Muskie Discussion Forums
| Moderators: sworrall, Slamr | View previous thread :: View next thread |
| Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [30 messages per page] More Muskie Fishing -> Muskie Biology -> Shad vs Carp populations |
ToddM |
| ||
Posts: 20219 Location: oswego, il | |||
| firstsixfeet |
| ||
| You are going toward the idea that shad may be an effective predator on carp fry? You are going to fish more carp lakes? You are going to fish more shad lakes? The carp fishing is bad in shad lakes? I give........where are you going?  | |||
| ToddM |
| ||
Posts: 20219 Location: oswego, il | |||
| sorenson |
| ||
Posts: 1764 Location: Ogden, Ut | Todd, I noticed a fairly dramatic reduction in carp numbers in a reservoir in Utah we introduced gizzard shad into. I think your observations are reasonably accurate. The downside of the introduction is that we also saw a fairly dramatic downturn on the recruitment of channel cats, crappies and bluegill; all fairly important sport species. The shad are an extremely effective competitor and one definately has to be careful what you wish for, so to speak. There are as many or more examples in fisheries literature where shad have caused nearly catastrophic ecological problems as examples of where they have cured a forage deficiency. They are a wonderful tool, if the conditions exist for their proper utilization. A lot of managers will not be willing to take the risk, because once that genie is out of the bottle, there's no corking it back up. Another aspect of considering their introduction is latitude - most of them will die when temperatures hit 40F. This can lead to either an ideal situation or a waste of time. If a high percentage of them die each winter, then the survivors repopulate each spring, it can be fantastic. On the other hand, if too few die, they literally take over and if all of them die, you get into an extremely expensive annual forage stocking program. I have only scratched the surface of the forage manipulation shell game, but I think you get the idea. Could be good, could be bad; are we willing to risk what we have for 'potential'? And now we can begin arguing philosophy... K. | ||
| ToddM |
| ||
Posts: 20219 Location: oswego, il | |||
| sorenson |
| ||
Posts: 1764 Location: Ogden, Ut | |||
| ToddM |
| ||
Posts: 20219 Location: oswego, il | |||
| sorenson |
| ||
Posts: 1764 Location: Ogden, Ut | |||
| Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [30 messages per page] |
| Search this forum Printer friendly version E-mail a link to this thread |
