06-22-2011, 11:36 PM
I know a little bit about this subject. Derkies has NOT been planted since 2000. Last year I spent a lot of time fishing Carey lake to try to find the cats. Dog Creek and Carey lake were the two lakes that were designated to be planted by the IDFG. It was thought that thought that Carey was not being planted heavily enough so they stepped up the numbers of cats planted in the 07 and the 09 planting to over 2300 fish. This was to put enough fish there to see some caught. The F&G went to Carey and tried to sample count cats several times but had no luck. I went in and tried it like I said in 2010 and I also struck out several times. After much discussion with the F&G over cats I asked the regional biologist to suspend planting in Carey lake and go back to Dog Creek and Derkies lake as the two catfish lakes in our region. It was my opinion that Carey lake was just not suitable for cats, and I stand by that. I also believe that the cats were de-watered in the desert portion of the lake. I can't prove it but it and winter kill due to shallow water in the lake are the only reasons I can see.
Now back to Derkies. Yes Derkies was planted in 2010. That fish you have in the picture was a plant from then. we will most likely see more plants into Derkies, I hope. After the discussions I have had I believe they will continue to plant there because the cats don't have a way out other than in a cooler. One of the things that I like about Derkies is no night fishing. This will keep fishing for cats in the day time when most people don't think cats can be caught. And it will also keep the rough crowd to a minimum, at least I hope. I also hope that it will keep the harvest down a bit to allow some of them to get big.
This is another lake that is going to be a slow growth type lake like Dog Creek. The water is cold and they will never spawn. So what ever the F&G plants is all we have and in the last 11 years there has only been 1341 cats officially planted. With mortality and many other reasons I don't believe that the overall numbers are all that high.
This is another lake where yes it is legal to take home every fish you catch but it might be better to catch and release some. In reality how much meat is on a 10" catfish?
Milner is a different story. Well kind of. Idaho Power is the agency that plants Milner. Idaho F&G records the plants on their web site but IP does the planting. Again Milner is another spot that has no natural reproduction. I do think a lot of the cats are lost at milner due to them going down the irrigation canals. Milner does have cats but not like they would if there was natural reproduction. Milner has limited access for a lot of the res. I don't think over fishing is hurting it as much as flushing them down stream is.
I have been working with the F&G to improve catfishing here in the Magic valley I hope to recruit your help in convincing them to improve the resource. The one thing I do think we should have is a limit on Planted catfish. We have a Limited resource why do we have an unlimited harvest? Ron
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Now back to Derkies. Yes Derkies was planted in 2010. That fish you have in the picture was a plant from then. we will most likely see more plants into Derkies, I hope. After the discussions I have had I believe they will continue to plant there because the cats don't have a way out other than in a cooler. One of the things that I like about Derkies is no night fishing. This will keep fishing for cats in the day time when most people don't think cats can be caught. And it will also keep the rough crowd to a minimum, at least I hope. I also hope that it will keep the harvest down a bit to allow some of them to get big.
This is another lake that is going to be a slow growth type lake like Dog Creek. The water is cold and they will never spawn. So what ever the F&G plants is all we have and in the last 11 years there has only been 1341 cats officially planted. With mortality and many other reasons I don't believe that the overall numbers are all that high.
This is another lake where yes it is legal to take home every fish you catch but it might be better to catch and release some. In reality how much meat is on a 10" catfish?
Milner is a different story. Well kind of. Idaho Power is the agency that plants Milner. Idaho F&G records the plants on their web site but IP does the planting. Again Milner is another spot that has no natural reproduction. I do think a lot of the cats are lost at milner due to them going down the irrigation canals. Milner does have cats but not like they would if there was natural reproduction. Milner has limited access for a lot of the res. I don't think over fishing is hurting it as much as flushing them down stream is.
I have been working with the F&G to improve catfishing here in the Magic valley I hope to recruit your help in convincing them to improve the resource. The one thing I do think we should have is a limit on Planted catfish. We have a Limited resource why do we have an unlimited harvest? Ron
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