[dennishoddy]

23lb striper, caught at our discharge area. Certified for a lake record.
Note the absense of a belly on that fish. It should have weighed over 30, but the stripers are not getting enough forage fish. Zebra mussels are taking all of the plankton that the shad need to survive.

 

[Bullbuster]

Nice fish. Did you know they guy that caught it?

 

[dennishoddy]

He is a brother of one of our okc members.

 

[Bullbuster]

Thats cool. Never got me one of them and I spent 5 years fishing one of the best places in the country for them with no luck.

 

[baby]

Was that caught a Lake Lawtaka?

 

[Gauge]

baby
No, Sooner Lake.

 

[1olhunter]

Can you still walk in to the discharge area from the parking area to the SW?

 

[dennishoddy]

Can you still walk in to the discharge area from the parking area to the SW?

Yes you can. The pretty days when a lot of people show up is usually the worst day to fish there.
Days like today, with clouds, and cool weather, are usually more productive

 

[Bullbuster]

They had a small artical in the Oklahoman last Sunday about it. It was in the Outdoors section (back page of sports section).

 

[USFWC]

Great fish! Last time I went there, my buddy caught a 5-lb largemouth. Do they have a pest management plan in place there for the zebra mussels, Dennis?

 

[dennishoddy]

Great fish! Last time I went there, my buddy caught a 5-lb large mouth. Do they have a pest management plan in place there for the zebra mussels, Dennis?

Well, at our intake structure, there are several different hanging targets for the mussels. Some plastic, steel, stainless, etc, to see what they are attracted to. I'm not sure who is doing the study, as its a huge facility, and we only know our areas that we are responsible for.
We have other researchers doing studies on lizards, and I don't know what else.

What I do know is that the Zebra mussels have ruined the fishing in Sooner lake. There is a food chain in nature that must be followed, and the zebra mussels have broken the chain.

At one time the state record hybrid was at Sooner, but has been eclipsed by other lakes since.
Now, its rare to catch a hybrid larger than 4 pounds.
No food.
The lake record I posted on should be a 30+ pound fish in length, but is starving. Its a fish that has been around for awhile. Bigger stripers have been caught in the past, but the lake record program was not in effect at that time.

The other specie in the lake are suffering as well.

 

[Bullbuster]

Back home in WA they had a problem in a couple blue ribbon trout lakes. 5-10 pound trout was typical. They ended up trapping as many trout as they could then poisoned the lake to kill everything off and start over. That was some 20 years ago and they never returned back to the way they used to be. Now a 10 pound-er would be a trophy.