03-07-2017, 07:20 PM
dog-lover -- I like your ideas....well, maybe not exactly the sterile walleye...but, still. Not bad.
I think the biggest issue with starting to stock wipers and walleye at this point is: how do you get those fish big enough to start preying on chubs?
Right now, the lake is way, way, way too full of chubs. Those chubs will directly compete with wipers for food until wipers get big enough to switch over to a predatory diet. I don't think you could do that in the current situation.
but, if you hit that lake with rotenone, then came back with stocking wipers....now we're talking! You wouldn't need a complete kill. It would be more like what happened at Minersville. Get those chubs knocked back, then hit them with wipers. Trout could be a compliment to the fishery with wipers.
Sterile walleye scare me. If they scare me, then they also scare others. Getting 100% sterile walleye would certainly be a challenge, and something we probably could not be certain of. It would only take a few to screw the whole thing up. I think a better alternative would be saugeye -- but we already know that getting saugeye is a challenge. I think wipers are the best idea.
As for utilizing the chubs from Scofield at Fish Lake...well, that's not a good idea. Aside from disease certification, etc., it would be a temporary "bandaid" type "fix" that would result in only a temporary bump. The problem at Fish Lake is NOT the lack of chubs. The problem is the abundance of perch! You have to solve the perch issue. Adding chubs does nothing to help the perch issue -- in fact, that would actually compound the problem by providing more forage for perch, which would just bolster the perch population. not a good thing!!
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I think the biggest issue with starting to stock wipers and walleye at this point is: how do you get those fish big enough to start preying on chubs?
Right now, the lake is way, way, way too full of chubs. Those chubs will directly compete with wipers for food until wipers get big enough to switch over to a predatory diet. I don't think you could do that in the current situation.
but, if you hit that lake with rotenone, then came back with stocking wipers....now we're talking! You wouldn't need a complete kill. It would be more like what happened at Minersville. Get those chubs knocked back, then hit them with wipers. Trout could be a compliment to the fishery with wipers.
Sterile walleye scare me. If they scare me, then they also scare others. Getting 100% sterile walleye would certainly be a challenge, and something we probably could not be certain of. It would only take a few to screw the whole thing up. I think a better alternative would be saugeye -- but we already know that getting saugeye is a challenge. I think wipers are the best idea.
As for utilizing the chubs from Scofield at Fish Lake...well, that's not a good idea. Aside from disease certification, etc., it would be a temporary "bandaid" type "fix" that would result in only a temporary bump. The problem at Fish Lake is NOT the lack of chubs. The problem is the abundance of perch! You have to solve the perch issue. Adding chubs does nothing to help the perch issue -- in fact, that would actually compound the problem by providing more forage for perch, which would just bolster the perch population. not a good thing!!
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