Thread: Lake Murray Striper

Bioguy, if it's not political, what in science is pushing the minimum 21" rule? I figured that was tournament folks lobbying for trophy fish. Maybe it's working but I haven't noticed a drastic increase in size over the last decade.

I assume striper were native to the Saluda River prior to the construction of the dam for Lake Murray? Otherwise, it seems to me that a fish that can't sustain itself in a reservoir would be invasive to the system.

Lots of good responses here. Glad to see them. Figured this was as good a place as any to get questions answered. Lots of folks on here striper fish too.

Originally Posted by pete

Around xmas i cleaned several larger striper from lake wateree that had multiple fingerlength sized crappie in its belly. No doubt that the boys that fish wateree hard will be seeing the same effect in the coming years.

I hear tell half a million were stocked in there this year.

yea I agree the loss of vegetation hurts the entire fishery. Who is the major player for this movement? Homeowners can't spray public water bodies. I wonder if it's a SCEG thing were it clogs up there turbines. Seems they should have to mitigate the loss of habitat with some hard structure dumped into the lakes.

So according to the DNR website the have consistently stocked striper into Murray around 1 million fish since 1990, so for the last 25 years the population hasn't changed a whole lot. So if you are seeing the decline about 10 years ago there are probably other factors. when did perch start showing up? There have been some minor up and downs and fish kills that knocked back some of the bigger striper in the summers. I don't think invasive is the right term because they are native to the Saluda before the dam, but there is little to no natural reproduction in the lake.

In my experience crappie populations are boom or bust probably related to ideal spring spawning conditions, whether it be low flows it keep siltation down or maybe it's high water to allow the fry to get up into structure. we have a 20 acre pond and about every 5 years they have a tremendous spawn then it's next to nothing.

Also in 2008 black crappie were stocked into Murray so voice your concerns to DNR and your legislatures if you want changes. Crappie fishing is the second most popular fish targeted(behind largemouth) in SC so they will listen.

Originally Posted by bioguy

yea I agree the loss of vegetation hurts the entire fishery. Who is the major player for this movement? Homeowners can't spray public water bodies. I wonder if it's a SCEG thing were it clogs up there turbines. Seems they should have to mitigate the loss of habitat with some hard structure dumped into the lakes.

So according to the DNR website the have consistently stocked striper into Murray around 1 million fish since 1990, so for the last 25 years the population hasn't changed a whole lot. So if you are seeing the decline about 10 years ago there are probably other factors. when did perch start showing up? There have been some minor up and downs and fish kills that knocked back some of the bigger striper in the summers. I don't think invasive is the right term because they are native to the Saluda before the dam, but there is little to no natural reproduction in the lake.

In my experience crappie populations are boom or bust probably related to ideal spring spawning conditions, whether it be low flows it keep siltation down or maybe it's high water to allow the fry to get up into structure. we have a 20 acre pond and about every 5 years they have a tremendous spawn then it's next to nothing.

Also in 2008 black crappie were stocked into Murray so voice your concerns to DNR and your legislatures if you want changes. Crappie fishing is the second most popular fish targeted(behind largemouth) in SC so they will listen.

I'm not sure who is actually behind the grass movement. I believe it's driven by property owners not wanting the grass around their docks and I also believe they drive the high water no winter drawdown movement.

I'm using the last 10 years as a snapshot because before that I don't have as much first hand knowledge and that's about the time when the lake levels were brought back up from the dam construction. I also started crappie fishing more exclusively about 12 years ago.

Our place is up the Little Saluda River and when I was younger the water was down most every winter to the point that there was just a river run in front of our place. This gave ample time for shoreline grass to grow and kept all the willow trees and other shoreline cover alive from year to year. Since the big drawdown from the dam work there's only be one short term drawdown about 2 years ago. Fishing in general was booming when they first brought the water levels back up from the dam work. Crappie, bass, striper, catfish, bream...all species were plentiful and were easily caught for the first 3-4 years. Somewhere in that same time frame was when the grass around the banks was sprayed. I'm not certain who did the spraying but I remember seeing a boat with a sprayer pass our dock and the grass was dead in days. There were also a lot of fingerling fish killed in the process. Not sure what chemical was used, but it was potent.

From that point on I believe there was an upswing in striper up river and a down swing in crappie. Bass are still around, but don't seem to be as plentiful. Might be their patterns have drastically changed and I don't really know what I'm talking about too. Catfish seem to be thriving as well and I know that's got to hurt the crappie population. Perch have been in the lake as far back as I can remember and my dad talks about catching 100s of them 35 years ago. And catching white bass which have vanished.

I have been fishing Lake Wylie since the 50's, Wateree, Santee, and Murray since the early 70's. I have posted this before. I used to fish with Don Drose at Santee several times a year back in the 70's and 80's. He was, in my opinion, the best guide on the Santee lakes. According to Don, the White Perch were netted in the backwaters of the Chesapeake and brought to Santee by Virginia fishermen who used them for catfish bait. 35-40 years ago, you could sit on the humps in Wyboo Creek with a six hook rig and a piece of worm and catch them five at a time. Don actually called them Virginia Perch. We would catch a bait tank full and fill the cooler with catfish using the 3-4 inch perch for bait. At this time there were no perch in Wylie or Wateree for sure. I didn't fish Murray enough back then to know if they were there or not. We used to fish Ceder Creek in the spring and catch our limit of White Bass any time we wanted. The perch showed up in Wateree in the late 70's and early 80's and in a few short years the White Bass disappeared. I haven't caught a White Bass in Wateree in 15 years. The perch showed up in Wylie right after that and the White Bass disappeared and Crappie fishing went downhill from there. The only conclusion that I can come up with, after sitting in a boat for many hours talking to folks like Rango and several other old fishermen, is that the White Perch invasion is responsible for the loss of the White Bass and the decline in Crappie fishing. The perch are so aggressive that I have caught many of them on a shad or herring that was bigger than the perch. They feed on the eggs from the White Bass and Crappie and also eat most of the Striper fry that are stocked into the lakes. The fishermen who brought them to our lakes did not do us any favors for sure. They are here to stay, so fry them up golden brown and eat as many as you can.

I think that Thumper is closer to right than anything else that been said... Why else would the DNR or state lift the limits on White perch and make them a none game fish if they weren't part of the problem... I say it ought to be against the LAW to release one alive back into the water we don't for sure no matter the size (of the White perch).

One Opinion I'd put forth also is we keep to many Larger crappie we all like to catch and keep our limits of 1 3/4lbs to 2 lbs plus crappie that's the best class of egg laying females we have.

ONE GOOD USE I'VE FOUND FOR WHITE PERCH IS DOG FOOD MY LAB AND BEAGLE LOVE THEM!!!!

White perch are the number one factor of fish numbers going down. They eat all the eggs, bream, shellcracker, crappie, white bass, large and small mouth bass, even gar, and carp. They don't eat catfish eggs yet, but give them a few more year then they will have to eat them, for all other fish will be gone. Just my two cents!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thumper you may be right on someone bringing them to Santee but DNR introduced them to most lakes in the 60's when they put the blue and flathead cats in most of all the rivers in South Carolina.