I know, mailbag is kind of outdated. Most of my questions come from emails, Facebook or our comments section and recently, I've had a couple of good ones.

One reader recently asked why striped bass are stocked in Barnett Reservoir.

I have long been aware that the Pearl River is in their historic home range, but beyond that, I had no real answer. So, I called the Striper Guru, Curtis Summerlin, of the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks.

"The main reason is that's our brood source," Summerlin explained. "Mississippi is part of a consortium of states that work in a cooperative effort to restore the gulf striper population."

Striped bass are stocked in Barnett and many go through the spillway. In the spring, you've probably seen Summerlin and some of the other guys from the Turcotte Fish Hatchery shocking up striped bass to gather eggs and sperm used to produce the striped bass and hybrid striped bass.

Those fingerlings are then used to repopulate areas where stripers fail to spawn naturally, which is just about everywhere.

"We only know of three reproducing populations in the Southeast and those are in Florida and Georgia," Summerlin said. "They have to have the correct habitat (to spawn) and man has altered a lot of it."

At this point, I'm sure some folks are asking, "If the brood stock is collected below the spillway, why aren't the fish just stocked below the spillway?" Summerlin said he tried that once and while all the bigger fish appreciated the free snacks he was handing out, it didn't do much for the striped bass population.

"It gives them a better chance to survive when we stock them in the lake," Summerlin said. "It gives them a little chance to get some growth on them."

A byproduct of that is another species for anglers to target. "It's an additional sportfish and they really don't compete with the other gamefish because they are an open-water fish."

Another reader asked why the alligator season was not longer and cited danger to pets and children as reasons to harvest more.

When it comes to children, there is a short answer. Alligators don't like the taste of Mississippians - of any size. While there have been reports of attacks elsewhere, MDWFP Alligator Program Coordinator Ricky Flynt said there has never been a report of an attack in Mississippi.

That said, they remain large, wild animals and common sense should dictate that you don't try to pet or feed them. Those are inherently poor ideas when dealing with just about any carnivore that has large teeth and is bigger than you.

Cute little Fifi, on the other hand, may not fare so well if she gets near one.

"We have that from time to time," Flynt said. "They have been known to attack pets or livestock."

According to Flynt, chihuahua-chewing crocodilians are handled on an individual basis through the nuisance alligator program, not by hunters.

"The alligator season is based on biological justification," Flynt said. "The alligator hunt is not there to destroy the population because they are a menace and a danger to the public."

In other words, Mississippi has a healthy population of alligators and hunters are allowed to harvest just enough to keep it that way.

If you have any questions about anything related to the outdoors, let me hear from you. You can email me at bbroom@jackson.gannett.com or message me at The Clarion-Ledger Outdoors Facebook page.

If I don't know the answer, I definitely know someone who does.

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