Smallmouth bass spur debate at Grand Lake Smallmouth bass spur debate at Grand Lake
By Ed Godfrey
Published: June 23, 2007
GROVE — Grand Lake O' the Cherokees is considered by most anglers to be the best largemouth bass fishing lake in the state.
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And almost everyone agrees the bass fishing could be even better if state wildlife officials would add smallmouth bass in the lake for tournament and recreational bass anglers to pursue.
Smallmouth bass have been introduced in Oklahoma lakes such as Eufaula, which now holds the state-record smallmouth, where they have prospered to the delight of bass anglers.
State wildlife officials think the same would happen on Grand Lake, but they haven't put smallmouth in the reservoir because of a genetically unique strain of native smallmouth bass in the headwater streams of Grand Lake, primarily Elk River and Spring River.
The fear is the lake strain, or Tennessee strain, of smallmouth bass would run upstream and mix with the native smallmouth bass, called the Neosho strain, and eventually wipe out a fish that is found nowhere else in the world. On visual inspection, there is no difference in the two strains of smallmouth. They look exactly the same, except the native smallmouth are smaller. Only scientists can tell a difference in the labs.
"They have adapted to a particular environment,” said Jeff Boxrucker, assistant chief of fisheries for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation of the Neosho fish. "Their genetic composition is different than any other groups of smallmouth around the country. Whether that is a huge issue or not is left for debate.”
There is no debate with many die-hard bass anglers. About 300 of them have signed a petition on www.grandfishingreport.com that calls for the state Wildlife Department to add smallmouth bass to Grand Lake.
"We just kind of envy all these lakes that are getting smallmouth and we're not,” said Ivan Martin, a longtime fishing guide on Grand Lake. "If they do good in Skiatook and Eufaula, especially Eufaula, they ought to do great in Grand.”
Russ Martin of Owasso, who grew up fishing the streams of Missouri for smallmouth bass, used to fish on Grand Lake quite a bit.
But then he discovered the smallmouth bass at Lake Skiatook, where he fishes religiously for the bronzebacks, which have a reputation as a great sport fish.
"It's the fight, the challenge of catching them,” said Martin of his passion for smallmouth bass. "If (Grand) had smallmouth, I would probably go there a lot more.”
Both anglers doubt there would be any crossing of the strains if smallmouth bass were put in Grand Lake. Ivan Martin said it is rare that a smallmouth bass is caught in Grand. Russ Martin said he grew up fishing those Ozark streams and never caught a native bronzeback close to the reservoir.
But Oklahoma State University professor Tony Echelle, who was part of the study on the Neosho strain, said integration would happen. It might take generations, but eventually the Neosho strain would become hybridized with the Tennessee strain, and he thinks that is a bad thing.
"I have a lot of respect for the natural pattern,” Echelle said. "Once you have genetic mixing, that's forever. It's almost impossible to recover from that.”
State wildlife officials first obtained the smallmouth bass they put in Oklahoma lakes in 1985 from Percy Priest Lake in Tennessee, a hotbed for smallmouth fishing. They started raising the Tennessee smallmouths in their fish hatcheries and then adding the fish to Oklahoma lakes in the late 1980s.
It was after that when biologists discovered the genetic uniqueness of Oklahoma's native smallmouth bass in the streams. Even in southeastern Oklahoma, there is another unique strain called the Ouachita smallmouth.
Broken Bow Lake was stocked with the Tennessee smallmouth, but the practice was abruptly stopped after the Ouachita strain was discovered in the watershed of the lake. Lake Tenkiller, in northeast Oklahoma, also received some smallmouth bass before the Neosho strain was discovered.
Boxrucker said studies show there have been some crossing between the Tennessee smallmouths and the native stream fish, but they think the native strains still remain relatively pure around Tenkiller and Broken Bow.
For now, state wildlife officials are not going to risk the same thing happening by putting smallmouth bass in Grand Lake.
In addition, Missouri officials might have something to say about it because the Neosho strain of smallmouth is in its streams in southwest Missouri.
"We have erred on the side of caution,” said Barry Bolton, chief of fisheries for the state wildlife department. "There are mixed feelings about which direction this should go. I can tell you there are biologists in my agency who believe we should stock them this year (in Grand).
"I understand why anglers want them. I like to catch them. We are in the business of improving fishing, but once you do it, you can't back up.”
Anglers may take care of the issue on their own. Brent Davis, fisheries coordinator and tournament director for the Grand River Dam Authority — the governing authority on Grand Lake — said there have been a few 4-pound smallmouth bass weighed-in at bass tournaments.
Because of the size of those fish, he knows anglers must be hauling some smallmouth from nearby lakes like W.R. Holloway and Tenkiller and putting them in Grand.
"The Neosho strain don't get that big,” he said. "We've got some in here already. We don't how many.”
Davis said studies show the river and lake strain probably wouldn't cross.
"The lake strain don't go up the rivers and the river strain don't come down,” he said. "But if there was an extreme drought, your river strain would come into the lake and you may cross 'em and they may not go back up. You would do away with them.”
Davis said smallmouth bass would be great for Grand Lake and give it an economic boost.
"We (GRDA) would like to see the Tennessee strain of smallmouth in the lake, but we don't want to see the native smallmouth destroyed that are here,” he said. "We understand that side of it.”
But if enough anglers are willing to illegally put smallmouth bass in the lake on their own, the discussion may become moot.
"They are eventually going to show up,” Davis said. "There's nothing we can do about it, and there's nothing the Wildlife Department can do about it. The position I would have there is, ‘Guys, they're already here. Let's make it better.'”
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