Photo By Ron Sinfelt

Even though the state hasn’t stocked saltwater stripes or hybrids on the Tennessee River in a few years, the fishing for those linesides is still outstanding on the big river in North Alabama during the spring run. The tailwaters of Wilson, Wheeler and Guntersville dams are particularly good places to try your luck for stripes this time of year.

“The fishing is as good at one dam as it is another,” said Keith Floyd, the fisheries biologist for that section of the state.

Saltwater stripes and hybrids don’t occur naturally in the Tennessee River but were stocked there many years ago. A remnant of the stocked fish survived and continue to thrive. It’s widely believed among diehard stripe anglers that some of the fish migrate out of the Tennessee River and spawn in tributaries such as the Paint Rock and Elk rivers each spring.

State fisheries research also bears this out. Jerry Moss of the Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries said they observed fish running into Big Nance, Cypress and Shoal creeks, as well as the Paint Rock River, during sampling operations in 1992 and 1993.

A related species, the white bass does occur in abundance naturally in the Tennessee River and also offers fine angling opportunities this time of year. White bass don’t grow as large as hybrids or stripes, but they’re good fighters and terrific table fare.

“Stripers and white bass normally make a spawning run in the spring, and that’s why they congregate below the dams,” Floyd explained.

The best time to fish for them is when water is running through the dams, he added, and the best places to toss your bait are in the boils of the current.

When the state first began its program of stocking, sportfishermen worried that the big predators would hurt populations of native game fish such as bass and crappie. The DWFF addressed that by sampling the contents of striper bellies. They found that the fish feed almost exclusively on shad. The stripers and hybrids also live primarily in open water, limiting their competition for food with other species. Similar studies in Arkansas, Florida, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia turned up the same results.

Stripers in Southern waters -- particularly the larger fish -- have one major problem. They suffer from thermal stress during hot weather. When that happens, large stripers forgo feeding as they search for cooler water, such as that provided by springs.

That phenomenon has led fisheries managers to do more stocking with hybrid stripers, which don’t grow as large but tolerate warm water much better. Hybrids are voracious feeders and can grow as large as 18 inches in as little as two years.

It has been three or four years since any striped bass have been stocked in the Tennessee River.

“We just haven’t had any demand for it or any positive feedback indicating that we needed to resume the program,” state fisheries biologist Keith Floyd said.

Dan Myrick of Guntersville is a longtime fan of targeting stripes downstream of the Guntersville Dam.

“The dam used to be crowded with stripe fishermen, but a lot of them quit when the state stopped stocking,” Myrick said. “But it can still be worth your while to spend some time there.”

The last time he was there, only a handful of anglers were fishing “the wall” next to the dam, and Myrick watched as one of his fellow anglers landed a pair of 10-pound hybrid stripes.

“Most of what you see nowadays are hybrids,” he said. “About 20 pounds is as big as they get.”