05-25-2016, 10:23 PM
Lots of misunderstandings and misconceptions... A few things I'd like to add.
Jordy has a massive amount of chubs, they are all 12.5'' and 2.2lbs. My hunch is that they are sterile and no longer reproducing. They are pretty much full on predators at this point and also was a large amount of the micro invertebrates. Creating a massive bottle neck issue that was mentioned. This year the state will do some testing and confirm or deny that.
Nobody has talked about the ILLEGAL introduction of perch about 2003-5... They are much to blame for the crash. Pushing out the younger chubs and suckers. Now they for the most part are over stunted. Plus I would hope everyone understands how cyclical they are to begin with. In addition they are going to be in there forever.
There has been no mention of the change of stocking 500,000 3-6'' rainbows annually to only 70,000 9-10'' fish. Essentially the state stopped the bass feeding program. And the data backs that, as soon as that happened the bass started a steady decline. Hopefully the addition of Kokanee will help but I personally doubt it since they do inhabit the same kind of water.
I have been told time and time again by our biologist that in larger and deep bodies of water like Jordanellle anglers and not a solid means for removing or diminishing a undesired spices. So if they are correct the debate of harvest, size, limit and length etc don't matter. They are really there for social reasons not real world biological ones.
Lastly but still very important is the complete lack of crawfish. Which is no surprise very crucial to the success of a small mouth fishery. Crawfish are on the invasive species list and there is way to much red tape to stock, transfer or supplement that body of water with them. Plus even if there wasn't any red tape there are so many hungry and stunted smallies that it would be almost impossible to introduce so many craws thats they would make it be able to get a foot hold for the long term.
IMHO the original management plan of a Small Mouth and put and take rainbow trout fishery was not a great sustainable idea for that fishery. Unless they could've supplemented and got crawfish established, kept pumping in hundreds of thousands of fingerling rainbow (bass feed),kept the illegally introduced perch out
and a decent number of rough fish like chubs and suckers (1-8'') abundant like they once were.
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Jordy has a massive amount of chubs, they are all 12.5'' and 2.2lbs. My hunch is that they are sterile and no longer reproducing. They are pretty much full on predators at this point and also was a large amount of the micro invertebrates. Creating a massive bottle neck issue that was mentioned. This year the state will do some testing and confirm or deny that.
Nobody has talked about the ILLEGAL introduction of perch about 2003-5... They are much to blame for the crash. Pushing out the younger chubs and suckers. Now they for the most part are over stunted. Plus I would hope everyone understands how cyclical they are to begin with. In addition they are going to be in there forever.
There has been no mention of the change of stocking 500,000 3-6'' rainbows annually to only 70,000 9-10'' fish. Essentially the state stopped the bass feeding program. And the data backs that, as soon as that happened the bass started a steady decline. Hopefully the addition of Kokanee will help but I personally doubt it since they do inhabit the same kind of water.
I have been told time and time again by our biologist that in larger and deep bodies of water like Jordanellle anglers and not a solid means for removing or diminishing a undesired spices. So if they are correct the debate of harvest, size, limit and length etc don't matter. They are really there for social reasons not real world biological ones.
Lastly but still very important is the complete lack of crawfish. Which is no surprise very crucial to the success of a small mouth fishery. Crawfish are on the invasive species list and there is way to much red tape to stock, transfer or supplement that body of water with them. Plus even if there wasn't any red tape there are so many hungry and stunted smallies that it would be almost impossible to introduce so many craws thats they would make it be able to get a foot hold for the long term.
IMHO the original management plan of a Small Mouth and put and take rainbow trout fishery was not a great sustainable idea for that fishery. Unless they could've supplemented and got crawfish established, kept pumping in hundreds of thousands of fingerling rainbow (bass feed),kept the illegally introduced perch out
and a decent number of rough fish like chubs and suckers (1-8'') abundant like they once were.
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