Message from Marty

“I have have been involved in the sport of bass fishing for over forty years and in my opinion the lakes we have in the state of NC are at an all-time high in usage both for fishing and recreational. This to me is a great thing, but the question I ask everyday is the resources we have capable of handling and sustaining with the increase of usage? Not sure anyone knows the answer to this. This led to myself, Chuck Murray, and Keith Joyce (two men who I have known and respected for a long time who both like myself have a passion for our NC lakes) to sit down a few times and ask ourselves these question. We also asked ourselves “what can we do to ensure they do and possibly make them better?”. These questions got us down the path of forming Bass Anglers for NC Lakes, Inc. Our goal is to raise awareness and capital to form a partnership between anglers and our NC Wildlife Fisheries Management Division. We have met with all the key staff members who represent our NC Fisheries Department. We have shared our concerns and our goals and have all come together to find several common goals to work on. They have a agreed to let us raise capital to help with purchase of F-1 fingerlings to be stock in three NC lakes starting in 2023. Those lakes are Gaston, Jordan, and Lake Norman. We are hoping to raise enough money annually to make a significant impact to the stockings of these lakes and hopefully other lakes in NC in the near future. Our NC Fisheries management will take the lead on purchasing the fingerling along with the stocking (we will be looking for volunteers for this; more to come later). They will also take the lead on continuing to monitoring these lakes to see if these stockings have a significant impact.

This in my opinion could be a game changer for NC lakes. In my various travels throughout the country I have seen many areas both private and state use F-1’s to enhance their respected fisheries. These fish are special in that they are genetically 50% northern largemouth and 50% Florida strain largemouth. What does this mean for anglers; simple a bass that has the growth rate of a Florida strain bass, but has the aggression of a northern strain bass. So in theory we are introducing a strain of bass to NC that can grow bigger and be more aggressive. What are the keys for this to work? The answer is this program has to be repeatable, scalable, and sustainable. For the program to be a game changer for NC lakes it will take time and money. For this to work it cannot be a one time stocking and hope to see some sustainable impact. Instead, most areas I have been around have taken five years of sustain stocking to see a consistent impact. That’s not to say there will not be success stories along the way; however after five years of continued stockings in a lot of the areas anglers start to see a difference.

How can an angler help with this? Again, the answer is simple, donate and tell others about the program. Some very important bullet points are as follows. First, for every dollar that is donated to the state by the private sector the state can get matching federal funding that turns one dollar into four dollars (If there is a change, we will make everyone aware). For the year of 2023 the estimated cost of F-1’s fingerlings the state is wanting to purchase is $.50 per fish (if there is a change, we will make everyone aware). Now each dollar donated because of matching funding can purchase eight fingerlings. Secondly, this is a statewide program that if successful we hope to bring to lakes throughout all of NC. We as anglers need to show NCWR Fisheries Division we anglers can be good reliable partners and do our part with sustainable funding. Our goal is that at least 3,000 anglers each year will donate at least $100.00 annually. That would be an annual donation of $300,000.00 and with matching funding could produce over 1.2 million dollars to the state for stockings of F-1’s throughout the state. Please help us with this project with your donations (make it an annual occurrence), tell others, and give it the time it will take for us to see the results. Let’s improve our fisheries in our state one fingerling at a time.

Thanks for everyone’s help with this project!

Marty Stone, Secretary