This article is from the fall 2025 edition of Mobile Baykeeper’s print quarterly, CURRENTS. The magazine is mailed to active members who have given more than $50 in the past year. To get on the magazine’s mailing list, donate here.
By Nick Williams
Hidden beneath the currents of Alabama’s coastal rivers is a native species most anglers barely know exists. These are Gulf-strain striped bass: large, anadromous fish that migrate between salt and freshwater, and that could be to the Gulf Coast what salmon are to the Pacific Northwest — iconic, hard-fighting, and born to run. Overshadowed by their Atlantic cousins and sometimes mistaken for them, these native fish were once the kings of Southern rivers. Today, their legacy is being rediscovered, not just by biologists but by a growing community of anglers and conservationists working to bring them back.
At the forefront of that effort is Lee Grove, a fisheries biologist with the Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries (ADWFF). Equal parts scientist and fisherman, Grove has spent years studying these fish in the field and in the lab. His work is helping reshape how Alabama manages these native fish in coastal rivers, and how the public thinks about striped bass in the South.
Raised in the waters around Mobile, from Dauphin Island to the Delta, Grove grew up with a rod in his hand. “I’d have just as much fun catching tuna offshore as I do catching bream in the Delta,” he says.
His early experiences on the water eventually led him to Auburn University, where he earned both his undergraduate and master’s degrees in fisheries science. During graduate school, Grove focused his research on the lake-wide ecological impacts of introduced blueback herring — a non-native forage fish that had recently shown up in Alabama reservoirs. The study explored how the arrival of this new species affected fish communities, including predators like striped bass. The more he learned, the more intrigued he became, not just with their biology but with the bigger conservation story unfolding around them. After completing his degree, Grove spent seven years with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), gaining further experience in freshwater systems. Eventually, the pull of home brought him back to Alabama, where he currently works to better understand how these elusive fish use Alabama’s coastal rivers — and how to help them thrive along the coast once again.
Biology and Life Cycle of the Gulf-Strain Striped Bass
The Gulf-Strain striped bass (Morone saxatilis) is a large, native fish. Unlike the Atlantic strain, which are known for long coastal migrations from rivers like the Hudson and the Chesapeake all the way to New England and Canada, the Gulf strain is far more localized. Historically, it inhabited river networks that empty into the northern Gulf of Mexico, particularly around Mobile Bay, the Apalachicola River, and Lake Pontchartrain.
Reproduction for Gulf-strain striped bass was finely tuned to the seasonal pulse of Southern rivers. Each spring, typically in March and April, mature fish would begin their upstream spawning runs, triggered by warming temperatures and heavy spring rains. Over thousands of years, these fish evolved to make that journey as far upriver as the flow would take them — ending near Alabama’s Fall Line, a natural boundary where the flat Coastal Plain gives way to the rocky, higher-gradient terrain of the interior. This area, once marked by rapids, waterfalls, and fast-moving shoals, provided the high-flow conditions essential for their reproductive strategy: broadcast spawning.
In a broadcast spawn, large groups of males and females release sperm and eggs simultaneously into the turbulent current. Fertilization happens in the water column, and the eggs begin a delicate drift downstream. If the current slows or the flow is interrupted, the eggs sink to the riverbed and die. They need constant motion and oxygenated water to survive the three to four days it takes for them to hatch. This makes uninterrupted, free-flowing freshwater essential.
Once hatched, the larval fish would continue drifting downstream to quieter nursery areas where they grow, develop, and eventually begin their adult lives. Throughout their life cycle, Gulf-strain stripers feed primarily on shad, herring, and other small forage fish, along with crustaceans like crawfish and shrimp in coastal areas. They’re powerful swimmers and aggressive feeders — traits that make them popular with anglers and ecologically important as apex predators in their habitats.
Historically, these fish were abundant. Before the wave of dam construction in the 1950s and ’60s, Gulf-strain striped bass thrived in parts of the northern Gulf Coast. Major populations lived in river systems like the Mobile, Alabama, Tombigbee, Apalachicola, and Chattahoochee, as well as in waters connected to Lake Pontchartrain. These robust populations supported both commercial and recreational fisheries, and trophy stripers were considered a prized catch throughout the region.
