Good news, Back Bay: Stocking of largemouth bass set

Milfoil and duck weed grasses that continue to spread throughout Back Bay are great news for anglers and waterfowl hunters.

More good news comes from the state game department, which has announced it will stock thousands of largemouth bass throughout the estuary.

It will be the first time the bay's shallow waters have been stocked since an experimental effort in 2009 put in 75,000 fingerlings.

This stocking, which is supposed to be part of a three-year effort, will see 125,000 bass stocked in several locations.

The stocking is scheduled for May.

The fingerlings are known as tiger bass and come from Alabama. They are a hybrid bass bred to be very competitive and extremely fit. At the time of stocking, they will range from 1 to 2 inches long.

According to Department of Game and Inland Fisheries biologist Chad Boyce, they are essentially the same fish as the natural bass in the bay.

"All bass east of the Mississippi are hybridized," he said. "The survival and growth rate of these bass is pretty high. The fish we stocked in 2009 showed that. When we recaptured some of those fish later in the fall, they had grown to 10 inches.

"They'll have a competitive edge when they hit the water because they are considered to be in much better shape than the naturally spawned bass that will be about the same size."

During the 1960s, '70s and early '80s, Back Bay was known as one of the best largemouth bass fisheries in the country. Anglers came to wade the shallows or fish deeper waters by boat.

The bay back then was full of milfoil grass that gave fingerlings a place to hide from predators while they grew.

But pollution from runoff and several other factors contributed to the grass dying off to the point where almost none could be found.

Planting efforts and a natural cycle have seen grasses return throughout the bay.

"We have the habitat. Now we need more fish," Boyce said. "So now we need to help the growth of the fish population."

Boyce said game department staff will return in the fall for sampling to test survival, growth and distribution.

"These fish, like the ones in '09, are chemically marked," Boyce said. "We'll shock up fish from the areas where we stocked and check the otolith (a small bone in the inner ear used for age testing), and that will show us if they are stocked fish or native.

"Soon, with any luck, these fish will blend in with the native fish and there will be more spawning and population growth."

But will Back Bay ever return to its glory days, when limits of large bass weighing up to 10 pounds were commonplace?

"All the elements are in place, and there is evidence that the bay... goes in cycles," Boyce said. "We're on the up side of that.

I'd have to say that there is a real potential for a return to those days."