By Keith Sutton

The sun was a pumpkin orb on the horizon when the spectacle began. At first there were only a few ripples dimpling the water's surface. Then, just 50 feet off our starboard side, a fountain of shad erupted. The school of baitfish exploded in every direction like silvery shrapnel.

Something swirled beneath the shad - something large. Then more shad broke the surface to our left, and another school behind us. More swirls, more shad. And more and more and more.

The water now started to boil, churning like a witches' cauldron as thousands of tiny fish fled predators yet unseen beneath the water. Half an acre of water seemed to take on a life of its own.

My companion, Dave Gould, launched a clear topwater plug from his end of the boat. As soon as it touched down, he gave it a twitch, and - blam! A fish was on.

I launched my own attack, casting a shad-imitation crankbait toward the frothy water. It, too, was attacked as soon as it made contact. And from the bend in my 7-foot rod, I knew my opponent was sizeable.

Dave landed his fish first, 7 pounds of striped muscle. He quickly released it, and then cast again. Once more there was a powerful, almost instantaneous strike, and he was battling another bruiser.

Hybrids have a reputation as hard fighters, so while fishing Arkansas waters, bring a net to help subdue the occasional trophy specimen. Photo by Keith Sutton

My fish was a twin to Dave's 7-pounder. It rudely regurgitated a handful of threadfin shad on my boot as I worked the crankbait free from its mouth. I released it and cast again into the maelstrom. This time I saw the fish before it hit. A large, dark fin sliced the water, running on a collision course with my lure. I twitched the bait slightly and held on tightly as the fish smashed the lure and tried to yank the rod from my hands.

I was startled at the unbridled energy exhibited by my quarry. The fish ran in broad arcs 50 feet from the boat, darting this way then that, peeling line against the drag. But soon it tired, and I brought its 5-pound bulk over the transom. So much fight for so small a fish, I thought. I've never caught a largemouth of similar size that could compare to this miniature torpedo.

Over the next half-hour we caught and released eight or 10 fish apiece, all of them between 5 and 10 pounds. It was my introduction to Arkansas' hybrid striper fishing, and I was left breathless in the wake of the frenzied battle on DeGray Lake.

Events leading to these nuptials began in the 1960s when North Carolina fisheries biologists crossed a female striped bass and a male white bass to create a third fishing sensation - the hybrid striper, also known as a "wiper," "sunshine bass" or "Bodie bass." Hybrids don't reproduce as prolifically as do white bass, or grow to the gigantic sizes stripers attain, but they exhibit good characteristics inherited from both parents. Like the white bass, hybrids grow fast. A year-old fish may weigh over 2 pounds; after four years, hybrids weigh as much as 10 pounds.

Jay Kaffka reported in a 1978 magazine article that the Natural State got into the hybrid striper act by accident. By the early 1970s, stripers had been successfully introduced in Lake Maumelle just west of Little Rock, and this lake supplied broodstock stripers. Biologists set nets in the lake's upper end to secure eggs and milt from large adult stripers to carry out an artificial spawning program. In 1975, however, biologists found an abundance of ripe female stripers but few male stripers. Rather than allow the eggs to die for lack of milt, biologists quickly secured male white bass that had been trapped in abundance, and crossed the eggs. A few weeks later, several thousand 2-inch hybrid fingerlings were released into DeGray Lake, the first lake in the state to be stocked with this hatchery-produced game fish.

Greers Ferry Lake at Heber Springs became the second Arkansas lake to receive hybrids in 1976. That year, the Greers Ferry Lake nursery pond was stocked with 1.1 million hybrid fry obtained from Georgia. Half a million of those fry grew into fingerlings that were released in Greers Ferry.

Additional waters stocked in the years since then include lakes Catherine, DeQueen, Chicot, Millwood, Storm Creek, Beaver, Hamilton, Hinkle, Charles, Maumelle, Shepherd Springs, Nimrod, Harris Brake, Horseshoe, Norfork, Ft. Smith, Neark, Frierson and the Little River.

When hybrid stockings started, no one was sure how the brand-new fish would do in its new home waters. It was soon obvious, however, that the hybrid striper was a rising star on the Arkansas fishing scene. The first state record was established on July 9, 1976, by a 1-pound, 2-ounce hybrid from DeGray. The record fell an astounding 24 times during the next 12 years. Eighteen records came from DeGray Lake, three from Greers Ferry, two from the Little River and one from Lake Hamilton.

The first 20-pound-plus hybrid came from Greers Ferry in 1988 - a 20-pound-11-ounce record caught by Bill Brown of Shirley. DeGray gave up a 21-pound record in 1989, and Bull Shoals entered the spotlight in 1996 with a 22-pound, 1-ounce record. Then, on April 24, 1997, Jerald Shaum of Shirley landed the whopper of all whoppers - a 27-pound, 5-ounce Greers Ferry hybrid that was soon certified, and now stands, as the all-tackle National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame and International Game Fish Association world record.

