Lake Gaston NC/VA Alabama Spottted Bass Taking Over
Last year I moved to VA very close to Lake Gaston which used to be known as an excellent Largemouth fishery. Fished at least 200 times in the last year catching 1000+ bass. Bad news - 80% Alabams spots, mostly small. Only 5 Largemouth over 4lbs, one 24" weighed only 5 1/2 lbs. This lake is in big trouble. Anyone else seeing it?
Philpott lake also has Alabama bass. Not sure about the impact yet.
Spots are great, if the forage is right. A nice roaming forage seems to diminish the impact on the otherwise lazy bigger shallow-dweller largemouth. If you can get your spotted bass population up to 2-3lbs. it makes for a fun day of fishing. I'm near Lake Norman and we have blueback herring and white perch. Catching 4lb spots is certainly not uncommon and the record is 6lbs+. The Wildlife folks recently sent me a newsletter stating that they were stocking northern/florida F1 hybrids to try to offset some of this lack of trophy largemouth, so I'm interested to see what impact that has on the lake and tournament fishing. Norman also demonstrated that, given a expansive water volume, spotted bass populations will EXPLODE in the short term and produce a bunch of dinks. I moved near Lake Norman shortly after spotted bass were introduced. I remember in the mid-to-late-2000s just catching 1 after the other 8-10" spotted bass that looked like a long skinny toy submarine. In either case, the likelihood of catching better-sized spots has vastly improved, in my opinion, and spotted bass give you another species to target, usually in a different area of the lake. There are pros and cons.
Jason,
While its true that we have another species to target, it is looking like soon they'll be the ONLY species to target.
Shad here are the predominant baitfish, and there appeaes to be a healthy base of them. The Alabama spots feed on them like a wolfpack. When they are schooled up, (and they school up a lot), the feeding frenzy can be spectacular. They'll hit ANYTHING you throw.
But rarely are there lsrgemouth mixed in, and the lack of relative weight on largemouth I am catching indicates to me that they are being out-competed for the shad. They also are appearing to be pushed off a lot of the traditional deeper water hangouts as the spot population increases.
I am also fearful that, between the elimination of aquatic vegetation from the Lake by treatments and carp, and this exploding spot population, the largemouth spawns will be forever doomed to being poor.
Gaston does not have a lot of cover to begin with, mostly docks, some blow downs, and diminishing stumps (at least east of I-85). You can find brushpiles planted by fisherman too, but thats mostly incidental.
Is this lake doomed as a largemouth fishery?
We had grass 2 years ago on Norman, but they sprayed it and killed it. Admittedly, the hydrilla was growing like wildfire in the 4'+ visibility of the south end of the lake, and Norman is really a recreational lake for Charlotte's denizen's who are prefer it to Wylie's less pristine waters, so they're prefer not be covered in nasty hydrilla when skiing and swimming. I don't know the answer for Gaston. Personally, I would say to roll with the punches. I never caught a spotted bass until I moved near Lake Norman, I grew up fishing High Rock almost exclusively. Norman was a completely different type of lake, and I HATED IT.
Now, catching schooling spots are some of my most memorable moments on Lake Norman. I have seen first hand that they outfeed the largemouth, easily. Honestly, the largemouth are like the family dog getting the scraps from the table. I almost always catch a largemouth or two after the schooling is over with a weightless fluke that I just let float down like a spotted bass had killed it. In either case, tournaments are still won with some bigger largemouth on Norman, but I feel like spotted bass are easier to pattern and will still bite when largemouth shut down.
RichK LK Gaston VA/NC, any update on the Spotted bass situation in Lake Gaston? The F1 hybrids in Norman were supposed to be surveyed with electrofishing in the Spring, but I've never seen a report. There's supposed to be a follow-up F1 largemouth hybrid stocking this Spring as well. While looking for the 2021 survey, I did find a previous survey report that showed that the first Alabama bass was found in 2002 and by 2010, they were 5x more abundant than largemouth bass. Proving that Alabama bass do indeed take over. The survey also showed what I've found in my fishing, but never had any scientific proof of, was that these bass like the deeper/clearer waters of the south end of Norman.
