Dang Yellow Bass

[Edward Lea.]

Any other state having problems with yellow bass? Here in southwest Iowa, where we have a lot of small lakes that have provided lots of execellent bass fishing. Some where in the past, i'd say 10 years or so the state or someone had to stock yellow bass into our lakes. The state still is not admitting how it happened but there was a lot of lake renovations and stocking going on in a three year period. Anyway these dang yellow bass showed up in almost all 0f the lakes that had been renovated and some of the new ones all at the same time. If you all are not familiar with these things let me clue you in. They will wreck a lake in short order. They breed like mad and then eat every baby fish that hatch's out. In a few years there are no longer any little fish in a lake and the state has to kill it and start over again. The sad part was that most of the lakes that were renovated were actually really good bass lakes and were being renovated to provide better bank fishing. Now they all have to be drained, killed, and restocked again. If you have yellow bass show up in any of your small to medium lakes start to look around for other lakes because your lake is on it's way to being dead.

 

[Larry Harp]

Never heard of a Yellow Bass. What do they look like? Are they known by other names?



Harpo

 

[Edward Lea.]

They look like mini strippers. State record is somewhere around 14". Skin is rough like a walleye. The dorsal fin is tall and spinny like a stickle back which makes them not good prey for most fish. I've only heard of them called yellow bass. Below is a link to the description.




http://www.iowadnr.com/fish/iafish/yellbass.html

 

[Josh Bertrand]

We have Yellows in a couple meduim sized Reservours out here. Beleive it or not, they are the two best trophy largemouth lakes in the state, Saguaro Lake and Canyon lake. I Agree that they can be quite a nuisance, when the jigging spoon bite gets good in the winter time, sometime's you'll catch 80% yellows and 20% largemouth. They are also hard to keep off crankbaits and jerkbaits in shallow water when the water is cooler.

I don't beleive they affect the growth of the largemouth too badly here, they are also a prime forage for largemouth. The stripers and white bass in Lake Pleasant are another story though......

 

[Edward Lea.]

After they reach certain population level they eat every young fish born. In the part of the state where I live there are 7 lakes with in 15 to 45 minute drive. Ranging from 200 to 1000 acres. Anita, Icaria and it's two feeder lakes have already been killed and restocked in the last two years. Twelve mile is being killed this year and Viking is on the schedule( this one was done about 5 years ago). Three mile lake, it's 1 mile from twelve mile, hes been discovered to have a few yellows show up this year. They put some whippers in it to see if they will eat the young yellow bass or it will probably go the way of the others. There are two other lakes outside of the 45 minte drive that are going to be killed also. We had some of the best fishing around here and it has been destroyed by these little guys. The adult largemouths do not get hurt but sooner or later they get caught or die of natural causes and there are no new fish to replace them.

 

[Doug Bailey]

"Yellow Bass", "Yellow Fish", "Bar Fish"....Whatever you want to call them; They've become a huge pain in the neck in Lake Fork. Especially when Crappie Fishing. Some days you spend ALL your time taking yellow fish off the hook instead of boating Crappie.

 

[William H. (Bill) Barham]

I've never even heard of 'Yellow Bass".. I tried to find a picture of them but couldn't. They sound like they're a P.I.T.A...



Bill

 

[Edward Lea.]

Thank your DNR department that you have never heard of them. I have attached a link to a picture of them.
http://www.iowadnr.com/fish/iafish/ywb-card.html

 

[Larry Harp]

Looks like a White Bass or what we in Oklahoma call a "Sand Bass". Those are good to eat and you can catch a 100 of them if you find them schooling. What the diff?



Harpo

 

[Josh Bertrand]

Yellow bass are quite a bit smaller than white's on average.