century, an incredible number of largemouth bass have graced
the fish markets and the culinary plates of Chinese citizens
in Hong Kong and eastern China.
If the Chinese fish farmers can efficiently and
economically raise largemouth bass, why can't a group of Kansas
bass anglers, bass clubs and the KDWP join forces and finances
to build ponds where bass can be cultivated for several years
and then stocked in Clinton and Perry, as well as similar reservoirs
that don't have appropriate nursery areas for recruitment of
largemouth bass?
In addition to the pond-raised largemouth bass,
the KDWP, with the assistance of groups of bass anglers, could
periodically transplant largemouth bass from community and state
fishing lakes that have become overpopulated with bass.
Because largemouth bass recruitment is so paltry
at Clinton and Perry, a regular stocking of adult largemouth
bass is the only way that Kansas anglers can consistently experience
enjoyable and fruitful outings for this delightful and much-pursued
species.
The stocking of adult largemouth bass would parallel
the KDWP's trout stocking program, and it would complement its
stocking programs for catfish, wipers, walleye, sauger and saugeye.
Such an addition to Clinton and Perry will not
only delight bass anglers, who are the most numerous and ardent
anglers in eastern Kansas, but it will likely spawn a new generation
of bass anglers and draw anglers from elsewhere to relish a bonanza
similar to the one that unfolded after the flood of October of
2005 along Perry's watershed.
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