Thread: Lake Murray Striper

Originally Posted by Thumper1

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 you are spot on. Have also heard about guys bringing in perch as bait. The commercial fishermen would use them on trot lines and such.

Originally Posted by bioguy

I got a hard time believing this statement. Why would DNR stock white perch into reservoirs? And flatheads?

The DNR spokesman we have questioned on this deny that DNR ever stocked White Perch in SC lakes, but considering the negative impact the perch have had, DNR probably would not admit it if they did. I sure wouldn't.

Ray, our DNR sometimes doesn't do smart things. I remember years ago they stocked either blues or flatheads (senior moment, I can't remember) in the Pee Dee and the Edisto. They promptly ate up all of the Redbreast Bream and made a whole bunch of people fighting mad.

I know about the Edisto. A dear friend, now departed, loved to fish the Edisto for Redbreast. I went a few times with him. Loved catching those pretty fish out of that dark water.

This is an interesting thread with a lot of good discussion. I just wanted to add that I have also read that the blueback herring can deplete native species because they will eat eggs, unlike the shad. This is one of the reason that many lakes do not allow them to be used for bait there. I read of one lake in Alabama where a guide was arrested for using herring as bait. I fish mostly Clarks Hill now and the fishing is definitely different from what I grew up doing with the herring and the perch.

White perch and herring. Perch compete with crappie for food their entire life. Really there's no competition. Herring compete with crappie for food when the crappie are small. Both will eat small crappie fry I'm sure. Striper eat a few and so will largemouth, but not enough to hurt the population. States that don't have herring won't allow them. Dead or alive. Not even frozen. Tennessee and Kentucky will burn you up for having them. Herring are a surprisingly visous predator for their small size. They eat lots of fry. Santee lakes and the savannah lakes also have hickory shad in them. To catch them I've always used minnows or small spoons. Since the hickory shad are native I don't really think they will hurt the population too much. I'm going with herring and perch.

I don't know about the politics or the science...

1 ) what I do know is you cannot drag a monkey milk jig with a blue jig head without a 18" striper causing a genuine cluster of your lines..

2) judging from most striper boats there's money in that game..

3) it insults my meager intellect to say a few fisherman used perch as bait back in the day and that caused every body of water to be flooded with the little buggers..

4) the DNR did in fact stock flatheads in the edisto river, then claimed ignorance and refused to do anything to control them...

Info: White perch usually lay their eggs in the evening or after it rains. Each female can lay between 20,000 and 200,000 eggs. The eggs stick together in a clump and may also stick to the bottom. The parents then leave and do not take care of the eggs.
Crappie: Females lay 5,000 to 30,000 eggs.The males guard these nests until the fry swim away. Big difference.