What? How Stripers Got In Bull Shoals

News just out of a new Missoura state record striper caught out of Bull Shoals. Check the pic – looks like a limit of NJ smallies in that belly. Or maybe a trolling motor bat’ry.

Ever wonder about the sometimes questionable logic used for stocking stripers or wipers in fisheries? Then you’ll enjoy this. An article about the record catch had the story about how stripers got in Bull Shoals:

Due to a one-time stocking by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission in 1998, the lake is packed with striped bass. That year, a mix-up resulted in the stocking of 19,000 striped bass that were intended for Norfolk Lake, said Ken Shirley, district fisheries supervisor for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

“We were expecting a shipment of walleye for Bull Shoals,” Shirley said. “A summer helper called to tell us that a shipment of fish had arrived at the hatchery and asked where they were supposed to go. We thought it was the walleyes, so we told him to take them to Bull Shoals. It turned out they were striped bass.”

Shirley said the surviving fish from that mistaken stocking now weigh between 30 and 60 pounds and are near the end of their lives. He expects the boom in trophy striper fishing at Bull Shoals to taper off over the next four or five years as fish from the accidental stocking slowly disappear.

Seriously? “Thought it was the walleyes?” So…no one checked…!

Apparently some footage was taken in the AR Game and Fish parking lot just before work that day:

Lol! Just kidding to the fine folks at AR G&F.