08-25-2008, 12:15 AM
Thanks for the reply Ryno. The more winded, the better! It can be a complex equation, one that past biologists have shaken in their boots from. I take it that, "yes," tiger trout were planted then from the reference in your reply, and that was done so in hopes of them consuming some burbot.
I too expect, or at least am very hopeful, that lakers will prey on burbot to some degree. I think they would be a second choice if kokanee/rainbow numbers were insufficient to support their appetites. Until then, I suppose its the question, "why eat burbot when I have plenty of bows and kokes to eat.?" When, and if, the first choice gets hard to come by, then maybe we'll find out if they'll eat them, and if burbot will maintain them.
I'm curious about the kokanee population guesses. Is that from hydroacustics done recently, or from some other method of estimating their numbers?
FYI- The "agressive" lakers we are catching on a rod and reel still look mostly healthy. Small heads, fat bellies, and mostly locked jaws when it comes to any urgency to eat an artificial lure. I know that "caught" lakers are not exactly representative of the whole population, but my catches over a season result in a higher sample number than gill nets over a week period ever will. And, any lake trout in its right mind isn't going to swim into a gill net! If they can see and/or sense and avoid one strand of 12-lb mono., they can certainly sense and avoid a gill net. I see them dodge my fishing line every time I drop my underwater camera. Deliberate turns around one strand of line.
Both samples taken together, however, should be more representative of the population as a whole. Unfortunately, the only "stomach" samples I ever get are tails sticking out the throats of caught fish, and that's only about one in 25 that we catch most of the year, and about one in six or eight during a brief spring period after you guys feed 'em! I have yet to see a burbot tail in one.
I hope the long term plans are to continue to pay for, raise, and stock kokanee and rainbows in sufficient numbers to BOTH provide a fishery and feed the macks. That's the only equation I ever see working, especially with the new fish on the block.
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I too expect, or at least am very hopeful, that lakers will prey on burbot to some degree. I think they would be a second choice if kokanee/rainbow numbers were insufficient to support their appetites. Until then, I suppose its the question, "why eat burbot when I have plenty of bows and kokes to eat.?" When, and if, the first choice gets hard to come by, then maybe we'll find out if they'll eat them, and if burbot will maintain them.
I'm curious about the kokanee population guesses. Is that from hydroacustics done recently, or from some other method of estimating their numbers?
FYI- The "agressive" lakers we are catching on a rod and reel still look mostly healthy. Small heads, fat bellies, and mostly locked jaws when it comes to any urgency to eat an artificial lure. I know that "caught" lakers are not exactly representative of the whole population, but my catches over a season result in a higher sample number than gill nets over a week period ever will. And, any lake trout in its right mind isn't going to swim into a gill net! If they can see and/or sense and avoid one strand of 12-lb mono., they can certainly sense and avoid a gill net. I see them dodge my fishing line every time I drop my underwater camera. Deliberate turns around one strand of line.
Both samples taken together, however, should be more representative of the population as a whole. Unfortunately, the only "stomach" samples I ever get are tails sticking out the throats of caught fish, and that's only about one in 25 that we catch most of the year, and about one in six or eight during a brief spring period after you guys feed 'em! I have yet to see a burbot tail in one.
I hope the long term plans are to continue to pay for, raise, and stock kokanee and rainbows in sufficient numbers to BOTH provide a fishery and feed the macks. That's the only equation I ever see working, especially with the new fish on the block.
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