By Ronnie Parris
Anybody who knows me will tell you I’m not one to gripe. But sometimes the old saying, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease,” is true and I would say it’s time for the residents of Swain County and the surrounding counties to ask for some changes in the way our main lake, Fontana, is being managed. When you have a lake the size of Fontana with the fresh water supplies coming into it, and the majority of the local anglers are going to other lakes because it’s getting harder to catch a good limit of fish, then something’s wrong.
I have grown up here in Swain County and I have fished Fontana as long as I can remember. The last 2 years, I can say, have been the toughest that I can remember. I have multiple friends who guide or some that just fish almost every day, and we are all worried about the direction Fontana is headed. I’m sure if you ask you will get a different opinion from every person regarding what the problem, and what the solution, is and I’m no different. I will say I’m not a biologist; I’m just a fishing guide that wants Fontana to be managed in a more favorable way. I know a lot of folks are going to point to the spotted bass as the culprit for the fall in Walleye and smallmouth numbers, and I will admit the cross breeding between smallmouth and spots have hurt the smallmouth. As for me, I love the spotted bass. They are aggressive feeders and great table fare for the angler who likes eating fish. If I was in charge, the only change I would make, as far as the spotted bass are concerned, is to either go back to the 12-inch minimum size or do away with the size restriction all together to control spotted bass numbers. I would keep the 5 fish per day limit, which would cause a lot of people to turn back smallmouth and largemouth and keep the spots, which are much better to eat. The way it’s set up now, you really have to keep smallmouth and largemouth if you are going to keep a limit of fish.
As far as the Walleye numbers, I feel we have multiple problems and fixes. First, I really think the spawn, for several years, has been poor at best and in my opinion, the number one reason is TVA refuses to hold the water at a constant level during the spawn. Walleye and white bass are in full swing with the spawn at the same time of year. That TVA starts filling the lake back up from its wintertime levels, which prevents the eggs that are being laid from hatching. In my opinion, the limit is too high on Walleye. It needs to be cut back to 5 per person like the bass limit. A good number of fish are needlessly killed every year by the gill net studies, when you could get a better assessment by doing creel surveys or having guides and anglers keep a data sheet on time on the water and species caught, which was done for species such as ruffed grouse.
The newest problem for Walleye is another fish species in Fontana. These are the bluebacks that are now abundant in Fontana. I’ve always heard that the bluebacks contain an enzyme which, when consumed by walleye, would make them sterile. I’m not a biologist so I don’t know if this is true. What I do know is that the bluebacks are veracious eaters and not only eat the eggs of game fish but also the fry. Lake Glenville is a prime example of the effect of bluebacks on Walleye populations, as when I was a boy, Glenville was one of the best Walleye lakes in the mountains and now you hardly ever catch a Walleye there. The answer to the blueback problem in my opinion is to turn striped bass in to keep the blueback numbers down. I know a lot of people will worry about the stripers eating other game fish but Hiwassee has had great success with the introduction of them and has seen no negative effects of stocking of them.
I’m sure there are other folks with ideas about Fontana and where we are headed. Hopefully our North Carolina Wildlife biologist is listening, is as concerned as we are about the way things are going, and is willing to make some changes to get Fontana headed back in the right direction. As I said at the beginning of this article, this is only my opinion but Fontana is too valuable of a resource to sit back and see it continue to go in the wrong direction. Maybe if enough people contact our biologist and voice their concerns, we can get a little grease flowing our way.
Ronnie Parris is the Owner and Head Guide of Smoky Mountain Outdoors Unlimited-Fontana Lake Fishing Guides, headquartered in Bryson City, North Carolina, heart of the Great Smoky Mountains. (www.smokymountainoutdoorsunlimited.com)