02-26-2013, 06:18 PM
I think people need to look at fish as a tool. Like Saugeye. Like stan55 mentioned, introducing saugeye strictly from the perspective of "oh, hey, they'd be fun to catch..." is the wrong way to look at it.
Instead, look at it from a population control perspective. If Utah happened to have a reservoir that was used mainly for irrigation purposes (frequent draw downs) and at the same time struggled with high perch population numbers to the point of stunting (ie: lots and lots of small perch), how would you try to manage that water as a sport fishery? Trout really struggle in said fishery due to the rough fish (ie: perch). Why not put a sterile population (triploid?) of saugeye on top of the perch? They're a match made in heaven. So, you reduce the perch population (ie: increase average size) which makes the perch crowd happy -- and at the same time you add an alternate sport fish that those same perch lovers can try to catch!
Why not? The fishery is already worthless.
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Instead, look at it from a population control perspective. If Utah happened to have a reservoir that was used mainly for irrigation purposes (frequent draw downs) and at the same time struggled with high perch population numbers to the point of stunting (ie: lots and lots of small perch), how would you try to manage that water as a sport fishery? Trout really struggle in said fishery due to the rough fish (ie: perch). Why not put a sterile population (triploid?) of saugeye on top of the perch? They're a match made in heaven. So, you reduce the perch population (ie: increase average size) which makes the perch crowd happy -- and at the same time you add an alternate sport fish that those same perch lovers can try to catch!
Why not? The fishery is already worthless.
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