12-13-2009, 12:46 PM
[cool][#0000ff]In 2003, at the end of a prolonged drought, the water level was already very low. So, in order to complete some necessary work on the dam they drained the rest of the lake for a long time. It was just a few puddles. Wiped out just about everything but the carp.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]A few walleye and northern pike survived upstream in the Sevier River. A ton of carp survived. They can survive a direct nuclear strike. There were also a bunch of them that washed down from Gunnison. That happens every year. Yuba gets a fresh new supply of carp to help boost the already horrible population.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There has never been a carp eradication plan for Yuba. DWR has neither the funds or the interest in doing anything about it. The water users own the lake and DWR does not even have a "minimum pool" concession in place. The water users could legally drain the lake every year if they wanted to. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]DWR does the best they can to try to manage the lake as a fishery, but it is hard to manage the unmanageable. It continues to go through cycles that seem to take about 10 years to complete. There are brief periods of abundance, when anglers can catch lots of fish and some large fish. Then a combination of drought and draining by the water users puts a hitch in the ecology and it gets out of balance. Not enough food for the predators and everything crashes.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We live in a desert state and every lake is subject to the variables in winter snowpack. We are lucky to get any fishing but most of the reservoirs stay high enough to provide some fishing even in the worst years. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Yuba is just a long narrow flat bottomed channel with little or no structure and not many nutrients for the food chain. High water years puts the water up into the previous year's weeds and brush. That allows perch to have a good spawn with more survival for the young. Then all of the predators eat well for the next year. One of two years of low water during spawn time and the eggs and fry are open to marauding carp first and then adult perch and walleye later. By the end of the summer there are not enough small perch left to sustain the fish over the winter months and the crash begins.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]A few walleye and northern pike survived upstream in the Sevier River. A ton of carp survived. They can survive a direct nuclear strike. There were also a bunch of them that washed down from Gunnison. That happens every year. Yuba gets a fresh new supply of carp to help boost the already horrible population.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]There has never been a carp eradication plan for Yuba. DWR has neither the funds or the interest in doing anything about it. The water users own the lake and DWR does not even have a "minimum pool" concession in place. The water users could legally drain the lake every year if they wanted to. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]DWR does the best they can to try to manage the lake as a fishery, but it is hard to manage the unmanageable. It continues to go through cycles that seem to take about 10 years to complete. There are brief periods of abundance, when anglers can catch lots of fish and some large fish. Then a combination of drought and draining by the water users puts a hitch in the ecology and it gets out of balance. Not enough food for the predators and everything crashes.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]We live in a desert state and every lake is subject to the variables in winter snowpack. We are lucky to get any fishing but most of the reservoirs stay high enough to provide some fishing even in the worst years. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Yuba is just a long narrow flat bottomed channel with little or no structure and not many nutrients for the food chain. High water years puts the water up into the previous year's weeds and brush. That allows perch to have a good spawn with more survival for the young. Then all of the predators eat well for the next year. One of two years of low water during spawn time and the eggs and fry are open to marauding carp first and then adult perch and walleye later. By the end of the summer there are not enough small perch left to sustain the fish over the winter months and the crash begins.[/#0000ff]
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