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Wipers in the Great Lakes


David Chong

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Do wipers even occur naturally? Just my understanding that they are stocked and can't spawn ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Striped_bass

" In Canada, the province of Quebec designated the striped bass population of the Saint Lawrence as extirpated in 1996. Analysis of available data implicated overfishing and dredging in the disappearance. In 2002, a reintroduction program was successful.[15][16] "

? Nature finds a way ?

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I have only ever heard of one being caught; it's probably the one from Joestier's link.

I understand that there are stripers in the Hudson River.  So I believe that they could enter the Great Lakes through the Erie Canal.  Once they are here, there are plenty of white bass for them to breed with.

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I caught a 4lb White Bass last year. It looked much bigger that the 4lbs. shown on my Boga Grip but I bet she could breed up some big ol'e Wiper offsping given a chance. Even if it made sense there would be a huge lobby against transplanting this species around here. I've even seen guys here complain about smallmouth bass as "invasive"".

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1 hour ago, Snidley said:

I caught a 4lb White Bass last year. It looked much bigger that the 4lbs. shown on my Boga Grip but I bet she could breed up some big ol'e Wiper offsping given a chance. Even if it made sense there would be a huge lobby against transplanting this species around here. I've even seen guys here complain about smallmouth bass as "invasive"".

Actually smallies are not native to NW Ontario but were introduced, story was they carried in milk cans along the railway and dumped in lakes along the line and spread from there.  We weren't too happy about them getting into Spec Lakes in Haliburton either when dad had the place there.

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2 hours ago, Snidley said:

I caught a 4lb White Bass last year. It looked much bigger that the 4lbs. shown on my Boga Grip but I bet she could breed up some big ol'e Wiper offsping given a chance. Even if it made sense there would be a huge lobby against transplanting this species around here. I've even seen guys here complain about smallmouth bass as "invasive"".

When I was young my dad's brother in law and a friend of his stopped by on the way home from an early spring trip to the Sandusky river here for the spring walleye run, they didn't get any walleye, but had a cooler full of  white bass that must have been pushing 2 pounds apiece. I have never seen them consistently so big again, a 4 pounder would be huge!

Striper - wiper just more competition for food for existing natural species, like introducing smallies into some of those trout waters?

I thought the salmon stocking in lake erie here was misdirected, they might have been better off stocking pike and ski which used too be a lot more common here.

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This got me thinking - imagine that in the 60's instead of stocking pacific salmon to control the alewife, they had stocked stripers? Was this ever looked at? Imagine - huge, aggressive fish; surf casting; smashing schools of baitfish. I don't believe they can successfully breed in freshwater, so it would hopefully be a controllable fishery as well. 

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6 hours ago, Tom S said:

This got me thinking - imagine that in the 60's instead of stocking pacific salmon to control the alewife, they had stocked stripers? Was this ever looked at? Imagine - huge, aggressive fish; surf casting; smashing schools of baitfish. I don't believe they can successfully breed in freshwater, so it would hopefully be a controllable fishery as well. 

I do recall hearing that both stripers (or it may have been hybrids) and salmon were considered.  I not sure how reliable the sources was though.

 

Edited by John Bacon
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6 hours ago, Tom S said:

This got me thinking - imagine that in the 60's instead of stocking pacific salmon to control the alewife, they had stocked stripers? Was this ever looked at? Imagine - huge, aggressive fish; surf casting; smashing schools of baitfish. I don't believe they can successfully breed in freshwater, so it would hopefully be a controllable fishery as well. 

http://www.striperspace.com/freshwater_stripers.html

Evidently they can spawn successfully if the right conditions are present.

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