By Ronnie Parris
Hey folks, I hope you are all doing well. Loving this awesome fall weather. This is just mountain paradise right now.
I’ve been trying not to complain, but come on NCWRC we’ve been waiting and waiting for you to get Fontana back to the glory days of walleye fishing. Last couple of years we’ve gotten some small walleye stockings, but the problem is, when the state stocks walleye they are stocking such small amounts, in a lake the size of Fontana, it’s like pissing in a farm pond. It just don’t amount to anything. Plus, you have to figure over half get eaten by our spotted bass before they get big enough to even think about spawning. We all know the main problem is the blueback herring, which run up in the river where the walleye and white bass spawn. The problem is they’re there at the prime spawning time and they’re eating most of the eggs and fry from the walleye and white bass.
So what’s the solution? Well you have to lower the numbers on the herring, and there’s several fish you could stock to accomplish this, with striped bass being at the top of the list. Not only are they a great sporting fish, but great eating as well. Stripers have a tendency to follow schools of herring and will eat pounds of these bait fish a day, thereby lowering the number so walleye have a chance to spawn. Hiwassee introduced striper a few years ago and it’s been a success story
Several people talked like our biologist was gonna help us out by stocking stripers, but last word I got, he was being stubborn and didn’t want to help us. So what I’m gonna suggest is for all Fontana residents an anglers to contact our state biologist and the higher-up, government powers that be and plead for help. It’s ridiculous to have a lake the size of Fontana and the freshwater streams feeding it and not get any help from the state to get it back on track.
Sorry for having to hear me whine, but really. As always take a kid fishing.