 
Back in the 1970s, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources stocked the shoals with trout. For three years, folks caught some real hummers — if memory serves, the record was twenty-six inches — but a state fee kept locals away. In the 1990s, a local club, with the backing of the late congressman Charlie Norwood, started campaigning to restock the river again, but the DNR fought the idea tooth and toenail. When the agency finally gave in, politics overruled fishery science, and only a few thousand trout were released in the shoals. The shoals area is seven miles long and about a half mile wide on the average, so it was not surprising the few thousand trout did not persist. And for this reason they were not restocked. A couple of years ago, boosters for more fish in the shoals hit upon another idea: smallmouth bass. We wanted not only a fishery, but perhaps a hatchery at the head of the shoals, where the Old Lock and Dam had recently been revamped into a community activities and history center. Now, that was a good idea. News of a small hatchery would lure more visitors to the Old Lock and Dam, and it seemed that nobody, not even the DNR, could come up with an environmental reason the bass wouldn’t do well. Back during the 1990s trout controversy, the DNR brought forth several reasons not to stock the shoals with trout: First, the dissolved oxygen level is not high enough; second, the water is too warm during late summer; third, there is no longer enough hatchery output to add a segment the size of the shoals to the list; and fourth, striped bass, largemouth, and pickerel would eat them all up anyway. None of those are at issue in introducing smallmouth bass. So this impromptu committee met with some DNR folks at the fanciest restaurant in Augusta, positioned high up in the city, with the lower river in full view. All the arguments were made in favor of smallmouth. Then came the unexpected one against them — redeye bass: According to the DNR fisheries manager, the shoals are home to a pristine population of redeyes, which are puny little game fish, rarely larger than a pound, but genetically so close to the smallmouth that they interbreed easily. DNR’s worry is that smallmouth will breed with them, endangering one of the few purebred populations of redeye in the country. Because this would change the balance of the fishery, the DNR said no. You could hear the squeals of discontent in the kitchen. Change the balance? Hell, they changed the balance when they built Clarks Hill Dam. Just before that huge reservoir was completed north of the city in 1954, the Savannah River was just one more muddy, flood-prone, warm-water Southern waterway — perfect for largemouth, catfish, and a few striped bass. But the reservoir turned it into a cold-water fishery, more amenable for such species as trout and smallmouth. Besides, what angler is going to fish half a day for one or two of those when a fair population of smallmouth would make fishing the shoals so much more exciting? Augusta could become a true national tourist destination. In other words, serious anglers from across the country would come to Augusta for no other reason than to fish seven miles of prime, wadeable smallmouth water. It was a marriage made (unwittingly) by the U.S. Corps of Engineers. Now it had to be consummated. But the DNR hoisted its belt: No smallmouth will breed with redeyes. Period. Build a casino or something. But leave the river alone! The boosters were very careful about dancing around such a sure-enough environmental issue. But, then, nature can be a fickle mistress, and last summer she proved herself in the oddest way: Two hybrid smallmouth-redeyes were caught on the shoals — and no doubt others, as these were the only two reported. How did this happen? Their mommies either swam — and swam right over five major dams to get here — or some helpful soul just dumped them in. The bad news? Some smallmouth are in the shoals fooling around with the redeyes. The good news? One was more than three and a half pounds. Both catches got newspaper coverage and lots of scratched heads. The smallmouth’s normal environment is semi-cold moving water, exactly like the shoals. But, naturally they occur in rivers and impoundments that are just a tad too warm for trout. None of us smallmouth boosters are rubbing our hands with glee, however. This could be (obviously is?) an act of chicanery, and, if so, we do not want to be blamed. On the other hand, word gets around. A friend called last weekend wanting to know if I wanted to fish with him for what he called “some of those small red-smallmouths.” Could be that a fishery is creating itself — though I don’t know if the name “smallmouth reds” sings. If they take — and keep hitting the four- or even five-pound level — whoa, boy, look out. When it comes to Augusta, Tiger just might have to take a backseat to a fish. |
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