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.