But as dams were built to support flood control, river navigation, and hydropower, the rivers changed. Spawning runs were suddenly cut short by impassable concrete barricades. Flow regimes were altered. And critical nursery habitats were lost or degraded. Pollution and industrial runoff only added to the decline. By the 1970s, the Gulf-strain striped bass had all but disappeared from many of its native waters.
Conservation and Management in Alabama: Past Lessons, Present Focus
Efforts to restore Gulf-strain striped bass in Alabama stretch back decades. Early attempts in the 1960s and ’70s often relied on stocking Atlantic-strain fish, mainly because those were more available and the difference between the two stocks wasn’t fully understood. At the time, biologists didn’t grasp the Gulf strain’s unique requirements — particularly their dependence on fast-flowing water for successful spawning. Atlantic-strain striped bass, for example, produce neutrally buoyant eggs that can survive in slower currents. Gulf-strain striped bass are also more tolerant of warmer water compared to their Atlantic counterparts.
As research advanced, it became clear that the Gulf strain wasn’t just a regional variant — it was genetically distinct. Compared to the Atlantic strain, Gulf-strain striped bass show differences in morphology, scale counts, temperature tolerance, and egg characteristics, all shaped by thousands of years in the dynamic rivers of the northern Gulf Coast. These findings shifted management approaches across the region.
Gulf-strain striped bass populations are managed by the Striped Bass Technical Committee, which is headed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and includes members from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi. By the 1980s, Alabama began preserving what remained of the Gulf-strain population in Smith Lake, which became a critical genetic repository. Broodstock from Smith Lake now supplies hatcheries across the Southeast. Partnering with federal and state hatcheries, Alabama shares fry to help preserve populations in reservoirs and along the Gulf Coast. Florida collects broodstock from the Ochlockonee River below Lake Talquin, Georgia collects some fish from the Chattahoochee, and Alabama continues to serve as one of the largest producers of Gulf-strain striped bass.
Still, despite the coordinated stocking efforts, natural reproduction remains extremely limited. “A single female can produce over 100,000 eggs,” Grove notes, “but without the right conditions, none of them survive.” And the conditions that once supported thriving, self-sustaining populations — long stretches of free-flowing, freshwater rivers — are now rare across the region.
With that reality in mind, ADWFF has shifted its focus. Instead of attempting to reestablish large, river-wide populations in heavily altered systems like the Mobile River drainage, biologists are now working to create smaller, hatchery-supported fisheries in rivers that offer the right ingredients: thermal refuge, adequate flow, and access to the Gulf. These more manageable systems can provide consistent opportunities for anglers without requiring natural reproduction to keep the population afloat.
To guide this effort, ADWFF partnered with Dr. Steve Szedlmayer (Auburn University) and Dr. Jay Grove (NOAA Fisheries) to launch a telemetry study that started in March 2025, aimed at answering a critical question: How do stocked Gulf-strain stripers actually use these rivers?
The project involves surgically implanting acoustic transmitters into wild-collected striped bass. These transmitters, about the size of a marker cap, are placed in the fish’s body cavity using a minor surgical procedure. Each tag emits a unique coded signal — a digital fingerprint — that can be picked up by an array of receivers stationed throughout various rivers, tributaries, and estuarine zones around Mobile Bay.
There are two primary methods used to collect data from the tagged fish. The first is passive monitoring, where stationary receivers are strategically placed throughout the river system. These receivers continuously listen for signals from the acoustic tags. When a tagged fish swims within range, the receiver captures and records the tag’s unique ID along with the date, time, and location of the detection.
The second method is active tracking. In this approach, biologists like Lee use handheld or boat-mounted receivers to manually search for fish in specific areas. This allows for real-time tracking of individual fish and enables researchers to collect more detailed information about habitat use, movement patterns, and environmental conditions at the time of detection.
This technology allows Grove and his team to answer previously unanswered questions: Do stocked fish stay in the same river where they were released? Do they migrate between rivers or out into the Gulf, mimicking their Atlantic counterparts? Are they finding — and staying in — thermal refuges during the hot summer months? Are certain systems better at retaining fish long-term? Understanding these movement patterns will help ADWFF finetune its stocking strategy — not just to put fish in the water, but to put them in the right places where they’re likely to survive, grow, and be accessible to anglers.