Could another world record be lurking in Greers Ferry or other Arkansas waters? It's certainly possible, but it's more likely that anglers who fish prime waters will hook a lot of 2- to 10-pounders and few true heavyweights.

To learn more about hybrid fishing opportunities for this year, we turned to the AGFC's capable cadre of district fisheries biologists. We asked each biologist who works in an area with hybrid-stocked waters to select one location in their district and give it a grade. Following are their reports.

District fisheries biologist Carl Perrin gives the lake a grade of B for the upcoming season. "The outlook for hybrids in Greers Ferry is good for 2004," he reported. "There was a light stocking in 2002, but this crop failed, so that year class will be light. The lake received another very good stocking in 2003, however, and this should maintain the fishery for some time."

The daily limit on Greers Ferry hybrids is six. For additional info, contact the AGFC's District 10 office, toll-free, at 1-877-470-3399.

The daily hybrid limit here is six. Call the AGFC's District 8 office, 1-877-525-8606, for more information.

"I'm forecasting a B," said district fisheries biologist Mark Oliver. "Hybrid fishing is excellent right now, with a lot of 12-pound-plus fish being taken. It's always possible to catch a trophy hybrid in Norfork, because we've stocked it for so long (since the early 1980s), but I think the bigger ones will generally be in the mid-teens.

"I believe anglers will catch a lot of hybrids in 2004," he continued. "Growth is very rapid now because of abundant shad forage."

The daily creel limit here is three hybrids per angler. For more information, call the AGFC's District 2 office at 1-877-425-7577.

"I would give both lakes a C," he reported, "but primarily because there is little fishing pressure, and therefore we receive few reports from anglers. When we sample the lake's hybrid populations each year, the populations appear to be fairly constant. We see very few fish over 10 pounds, but density appears moderate."

Horseshoe, a 2,500-acre Mississippi River oxbow, is just outside Hughes off Interstate 40 west of Memphis. Storm Creek Lake, the smallest lake (420 acres) in Arkansas successfully stocked with hybrids, is in St. Francis National Forest north of West Helena. The daily hybrid limit is six on both lakes. Additional information is available from the AGFC's District 4 office, 1-877-734-4581 or (for Storm Creek) by contacting the U.S. Forest Service, St. Francis Ranger District, (870) 295-5278.

"We have caught hybrids up to 10 pounds below Ozark Dam primarily in the fall and again in the spring spawning run," said district fisheries biologist Bob Limbird. "Hybrids are also present in the pool below Dardanelle. I would rate the fishing as a C, primarily because of the relatively low numbers of hybrids present."

Dardanelle's hybrid limit is six daily. For more info, call the AGFC's District 9 office at 1-877-967-7577.

"Beaver Lake is more of striper lake than a hybrid fishery," he said. "We do, however, stock hybrids in the lake about every three years (more if the agency produces a surplus of the hybrids) to help provide additional opportunity to anglers that like to pursue these species. The hybrids are very popular with the guides, because many said that sometimes on the days that the stripers aren't biting, the hybrids will, which helps keep their customers happy.

"I would rate Beaver a C on hybrid fishing," the biologist continued. "The hybrids aren't as plentiful as the stripers, but they do create some good days fishing. The hybrids have good growth in Beaver, so there is some trophy potential. I talked to a couple of guides recently, and they indicated that most of the hybrids being caught now are between 6 and 12 pounds, with a few 13 to 14 pounders showing up. I have seen hybrids as big as 17 pounds during gill-net studies, but most would fall between the sizes that the guides indicated.

"It's hard to say if the fishing is on an upturn or downturn," Moore said in summary. "I would say that the hybrid fishing has been pretty consistent the past few years. The hybrids do seem to be caught incidentally by bass and crappie anglers more so than the stripers, so they create some thrills for anglers who aren't expecting to hook up with a fish that size."

The hybrid daily limit is three on Beaver Lake. For info, call the AGFC's District 1 office at 1-877-631-6005. For guided fishing trips, call Brad Wiegmann, (501) 756-5279.

"Fisheries District 3 has no hybrid bass fishery," he reported. "We have stocked hybrids into Lake Frierson the last few years, but no fishery has developed. The lake gets an F-.

"The outlook for these fish is not bright. We have decided not to stock any more of them in Frierson until we begin to see some appreciable numbers of the stockers surfacing in our sampling, or we begin to get reliable fishermen reports. Evidently, the lake's turbid water is the drawback (hybrids being sight-feeders), but we thought we might have better success considering the lake's available forage."

So there you have it. When it comes to hybrid striper fishing in 2004, some lakes look pretty good, some look mediocre and at least one isn't worth visiting. None of our lakes - even Greers Ferry, which produced an all-tackle world record - got top marks, but there are plenty of places where an angler wanting some linesides action can scratch his itch. Good luck this season.

(Editor's Note: Keith Sutton is the author of Fishing Arkansas: A Year-round Guide to Angling Adventures in the Natural State. To order autographed copies, send a check or money order for $28.25 - Arkansas residents should add sales tax - to C&C Outdoors, 15601 Mountain Dr., Alexander, AR 72002.)