One shocking statistic was that in 1996 (before Alabama bass) Norman averaged 22 largemouth per 300 meters, in 2013, it was down to 1 largemouth per 300 meters.
The report stated explicitly that the Lake Norman species are genetically Alabama bass and not spotted bass. I have no idea what the biological difference is, as they look the same to me.
I finally stumbled upon the results of the Spring F1 largemouth survey in Lake Norman:
https://www.ncwildlife.org/Portals/0/Fishing/documents/2021/Lake-Norman-Electrofishing-Survey-Results-May-2021.pdf
It appears that the fish from the 2020 Fall first stocking had not grown through the winter when electrofishing for the Spring 2021 survey.
Rich, That's crummy news about Lake Gaston. I love fishing there. I have heard of the DNR lifting all restrictions on keeping spotted bass in lakes that were getting taken over. They wanted people to take them home and eat them in an effort to reduce the population. It's a very polarizing topic. I hope the DNR can get things under control there. In the meantime, enjoy catching all those spots. Below are some tutorials on Bass U about spotted bass techniques. Good luck and keep us posted.
https://bassu.tv/bass-fishing-video/spotted-bass-in-rivers-lakes-matt-herren
https://bassu.tv/bass-fishing-video/prespawn-cranking-for-spotted-bass-latimer
Jason,
The only news here is that all limits on Spotted bas in Lake Gaston have been removed. You can now catch and keep/kill as many as you want of any size. Will it help? So far, no. They only seem more numerous, and generally smaller, but it's probably too early to see any effect. Spots over 3lbs. are becoming hard to find, whereas 2 years ago, I caught a number of them.
As a long time bass fanatic, I am conflicted on the issue of unlimited harvesting/killing of these fish, for several reasons:
1) I hate killing bass, period.
2) no guarantee it would help
3) I doubt that we could kill enough of them
These fish are EXTREMELY aggressive. I have caught the same fish on the same bait 2 days in a row 3 times in the past 18 months. I know this because they broke me off on 8lb. Mono and still had my ned rig in their mouth.
Half the time, they are spitting up multiple threadfin shad when being landed, and sometimes small bream.
Largemouths appear to have no chance of competing with them for shad, and I believe they have been relegated now primarily to the shallows to feed and crawfish and bream. It's been 2 years since I've caught a largemouth of at least 6 lbs. In that 2 year span, fishing the lake probably 200 times, Ive landed only 5 LM bass weighing 5+ lbs. And those fish were all between 21-24 inches, and appeared very under expected weight.
So the damage is already done as far as I can see. There are some excellent bass fisherman here that probably can know the lake so well they can find big LMs a lot better than me, but I am adjusting tactics and finding more 3-4 lbers. From post spawn through late fall I simply gave up trying to find LMs depper than 10 feet, concentrating on docks and shallow water and increased my LM catch ratio considerably.
The spotted bass seem to absolutely dominate the best offshore habitat.
I have run into some amazing feeding frenzies of spotted bass, and admit it is fun catching 20-40 bass in an hour. But they'll top out usually at the 2lb mark, with an occasional 2 1/2 or 3 lber.
But that 's not what we're after, is it guys? We're after those fat, giant fish and the thrill of seeing their huge profile for the first time when you get 'em close to the boat, or they tail-stand, shaking their head at us in defiance.
Thanks to rich property owners using chemicals and grass carp to eliminate nearly all aquatic vegetation, and a poor decision by someone to bring these ultra-agressive bass here, that thrill has become nearly extinct here.
When fishermen become as politically influential as property owners, this may stop happening. Anyone here see that happening? I don't. Even most environmentalists won't align with fishermen because we drive boats that burn fossil fuels. They want a world where all fishermen wear spandex and float in kayaks. Yeah. I lived in NJ where hunters and fishermen are pretty much despised. I guess we're just not enlightened enough.
Guys,
The only positive thing related to the introduction of Alabama spots in Lake Gaston may be this:
Over the past few years the VA/NC record for Blue Catfish has been broken on Lake Gaston at least 5 times, twice in as period if less thsn 24 hours. I suspect that it's no coincidence that it coincides with the explosion of Coosa River spots. After talking to several catfish guides who broke this records, they support that suspicion 100%.
