VDGIF Biologists

Hunter, Jarrett, John, Dominic, and Mike

Cloudy and Warm, Water Temperature 85* and Clear

Today was a fun day for me, every year I take out the Va. Game and Inland Fisheries biologists for a morning of fishing. They get to reap some of the rewards of their labor by catching the fish that they manage and stock. I enjoy getting into their heads about the overall condition of the lake but more importantly the Striper population and their plans for stocking Stripers in the future at Lake Anna. Recently they have stocked Hybrid Stripers which have grown to 12 to 15 inches already and also introduced Saugeye [a cross between Saugers and Walleye] which has grown over 20 inches to date. This morning we started off well by boating about a dozen Stripers in the first 30 minutes of fishing. Wish the rest of the morning could have went as well but the schools dissipated fairly rapidly and we had to work for every fish thereafter. The water temperature has gone up a few degrees in the last week which has schooled the Stripers up much better than in the previous weeks. This morning we caught about 30 Stripers and a dozen Catfish. Someone at the marina told me I probably should have taken them to a barren area so they would want to stock more Stripers next year but these guys do a great job of keeping a great Striper fishery in a lake that is difficult to manage due to some unfavorable conditions the lake has. Last year I took them out and had our best day ever on the lake for catching Stripers. We boated 270 Stripers by 1 o'clock that day. We kept our limits and released all the rest of the fish to fight again another day. Now there is a testament to a job well done.