The study is still in its early stages. The first set of transmitters went out in spring 2025, and the goal is to collect at least three years of data for analysis. As data come in, researchers will gradually build a detailed picture of how Gulf-strain striped bass interact with Alabama’s changing coastal river systems.
“We honestly didn’t know how good some of these smaller fisheries were until anglers started pointing them out to us,” Grove says. “Now, with telemetry, we can figure out why those places work and hopefully replicate that success in other rivers.”
Separating Fact from Fiction: The Truth about Striped Bass
One persistent myth is that striped bass are non-native to Alabama waters — a stocked species from elsewhere. Not so, Grove emphasizes. The Gulf strain is as native as it gets. It once supported robust commercial and recreational fisheries in parts of the Southeast.
Another misconception: striped bass are crappie killers. But decades of diet studies — including Grove’s own research — tell us the real facts. “Less than 1 percent of their diet consists of game fish,” he says. Their preferred menu? Shad, herring, shrimp, and the occasional crawfish. An extensive Auburn University study in Smith Lake reached the same conclusion, showing virtually no impact on crappie or other sportfish populations.
“They co-evolved with these species,” Grove explains. “They’re not going to outcompete or wipe out the fish they’ve lived alongside for thousands of years.”
Building a Fishery, One River at a Time
For Alabama’s fisheries biologists, the mission isn’t just to keep Gulf-strain striped bass alive — it’s to build a fishery people can actually use and enjoy. Lee Grove and the team at ADWFF want anglers across the state to ultimately be able to experience firsthand what makes these native fish so special. “They fight hard. They’re beautiful. But you have to target them. You’re not going to just stumble on one,” Grove says.
That’s because, right now, the population remains small and scattered. It’s a fragile fishery still in its infancy, and every fish matters. Overharvest by enthusiastic anglers at this stage could quickly erase progress that’s taken years to achieve. These fish aren’t protected by naturally reproducing runs. They exist entirely because of careful, sustained hatchery support and ongoing management. For anglers, that means every striper caught has real consequences for the future of the fishery.
That’s why ADWFF is taking a strategic, measured approach. Rather than concentrating all efforts in one or two high-profile systems, the department is working to expand the fishery across multiple coastal rivers. Stockings have already begun in the Fowl, Dog, Fish, Magnolia, Bon Secour, and Perdido Rivers, with more under evaluation. The long-term vision isn’t a single trophy hotspot — it’s a regional network of smaller, resilient fisheries that collectively offer widespread angler opportunity.
Lee reveals that angler input has played a critical role in shaping the direction of the program. In fact, several current striper hotspots were first brought to biologists’ attention by local fishermen who had quietly been catching stripers for years. “People told us there were stripers in certain places, and it turned out they were right,” Grove says. “So we’re listening.”
That two-way conversation — between anglers and the agency — is central to the program’s success. As Grove puts it, public interest drives conservation. In a state rich with popular sportfish like largemouth bass, bream, and redfish, the visibility of striped bass has long lagged behind. And that matters. Resources, funding, and management attention tend to follow the species people care about and ask for.
Grove hopes that’s starting to change. “I’d love to see the angler base grow,” he says. “We just need people to know they’re here.” Part of that effort includes outreach: educating anglers about the fish’s native status, encouraging responsible harvest and catch-and-release practices, and building pride in a species that belongs just as much as any other Southern game fish.
If anglers want to support the fishery, the ask is simple. If you catch a tagged fish, report it. If you enjoy fishing for stripers, say so. Let the agency know these fish matter to you. And if you’re fortunate enough to hook one, respect what it represents — a native species, nearly lost, now slowly making its way back.
Want to Support the Work?
If you catch a tagged striper, report the tag number, date, and location to ADWFF. Keep the internal tag if you harvest the fish — they can be reused in future studies.
For questions, or to report a tag:
Coastal Fisheries: Contact the Spanish Fort (District 5) office.
Reservoir Fisheries: Contact District 2 (Lake Martin) or District 3 (Smith Lake).
Or reach out to Lee Grove’s office directly.
ADWFF District 5
30571 Five Rivers Blvd, Spanish Fort, AL 36532
251-626-5153
