05-26-2016, 04:33 PM
[quote doggonefishin] As for your southern examples, it may have been interesting to follow things out a few years on these, but Otter creek has been controlled. (wipers are only barely showing up this year) Also, if there are abundant crawdads in a given lake, then the smallies will eat these and dine on minnows less. [/quote]
This very well might be why the smb in Minersville have never controlled the rough fish. Both smb and crawfish occupy the same areas, which is why crawfish are an important food source for smb. Chubs, on the other hand, are an open water schooling fish, which makes them a poor choice for smb.
I still contend that if you removed the perch from the equation at Jordanelle, you'd improve the smb population. Perch are not helping that lake. As much as people want perch to be a "forage" they are still a predator! Too many predators with no forage = a bad situation.
so, kokanee -- what are they going to do to the dynamics? Obviously, some smb will utilize that source of prey. But will it make any difference? Obviously, the kokanee angling crowd will be happy, and the lake might turn into a nice kokanee fishery. But I don't think you'll see much change with the perch and smb. I'm still surprised that walleye have never shown up in any numbers to truly speak of. Maybe the next step is to stock the hell out of the lake with sterile walleye or saugeye? Put a dent in those nasty perch....
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This very well might be why the smb in Minersville have never controlled the rough fish. Both smb and crawfish occupy the same areas, which is why crawfish are an important food source for smb. Chubs, on the other hand, are an open water schooling fish, which makes them a poor choice for smb.
I still contend that if you removed the perch from the equation at Jordanelle, you'd improve the smb population. Perch are not helping that lake. As much as people want perch to be a "forage" they are still a predator! Too many predators with no forage = a bad situation.
so, kokanee -- what are they going to do to the dynamics? Obviously, some smb will utilize that source of prey. But will it make any difference? Obviously, the kokanee angling crowd will be happy, and the lake might turn into a nice kokanee fishery. But I don't think you'll see much change with the perch and smb. I'm still surprised that walleye have never shown up in any numbers to truly speak of. Maybe the next step is to stock the hell out of the lake with sterile walleye or saugeye? Put a dent in those nasty perch....
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