[gambusia]

Heard that the NCWRC is studying changes to the white bass creel limits to protect the remaining fisheries in the state.

Not sure if that is a good idea or not but apparently they are looking at it.

 

[Fishscalz]

Between Spotted Bass and White Perch, White Bass have been squeezed pretty hard lately.
I would not have a problem with stricter limits, especially with the Spring runs.....

Fishscalz

 

[Mack in N.C.]

I like catching Whites moreso than white perch but as I have said before everyone talks about the damage white perch have done to white bass but in reality white perch belong to more of nc than white bass.....

White bass were native to nc in only a handful of rivers that eventually feed into the mississippi basin and its range in those rivers was just barely into nc.

white perch are native to a much bigger area of nc being the whole coastal plain and a few spots in the eastern piedmont. The white perch get slammed when it is actually it is MORE native to NC than the white bass and it taste better.


Mack

 

[OptiMystic]

white perch are native to a much bigger area of nc being the whole coastal plain and a few spots in the eastern piedmont. The white perch get slammed when it is actually it is MORE native to NC than the white bass and it tastes better.

Guilty as charged - I fish for perch, but I talk bad about them behind their back. The WRC is actually allowing you to net perch (new this year) to try to cut the numbers but they aren't going anywhere. This management of fish stocks is a funny business. We put trout from SF and EU in the mountain streams, white bass from TN and LMB from GA, FL and TX (I think the most common stocked ones are mixed from those strains) in the lakes and in another thread someone seemed upset that there are freshwater drum in Kerr, when that appears to be right at the edge of their native range.

We like to imagine the rivers and lakes filled with throngs of huge fish in centuries past but my educated guess is that the majority of fish were smallish with just a few large predators. Without them being harvested or being fed shad by the truckload it just seems like the food chain math wouldn't work.

 

[Dylar]

Guilty as charged - I fish for perch, but I talk bad about them behind their back. The WRC is actually allowing you to net perch (new this year) to try to cut the numbers but they aren't going anywhere. This management of fish stocks is a funny business. We put trout from SF and EU in the mountain streams, white bass from TN and LMB from GA, FL and TX (I think the most common stocked ones are mixed from those strains) in the lakes and in another thread someone seemed upset that there are freshwater drum in Kerr, when that appears to be right at the edge of their native range.

I've been catching drum in Buggs for 25 years. If they're not native to the river systems that feed Kerr, they've sure been in there a long time. If you want to complain about non-natives in Kerr, start with the **** blue cats. They've essentially displaced striper, and to a certain degree, LMB in the food chain, although I think it would be a mistake to actually blame them for the declines of other species. Rather, they've just taken over the space left behind by stripers (due to drought and high temps) and bass (LMB virus) knocked back by other causes.