Landlocked striped bass[edit] Striped bass are an anadromous fish, so their spawning ritual of traveling up rivers to spawn led some of them to become landlocked during lake dam constructions. The first area where they became landlocked was documented to be in the Santee-Cooper River during the construction of the two dams that impounded Lakes Moultrie and Marion, and because of this, the state game fish of South Carolina is the striped bass.[20]
Recently, biologists came to believe that striped bass stayed in rivers for long periods of time, with some not returning to sea unless temperature changes forced migration. Once fishermen and biologists caught on to rising striped bass populations, many state natural resources departments started stocking striped bass in local lakes. Striped bass still continue the natural spawn run in freshwater lakes, traveling up river and blocked at the next dam, which is why they are landlocked. Landlocked stripers have a hard time reproducing naturally, and one of the few and most successful rivers they have been documented reproducing successfully is the Coosa River in Alabama and Georgia.[21]
A 70.6-lb (32.0-kg) landlocked bass was caught in February 2013 by James Bramlett on the Warrior River in Alabama, a current world record.[22] This fish had a length of 44 inches (112 cm) and a girth of 37.75 inches (96 cm).
One of the only landlocked striped bass populations in Canada is located in the Grand Lake, Nova Scotia. They migrate out in early April into the Shubencadie River to spawn. These bass also spawn in the Stewiacke River (a tributary of the Shubencadie). The Shubencadie River system is one of five known spawning areas in Canada for striped bass, with the others being the St. Lawerence River, Miramichi River, Saint John River, Annapolis River and Shubencadie/Stewiacke Rivers.[23]