NEW BERN — It’s striped bass season on the Neuse River, and efforts are underway to make the next season a success.
Friday, state Wildlife Resources Commission staff released at least 100,000 striped bass — or more — into the Neuse at a commission boat ramp near New Bern. Similar efforts will take place in the Cape Fear and Tar rivers.
“In the Neuse River, the objective of our stocking program is to try to increase the number of spawning striped bass (there),” said Chad Thomas, supervisor for the Coastal Region in the state Division of Inland Fisheries.
“The striped bass that are in the Neuse — they are moving through the sound, from Pamlico Sound in the winter, up to the upper portions of the Neuse, sometimes as far as Raleigh, in the spring to spawn,” he said.
Anglers pluck striped bass out of the river as the fish swim up to spawn. An Inland Fisheries biologist caught an 11.5-pound striped bass near Goldsboro in May while conducting a survey on the Neuse’s population.
But, before the 6-7-inch juvenile striped bass can go in and move up the river, they’re cultivated in state hatcheries.
In 2012, the state changed from using brood fish out of the Roanoke River near Weldon to those native to the Neuse, in order to produce striped bass more adaptive to the particular environment.
Fish are collected near Kinston and Smithfield in early April — near the end to the Oct. 1-April 30 fishing season — and taken to the Watha State Fish Hatchery in Pender County. One female will be placed individually into two or three tanks each, accompanied by about three males.
Workers siphon fertilized eggs into jars, with hatchlings deposited into nearby ponds. Once about 2 inches long, those fish go to another pond until reaching the necessary 6-7 inches.
The process lasts for the entirety of the offseason — plus some — ending with the December stocking.
Intentions are to reach a point in which restocking is no longer necessary.
“What we’re hoping is to be able to provide is a fish that anglers can catch, and at the same time, have enough of them where they can spawn — to have native reproduction occur where at some point we don’t have to stock anymore,” Thomas said. “We hope the population isn’t solely dependent on stocking.”
The process started in 2001 and became annual in 2009.
Biologists are using methods like taking a small clip of a striped bass’ fin to send to a South Carolina DNA lab to see how many striped bass in the river are because of the most recent stocking and if the numbers of fish naturally reproducing in the Neuse are rising or falling.
One of the perceived problems is there isn’t enough water flow in the upriver spawning areas to produce enough fish. The eggs are buoyant, but need help floating downriver and hatching. Less flow means more eggs don’t make it.
There’s also a project underway — a collaboration between Inland Fisheries and N.C. State — to see if the striped bass are going upriver in large enough amounts or swimming elsewhere.
“The goals of the project are, we’re stocking these fish and the question is, where are they going,” said Inland Fisheries District No. 2 Biologist Ben Ricks, based in Ayden. “We’re stocking at Bridgeton — are they going up the river, are they staying in the New Bern area, or are they going out downriver to the sound?”
“Just where are the fish going, so we can better understand how to manage them? And, are we going to see them on the spawning grounds?” Ricks asked.
Ricks said striped bass in the Neuse continue to be popular for fishing along the length of the river.
“Seasonally, it can be really popular, and the most sought-after fish in a certain season,” Ricks said. “So, I’d say — yeah, it’s incredibly popular. And, even fall and wintertime fishing in recent years has become just as popular as some of the springtime fishing.”
Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 and Wes.Wolfe@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at @WolfeReports.