Fishing Forum

Well, I ran across this while doing a search for the Fish and Game surveys mentioned in another thread.

[url "http://www.fogsl.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=138&Itemid=1"]http://www.fogsl.org/...;id=138&Itemid=1[/url]

Isn't there a season on them this year? If not perhaps there should be. I would get a tag. Maybe even put one on the wall. Standing on a nice piece of driftwood on the back deck might be better.

I must say tho, I never went to this reservoir until last year and just about the very minute I was on the water and saw it I wondered what impact the fields surrounding it do have. Full on pea soup just as described. Has it always been that way or just the last 20-30 years or sooner?

I did find an interesting survey from Fish and Game for several reservoirs in the area there but for the most part it looks like an older one. Are there other reports out there?

[url "https://research.idfg.idaho.gov/Fisheries%20Research%20Reports/Mgt02-29Teuscher2002-maybe2001%20Regional%20Fisheries%20Management%20Investigations%20Southeast%20Region.pdf"]https://research.idfg.idaho.gov/...utheast%20Region.pdf[/url]

Amazing how low Chesterfield was when they poisoned it 20 years ago.
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I have no problem with SSS on them.
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Old Chuck Trost finds it "repugnant" that a few pelicans might meet their demise.

I can only wish . . .
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The research links aren't working this morning so I don't know which survey you found, but I will try to answer this as to the surveys that I was referencing.

F&G don't publish the recent surveys on the net for a year or two. I don't know if it is a protective thing or a just no time thing. Maybe both.

The most recent information that I had, I got from this presentation that was given this spring as Southeast Idaho Fly Fishers: http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gfo...975;page=1 , and also from talking to Dave Teuscher the fisheries manager.

I think you would have to contact the Southeast Region F&G office and ask there to see the more current survey information.

They are very nice and more than willing to share that information and help you with your other questions.
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I'll be the first one in line to buy a permit. I'll even by a couple hundred tags for black commorants while I'm there.
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[quote MMDon]Old Chuck Trost finds it "repugnant" that a few pelicans might meet their demise. [.img][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/images/gforum/happy.gif[/img][.img]http://www.bigfishtackle.com/images/gforum/happy.gif[/img][.img]http://www.bigfishtackle.com/images/gforum/happy.gif[/img]"]http://www.bigfishtackle.com/...orum/happy.gif[/img][/url]

I can only wish . . . [.img][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/...k.gif[/img][/quote]"]http://www.bigfishtackle.com/...k.gif[/img][/quote][/url]

He says they only eat trash fish. I find that hard to believe that they are that selective in their eating habits. They are opportunists and are going to eat whatever they can catch, be it game fish or trash fish. At Lake Lowell when the fish are up shallow to spawn, the pelicans can, and I'm sure do, have a feast on spawning bass and crappie, let alone the fingerlings after they hatch. You can't tell me they aren't hurting the fish population with the high number of pelicans that are on Lowell and other bodies of water in the state.
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Anytime you would like to disprove his theory about pelicans eating trash fish only, simply take a video cam to the palies dam and film the pelicans eating the spawning cuts below it in the spring. You will be amazed at the size of the fish they consume as well as the quantity.
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While float tubing at Island Park in the mid to late 1980's I saw my brother catch and release a nice sized trout. The fish was still a little dazed and floated back to the top of the water and a big ol' white pelican swooped down and scarfed it up!

You know I don't remember the pelicans being aroun when I was a kid. I think they might be an "invasive species" that only arrived 20 - 30 years or so ago.

I hear they taste a lot like chicken.......................
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I think you're right Forgiven. I don't remember seeing them until the late 80's, early 90's. We are paying for an invasive species stamp for our boats so that should give us the right to run a few over. [cool]
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There were no white pelicans on Lake Lowell 40-50 years ago. They are a result of the "save the endangered species" mentality of Federal wildlife managers. But back then we used to have ducks on the lake...
and pheasants...
and bob white quail...
and he south shore was not a jungle of weeds and downed trees...
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He does mention that they do get a few when they are spawning. His whole argument seems to be that when the trout are adults in the lake that they are not as vulnerable to the pretty birds as some of the other fish as the trout reside deeper. an argument could be made on that alone but his whole thought process is flawed.

If there are 10 fish that go upstream to spawn and in "normal" settings 8 make it. Lets say two are picked off by birds in the stream on the way up to do business. Those 8 make 100 fish each of which of the 8000 there would be 6000 make it back to the lake. Of those 6000 say 3000 make it to adulthood to reside in the lake and wait their turn to go back upstream Birds will pick them off back downstream, and when they live in the shallows before going to deep water, and they will succumb other ways. There will still be 10 to try and make it back upstream as this is "normal".

With the infestation of our feathered friends now only 5 are making it upstream. there are now 5000 babies instead of 8000, which only about 2700 make it back to the lake and only 1300 would make it to adulthood to reside in the lake.
Now instead of 10 trying to make it back upstream there would only be 7 to try and make it back upstream and only 3-4 will make it to do their stuff and so on.
I have no clue what "official" stats would be but any fool should be able to figure out an overrun bird population like that would be extremely harmful to the fish population.

How could an educated person put out such garbage?
(never mind, that opens up another can of worms)
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There were no white pelicans 30 years ago in this area. They came in as a result of El Nino years when the bait was scarce in the oceans due to the upwelling of warm waters. They then stayed so the Feds could adopt them at the expense of our fisheries. INVASIVE is a word . . .
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Lucabrasi, you are correct on the "spawning model" except the percentages that F&G have collected on the spawning in the Upper Blackfoot River are that the birds get more than 70% of the fish going up and more than 70% of the young fish coming down. That is only counting predation on the river and not on the lake.
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