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Tompkins: Bass release keeps Lake Houston stocked and loaded
Tompkins: Bass release keeps Lake Houston stocked and loaded
Houston Chronicle
Copyright 2012 Houston Chronicle. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Updated 10:45 p.m., Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Tuesday morning, members of the Lake Houston Sports and Recreation Foundation and staff of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's inland fisheries division released 10,000 Florida-strain largemouth bass fingerlings into the reservoir. [...] the Florida-strain bass, which easily hybridize with native largemouths, can pass along their growth potential to progeny, improving the overall top-end quality of the lake's bass fishery. The stocking of the Florida-strain bass is one of several projects of the Lake Houston Sports and Recreation Foundation, an organization created to improve the reservoir's aquatic environment and, with it, the recreational and economic health of the lake and surrounding communities. The LHSRF, which was created this past year, purchased the 10,000 fingerling Floridas with money raised through membership fees and funds it generates from events including a fishing tournament, clay target shoot and boating "poker run," said David Schuller, one of the organization's founders. Survival rates depend in part on availability of aquatic vegetation and other cover the small fish have to use to hide from predators and how much forage the small fish can find in the shallows. TPWD releases Florida-strain bass produced in its hatcheries into public waters where fisheries managers feel the fish have the best chance of survival and of impacting the genetic makeup of the lake's fishery. Legislative moves aimed at reducing silt-laden runoff from sand and gravel mining operations on the San Jacinto River upstream from Lake Houston could reduce the turbidity that has for decades plagued the lake and prevented establishment of native aquatic vegetation in the shallows. Healthy littoral habitat is crucial to a lake's ability to support largemouth bass, crappie and other fish species tied to this shallow-water portion of the lake.
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Houston Chronicle
Tuesday morning, members of the Lake Houston Sports and Recreation Foundation and staff of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's inland fisheries division released 10,000 Florida-strain largemouth bass fingerlings into the reservoir. [...] the Florida-strain bass, which easily hybridize with native largemouths, can pass along their growth potential to progeny, improving the overall top-end quality of the lake's bass fishery. The stocking of the Florida-strain bass is one of several projects of the Lake Houston Sports and Recreation Foundation, an organization created to improve the reservoir's aquatic environment and, with it, the recreational and economic health of the lake and surrounding communities. The LHSRF, which was created this past year, purchased the 10,000 fingerling Floridas with money raised through membership fees and funds it generates from events including a fishing tournament, clay target shoot and boating "poker run," said David Schuller, one of the organization's founders. Survival rates depend in part on availability of aquatic vegetation and other cover the small fish have to use to hide from predators and how much forage the small fish can find in the shallows. TPWD releases Florida-strain bass produced in its hatcheries into public waters where fisheries managers feel the fish have the best chance of survival and of impacting the genetic makeup of the lake's fishery. Legislative moves aimed at reducing silt-laden runoff from sand and gravel mining operations on the San Jacinto River upstream from Lake Houston could reduce the turbidity that has for decades plagued the lake and prevented establishment of native aquatic vegetation in the shallows. Healthy littoral habitat is crucial to a lake's ability to support largemouth bass, crappie and other fish species tied to this shallow-water portion of the lake.
More...