Fishing Forum

Idahopanfish's question about Little Payette in another forum prompted me to do some thinking. Before it was over I think I blew a gasket! [][fishin]

Here is the product of my thoughts. Not entirely sure I want to share this.... but what the heck. By my calculations, which could easily be wrong, I figured out the sqaure miles of several different lakes, then divided by the number of salmonids stocked in that lake for 2010.

Little Payette= 4347 salmonids per sqaure mile.
Cascade Lake=14,068 salmonids per square mile.
Magic = 36,666 salmonids per square mile.

I know these numbers don't account for natural production, but if was after a trout, where would I go? Depends on how much time I had, I guess, but in the SW corner of the state, Cascade is a hard lake to beat. And you can get a very nice mixed bag there too.

Makes me wonder what the area of SFCR is (I looked, but couldn't find it).

In case you are wondering, I did the math for Henry's too. 124,000 salmonids per square mile which breaks clear down to about 180 fish per acre! No wonder it is so awesome.
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Well I'd hate to burst your bubble on the Little Payette lake numbers...but I was there a couple months ago and it was damn near devoid of life...so 43oo whatever per sq mile my [url "mailto:a@#  it"]butt[/url]! It was an absolute waste of gas to go there....
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I have never been to little payette, but your argument got me thinking.

Henrys is capable of producing food for the huge number of fish that are stocked at that particular lake. It is teeming with acquatic insects, scuds, leeches etc... The fish are always fat and a little tough to catch at times because they have a huge natural food source.

Is little payette that fertile, or is it deep and rocky? There are a large number of cutts released at Ririe every year. However they never get really big as far as fat. They are usually 13-18" long and really snake like. Some even have big heads small bodies a sure sign of starvation.

Just wondering if that might change your outlook.

Windriver
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The other thing to think about is what size of fish are they stocking and what is the survival rate. I know that Henry's is stocked with fry and fingerlings. I doubt if the survival of those fingerlings is very high, even though it is a great lake for them with lots of cover, weeds, zooplankton, and insects.
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