Hadley Boehm and Hunter Weidenborner tagging striped bass on Bull Shoals

Hadley Boehm is a graduate research assistant in the Missouri Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at the University of Missouri in Columbia. She's leading striped bass fisheries research in Bull Shoals Reservoir with the Missouri Department of Conservation. She also leads research on identifying recruitment bottlenecks for walleyes in northern Wisconsin lakes. Hadley's prior education includes a B.S. in biology from Alma College, a M.S. in Environment and Resources from UW–Madison, and a M.S. in Natural Resources from UW-Stevens Point. She held positions as a fisheries management biologist for both Minnesota DNR and Wisconsin DNR.

Striped Bass are an important sportfish in Missouri and a goal of reservoir stocking programs is to create a unique angling opportunity to catch a trophy fish. However, there is concern among fishery managers and anglers that stocked striped bass may compete with or prey upon other sport fishes like crappie and bass. This project will use telemetry to evaluate dispersal and habitat use of stocked Striped Bass and stable isotope analysis to document striped bass food habits and diet overlap with other sport fishes. An improved understanding of diet and habitat overlap between striped bass and other reservoir sport fishes will be used by the Missouri Department of Conservation to develop stocking strategies for Striped Bass in Bull Shoals Lake and other reservoirs throughout the state.