Florida commission stocks Lake Apopka with one million bass

WINTER GARDEN For the last two weeks, thousands of bass have found a new home in Lake Apopka, with thousands more to follow. 

By the time Christmas rolls around, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission hopes to have added almost one million largemouth bass to the lake.

“I certainly am all for it,” said Jim Thomas, president of Friends of Lake Apopka. “The fact that they’ve determined that it is safe to do this is a good thing.”

Known for its heavily polluted waters, Lake Apopka may be slowly making a recovery, said FWC Resources Manager Dennis Renfro, and restocking the lake with fish is a step in the right direction.

“There’s already spawning and reproduction in the system,” Renfro said. “In the last couple of years, we’ve seen an increase in native vegetation. We can see that the water quality is getting better. The time was right to boost those (fish) numbers.”

The process of restocking Lake Apopka began over the summer as wildlife officials worked to spawn the bass in a hatchery. About 1.6 million bass hatched in October and are now mature enough to endure the wild, although not all the fish are expected to survive.

To transfer the thousands of small fingerlings to Lake Apopka, they are carefully netted and placed into 800-gallon hauling tanks. After transporting them to the release point, wildlife officials then acclimate the fingerlings to the water of Lake Apopka before releasing them into the lake.

Between 100,000 and 120,000 fingerlings are released in a single day, with about three releases each week. Nearly 30 different locations around the lake have been chosen by the FWC as release points, including Winter Garden.

With such a large number of bass being released into the lake, the FWC is hoping that the lake will see stronger bass populations over the next year.

“If you have a higher survival rate, then the number increases,” Renfro said.

Another positive sign for the lake came from a recent report from the Florida Department of Health. According to the department’s 2016 fish consumption advisory, largemouth bass is one of eight types of fish that can be caught in Lake Apopka and consumed safely.

While this is a positive sign of the lake’s health, FWC officials also evaluated the lakes vegetation, fish population and number of offspring that have stayed in the system before deciding to restock the lake.

Contact Brittany Gaines at [email protected].