In 2001, Georgia and South Carolina agreed to raise the numbers of hybrids and stripers stocked in Hartwell to 15 per acre, almost doubling the numbers of linesiders previously put into the lake. The stocking rate is about half stripers and half hybrids. Those fish are showing a good growth rate and will have reached a good size this year.

Both stripers and hybrids grow to about one pound during the first year after they're stocked, then put on about two pounds each year after that. Thus, a two-year-old hybrid or striper weighs around 3 pounds, and a six-year-old will push 12 pounds. In Hartwell, there are a lot of fish in between those sizes from the past six years of increased stocking rates.

Hybrids do not grow as big as stripers because they do not live as long. A five-year-old hybrid weighing 10 pounds is very old -- and rare. But a five-year-old striper is just getting started, and some live to be more than 20 years old and weigh over 40 pounds.

Anthony Rabern is the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division fisheries biologist who works with hybrids and stripers on Hartwell. He said there is an excellent year-class from 2005 stocking, so this year there are a lot of 2- and 3-pound hybrids to catch.

At Hartwell, several factors help hybrids and stripers to survive. A few years ago, biologists changed the way linesides were stocked. Up until then, a hatchery truck would pull up to a bridge or ramp and dump its whole load of fry. That might mean 300,000 little fish in one area. That depleted the food supply for the fingerlings, while concentrating them where predators could gang up on them.

Now those fish are spread out during the stocking, which aims for releasing no more then 35,000 in one area. That should increase the survival of the fry and mean more fish to catch as that year-class grows.

Each summer, water temperatures do put a squeeze on hybrids and stripers at Hartwell. As the water gets warmer, there's a small band of water that is ideal for the linesiders to live in. This layer of water is the right temperature and has enough oxygen for them.

As the water gets hotter, this layer of water narrows. That is not good for the fish. During a drought like the one we had last year, you'd think the layer of good water would get thinner. It does on other lakes in the chain. But fortunately, Rabern said, that does not happen at Hartwell.

Less rain means less runoff into the lake, which lowers the amount of nutrients running into the lake. That produces less algae, leaving more oxygen at the depths the hybrids and stripers need.

Last year, Rabern found a 40-pound striper and an 8-pound hybrid in the surveys, so there are some good-sized fish to catch.