I told my Dad this year when we embarked on this project that I was completely prepared for failure. Anything short of the production of 7"+ stockers, start-to-finish, on the farm "could" be considered some degree of failure.
This year we stripped and fertilized eggs about an hour too soon, so they weren't quite ready and did not hatch. Remaining white bass females died from handling stress and exposure to prolonged tranquilization. But we are thrilled with this particular failure. Considering the lack of available guidance through the white bass female ovulation process, hormone injection rates, and hatchery procedures, we have learned a lot in the past 2 weeks.
Now we know the visual appearance of ovulated eggs by the naked eye and under the microscope. We know where to collect the striper male broodstock (George and Texoma) and the white bass females broostock.
Just like farming of any crop, you have to wait a full year to try again. Thanks to George for his help and thanks to all the folks who purchased advanced size HSBs this year. Demand for these fish is the driving force behind our efforts.
We feel it would be beneficial to produce a southern strain of HSBs for stocking Texas ponds. Production of HSBs from the hatchery phase to the pond stocking phase must be accomplished in the future, so that we don't have to rely on other farms for small fingerling stock.
Below are a few pics of white bass broodstock before hormone injection. Clint is holding a questionable world record yellow bass...2lbs-10ozs. Sorry there aren't more pics of the project...hand-stripping occurred at 3 am and our photographer was getting some needed sleep.
