Thanks, Idot. Just about to google to find out how big they get.

Anybody want to say anything in response?

Who'd of thought they grow to 16"? That's big enough to hunt stripe with.

Which is why I snicker when I hear someone say, "Bass won't eat that lure, it's too big!" and yet they eat giant gizzard shad, big bluebacks, other bass and whatever else they can get their mouths around.

When I was about 13 and we first moved to Alabama in 1976, the 1 1/2-2 acre pond on our place had a few catfish, a ton of red-eye bream, and pond shiners or roaches that grew up to about 16" long. We added a couple grass carp and 11 small bass from another pond. There are no more shiners, now, and the bream population has stabilized and produces some real decent fish. The bass grew like they were on steroids for about the first 10 years or so, then leveled off, too. Haven't fished for them there in a long time, but I assume there are still some there. My Mom feeds the bream daily, when she goes down to feed our ducks, so we see them regularly. There are still a few big catfish in there, and the last of the grass carp was last seen just a few years ago, and was probably in the neighborhood of 75-80 lbs, then. Biggest bass I know that came out of it was about 5 lbs or so, biggest catfish is 27 lbs. We've introduced shellcracker a couple times, and have caught some up to about a pound, but they've never really taken hold like the bluegill and the bass. I've thought now and then that it'd be nice to have a place to put crappie in, but I've seen the damage they do to a micro-system like a small pond, and I'd rather not have to start over like we had to with all the small bream and shiners infesting the pond.

Dang yall, give the guy a break. All he said was the bass fishing has gotten better. He's probably not a fisheries biologist. He doesn't know what kind of detrimental effect they "may" have on the ecosystem later on. Hell if someone put something in the coosa that killed all the bass and carp and made stripers, catfish, and crappie bigger I would be jumping for joy but the guys in the 75 mph bass boats would all be pissed. Give the guy a break. I haven't ever seen a group of grown men so eager to jump on a guy over something he didn't create, that brings him greater joy.

TFD, don't you think that jumping up and down with all the bass gone is extreme. Also, the earlier statement about fishing being better leaves out a lot of species and fishermen.

Yeah, that was kind of harsh. I think they ought to make tournament bass fishing illegal though. Do you realize how detrimental tournament bass fishermen are to the ecosystem? They catch every bass they can possibly catch and net them, removing most of their slime coat. the ones that they keep to weigh in are kept in a livewell in subpar conditions for hours and after they are touched by 2 or 3 different people they are weighed and then finally turned loose miles from their home, most likely to die. Also the bass fishermen roar up and down the lake at 70 miles per hour, never stopping for more than 5 minutes at a time, ultimately sending out relentless wakes that muddies up all the near shore waters so I can't see carp (another invasive species) when I go bowfishing. I am trying to kill all the carp so they won't raid the beds of all the crappie, bream, and bass. Yall talk about something detrimental to the ecosystem, it's the tournament bass fishermen.

You see how it sucks when you enjoy something and someone roasts your ass for it. Leave the guy alone.

As far as my fishing, yall know I love catching stripers and stripers love eating blueback herring so bring them on. As a matter of fact, I bet catfish and crappie eat them too. The only fish that I believe the blueback herring will effect is the young of the year bass and bream which feed on phytoplankton but I am sure there is probably enough phytoplankton to go around.

Hey, bud, you are preaching to the choir as far as I'm concerned on tournaments.

I have a small pond in South Carolina that someone introduced bluebacks to back a few years ago. I thought they looked like awesome bass forage! I have not been able to shock the pond since then but am going to try to shock it this fall. I would like to see how they have affected that fishery either positive or negative.

Carp, an omnivore, eat crappie, bream and bass and raid their beds? Learn something new every day.

I didn't say carp eat crappie, bream and bass. I said they raid their beds.
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I thought stripe guides got caught fishing with bluebacks and they had to pay a big fine?? I didn't think the state put them In there

Clem, bring your cast net when you come.

I caught two in a net below Oliver L&D about 3 years ago

Bluebacks are probably good for the environments.

Just for reference here are some dead bluebacks from Smith Lake.

Man, those look like good bait. Hillary will probably be vetting 100,000 blueback refugees from smith lake and dropping them off in a lake near you. Sorry, I been in the wine and that seems funny right now.