Titan Bass are stocking up in Lake Monticello

MONTICELLO – The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission is hedging its bets with the return of trophy-class bass fishing to Lake Monticello with today’s release of approximately 9,000 unique fish. These fish are the first segment of a stocking totaling 22,000 largemouth bass in Florida from Red Hills Fishery in Georgia that are descendants of fish that have all the genetic make-up of trophy-class bass. The fingerlings, named TITAN MAXX™ bass from the Red Hills facility, were created from bass that were genetically tested and have specific genetic markers of fish that exhibit trophy-class growth potential. “The AGFC has been stocking Florida bass for decades that have the potential to become trophies, but now we are able to select the Floridas that have the most potential from that pool,” said Jeremy Risley, AGFC Black Program coordinator. Bass. . “It’s kind of like we’re going from college basketball players who are already great athletes to just the elite NBA players of the fish world.” According to Risley, the renovation of Lake Monticello provided the perfect opportunity to stock the system with these “thoroughbred bass.” “When we stock Florida bass, it’s all about getting big-fish genetics into the system,” Risley said. “We’re not necessarily adding more fish to most established fisheries because the fish we stock basically outcompete the competition and take the place of a fish that was already there. With the renovation of Monticello, we are able to work with a cleaner slate and have a greater percentage of Florida and TITAN MAXX genetics right from the start.” Josh Sakmar, director of Biology and Infrastructure at Red Hills, emphasized that the fish are not genetically engineered. or modified, but are natural bass bloodlines found in the wild. “All the birds we used were free-ranged in the state of Florida, and all the breasts were tested to the new Florida state standards for being Florida,” Sakmar said. “During the last six years we have…