Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Stripers

Salt water affects buoyancy. In Lake Texoma, striper eggs tumble down the river, hatching along the way.
Some years there's a great spawn, other times not so good. As George mentioned, the lake is down 6 feet, which is unusual...the watershed missed fall rains this year.
The Red River flow rate is low, but stripers won't spawn until spring. Spring rains can change the odds.
The answer to the original question, is "Yes, stripers that live in fresh water all their lives can spawn."
But, conditions have to be close to "perfect." Lake Texoma qualifies.
Even though the Red River is salty, it's classified as "fresh."
And, with a long stretch of running water, stripers can swim upstream, do their thing, and eggs tumble downstream.
If you think about a few other facts, it makes sense why Lake Texoma has big numbers of small stripers nowadays.
First, long stretches of gently flowing water allows eggs to tumble over sandy river bottoms.
Salinity assists buoyancy, long enough for fry to hatch.
An adult striper can lay more than 250,000 eggs...so sheer numbers of eggs dictates an overwhelming opportunity to keep the lake stocked, even if survival is less than 1%.
Lake Texoma is relatively fertile, draining thousands of acres of farmland along its path. Fertility grows plankton, which feeds tiny fry and insects, which feed bigger fish....you know the ropes.
So, Lake Texoma has a healthy population of Stripers, which lends to a healthy population of fishing guides, which leads to a healthy population of bait stores, restaurants, marinas, which leads to a healthy Texoma economy.
Long live Lake Texoma stripers!