12-15-2005, 10:55 PM
Deer Creek Reservoir had stunted perch in it for over thirty years. They have been stunted in Rockport but are finally getting enough pressure now to help solve that problem. Yuba has it's own problems with perch size and numbers. And Jordanelle hasn't been around long enough to suffer a stunting problem. Not yet at least. Most of the perch that I've seen caught there are in the 5 inch "dink" class.
And one of the biggest problems with planting and rearing perch is the manner in which they spawn. They don't cooperate like trout do by allowing humans to strip their eggs and fertilize them. They require entirely different types of hatcheries. So one of the problems is: "Why spend the millions of dollars to build a hatchery for perch that would only get used once in a while. After all, it only took a few perch in Fish Lake to start a population that seems to have no bounds. Same with Mantua, Starvation, Jordanelle, and everywhere else the bucket biologists have planted them. You might need a few thousand of them one year, and nothing for 5 to 10 years. What would you do with the "perch" hatchery during those years that they didn't need to be planted?
I'm all for having diversity in our fisheries, but I'm getting tired of the bucket biologists who make it so I have to drive a hundred miles to get away from a fishery that has millions of dinky perch. And think of the money that could go towards a warm water hatchery, or even buying perch from another state, if the DWR didn't have to change their plans for every body of water that the bucket biologists contaminate. Sometime it would be nice to have a fishery that would be left alone by the people who think that they know more than the professionals.
Fishrmn
And one of the biggest problems with planting and rearing perch is the manner in which they spawn. They don't cooperate like trout do by allowing humans to strip their eggs and fertilize them. They require entirely different types of hatcheries. So one of the problems is: "Why spend the millions of dollars to build a hatchery for perch that would only get used once in a while. After all, it only took a few perch in Fish Lake to start a population that seems to have no bounds. Same with Mantua, Starvation, Jordanelle, and everywhere else the bucket biologists have planted them. You might need a few thousand of them one year, and nothing for 5 to 10 years. What would you do with the "perch" hatchery during those years that they didn't need to be planted?
I'm all for having diversity in our fisheries, but I'm getting tired of the bucket biologists who make it so I have to drive a hundred miles to get away from a fishery that has millions of dinky perch. And think of the money that could go towards a warm water hatchery, or even buying perch from another state, if the DWR didn't have to change their plans for every body of water that the bucket biologists contaminate. Sometime it would be nice to have a fishery that would be left alone by the people who think that they know more than the professionals.
Fishrmn