Peacock Bass And Nile Perch Stocked in Texas? Musky Too!

This Floridian peacock bass fought like a fish twice its size. Too bad they didn't take, here in Texas.

In the past Texas Parks & Wildlife Department officials has stocked some species that (unfortunately) did not take off and below are list of some of those stockings including peacock bass.

*Tarpon (34 total stocked in Braunig Lake 1984-85)

*Walleye (In 2016 alone more than 3,244,428 walleye fry have been stocked in Fryer, Meredith and Wheeler Branch Reservoir. Another 1,331,375 were stocked in Palo Duro Reservoir, Theo at Caprock Canyon, Wheeler Branch and White Reservoir in 2015. Look for a story on the walleye stocking program in an upcoming Texas Outdoor Nation news.)

This Floridian peacock bass fought like a fish twice its size. Too bad they didn’t take, here in Texas.

*Tiger Musky (Hybrid Northern Pike and Muskellunge) These toothy fish were stocked in 1976-77 in Copper Breaks State Park, Leon, Meridian State Park, Mill Creek Lake, Alcoa, Nocona and Raven)

*Muskellunge (Musky) There was a total of 2,785 stocked in Amsted, Copper Breaks State Park and Inks Lake

*Nile Perch (Between 1978-84 there were about 80,000 nile perch stocked between Braunig and Coleto Creek with the lion’s share going to Coleto Breek.

*Corvina (Around 750,000 orangemouth corvina were stocked in Braunig Lake between 1985-86. These Pacific Coast fish look like a giant speckled or sand trout)

*Peacock Bass (Between 1978-98 around 19,000 peacock bass were stocked in Bastrop, Coleto Creek, Tradinghouse and Alcoa)

The captive rearing and stocking of fish is of the utmost importance throughout the United States.

In fact the majority of trout and a big portion of inland salmon fisheries are the result of captive bred and released fish. For example the Little Red River in Arkansas would not have a rainbow trout fishery if it were not for hatcheries.

Hatcheries are also important to Texas fisheries. This is why we scoured the TPWD’s hatchery database to see just how much stocking was taking place and learned the state’s hatcheries are having a big impact on fishing throughout our state. In that investigation we uncovered the unusual stockings above.

That kind of thing is the funnest part about what we do.

Chester Moore, Jr.