My water is over 74° most of the summer should i expect slow growth? I don't understand what you mean here CJ can you explain that to me a little better.. Thanks for the info guys
Smaller HSB love warm water. They'll grow rather fast in it as a matter of fact. Larger HSB have less tolerance to warmer water and lower DO. The fact that your water temp gets above 74 degrees means you are going to probably top out around 8-10 pound HSB. Might be able to push 12 but I doubt it. As HSB get larger, they become more and more like pure striped bass in their needs as opposed to white bass. Larger pure striped bass need water parameters similar to trout. It is why the vast majority of pure striped bass spawn in the tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay but spend their summers in New England. The Bay gets too warm for them, so they swim north for the summer. In landlocked lakes, pure striped bass head for the deeper waters of lakes and hang out around the thermocline. In lakes which do not have highly oxygenated cold thermoclines, you rarely see pure stripers above 20 pounds with maybe a fish or two pushing 30. In lakes with highly oxygenated cold thermoclines, you'll see them go over 50+ pounds. Look at where the world record HSB came from... Greers Ferry Lake. It's over 40,000 acres in size and over 160 feet deep. Lots of cold high DO thermocline to cruise in.
