Photo by Ron Sinfelt

Most Kentucky anglers would probably agree that throughout the Commonwealth, hybrid striped bass are what you'd call an "obscure" species. After all, hybrid stripers rank a ways down the list in terms of angler interest -- behind largemouth, crappie, catfish and bluegill.

Yet according to fisheries biologists with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR), the hybrid striped bass is a species that has a lot of appeal -- both to people who like to fish and in some cases, the biologists who are working to improve the health of all game fish species.

Recent collected data has given some indication that when hybrid stripers are stocked in certain environments, establishing that new fishery can help improve the quality of fishing for other game species too.

Kentucky's state-owned hatcheries produce nearly 600,000 hybrid striped bass each year, which generally have been released into about six waterways. This year, a couple of other new fisheries will likely be started.

These opportunities to find hybrids aren't being expanded simply to give anglers more to go after, though that's a darn good reason. The effort is also as part of some ongoing research conducted by KDFWR biologists.

"We originally began the hybrid program where it was feasible for a couple of reasons," said KDFWR Fisheries Director Benjy Kinman.

"In some of our lakes, white bass had taken a nosedive," Kinman said. "They tend to be extremely cyclic in natural reproduction. We felt a good remedy would be to substitute a hybrid fishery instead, through ongoing stocking.

"That both eliminated the bulk of the problem with up-and-down reproduction, and provided a fish that was a fast-grower, hard fighter and could potentially get a lot bigger than a pure white bass."

In other waters where hybrids now roam, the reason to create a fishery was a little different.

"In some spots, especially our smaller-sized lakes, we realized that some had a surplus of larger shad in the forage base," said Kinman.

"For all intents and purposes, this segment of bigger baitfish wasn't benefiting the majority of the largemouth and crappie, because they were too big for most of the predators to eat. Maybe a 20-inch-plus bass could handle a 5- or 6-inch shad, but that was about it.

"It's actually one of the reasons why we don't want shad in our smaller public lakes. Yet we can't go in and eradicate all the big shad that are already there. So we've taken a different route in some lakes of 300 acres or better where we believe a hybrid fishery can make it," said the biologist.