10-27-2016, 12:55 PM
[quote Piscophilic]Great report! Sounds like a really fun day on the water. I'm glad you and the gang had a good day up there!
Is there a minnow/forage species in PV or do the perch and crappie mostly eat there own young?[/quote]
[#0000FF]There is no natural (surviving) forage base in Pineview. During years of good spawn and recruitment there are abundant young perch and crappies for the bigger ones to snack on. But right now Pineview is in a cycle of low perch numbers and high crappie numbers. The smallies, crappies and other perch have just about wiped out the perch...so very few baby perch on the predators' menus.
So the bigger fish have survived mostly on baby carp and sunfish...as long as they are small enough to eat. After that the perch, bluegills and crappies rely on zooplankton and small invertebrates for their food supply. I brought home 14 crappies yesterday and ever one of them were full of "goo", the remnants of foraging on the bottom-hugging zooplankton. Not a single small fishlet in the bunch. No married ones either.
In the past...when there were huge numbers of perch...both the perch and crappies grew much faster and much larger by feeding on their own young of the year. 12 inchers of both species were not uncommon...and most were barfing up babies when brought to the surface...open water or ice. Just as in Deer Creek, the smallies have really added to the decimation of the perch by their young feeding heavily on perch fry before they even reach one inch in length.
It is interesting to review the history of species in Pineview. In the "olden days" there were trout. But the warm water was not hospitable to them and they developed "pizza sides" (anchor worm) if they survived. The warm water species flourished. They included largemouth bass (no smallies), bluegills and crappies. No perch. No tiger muskies. There were also green sunfish, black bullheads and (of course) carp.
In earlier times the crappies were thick and large. Easy to load up on footlongs plus. And the largemouths were plentiful and willing. 30-50 fish sessions...with many 4# fish on any given trip. For the panfish fans there were hordes of 8" bluegills and lots of aggressive green sunfish.
Then perch were introduced and exploded. The lake became full of stunted perchlets. Smallmouths and then tiger muskies were introduced to help control perch and provide more fishing. That worked well...until the predation went past the tipping point.
Since then it has been tough to maintain a constant healthy balance of species...by sizes and numbers. Some years there have been hordes of small perch and fewer crappies. Then a good spawn and recruitment of crappies...during a year of poor spawn success with perch...and BINGO...we have the current unbalanced fishery.
All we can do is take advantage of whatever is going on during any given year and wait to see what Mama Nature deals up the following year.
In those days it was not unusual
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Is there a minnow/forage species in PV or do the perch and crappie mostly eat there own young?[/quote]
[#0000FF]There is no natural (surviving) forage base in Pineview. During years of good spawn and recruitment there are abundant young perch and crappies for the bigger ones to snack on. But right now Pineview is in a cycle of low perch numbers and high crappie numbers. The smallies, crappies and other perch have just about wiped out the perch...so very few baby perch on the predators' menus.
So the bigger fish have survived mostly on baby carp and sunfish...as long as they are small enough to eat. After that the perch, bluegills and crappies rely on zooplankton and small invertebrates for their food supply. I brought home 14 crappies yesterday and ever one of them were full of "goo", the remnants of foraging on the bottom-hugging zooplankton. Not a single small fishlet in the bunch. No married ones either.
In the past...when there were huge numbers of perch...both the perch and crappies grew much faster and much larger by feeding on their own young of the year. 12 inchers of both species were not uncommon...and most were barfing up babies when brought to the surface...open water or ice. Just as in Deer Creek, the smallies have really added to the decimation of the perch by their young feeding heavily on perch fry before they even reach one inch in length.
It is interesting to review the history of species in Pineview. In the "olden days" there were trout. But the warm water was not hospitable to them and they developed "pizza sides" (anchor worm) if they survived. The warm water species flourished. They included largemouth bass (no smallies), bluegills and crappies. No perch. No tiger muskies. There were also green sunfish, black bullheads and (of course) carp.
In earlier times the crappies were thick and large. Easy to load up on footlongs plus. And the largemouths were plentiful and willing. 30-50 fish sessions...with many 4# fish on any given trip. For the panfish fans there were hordes of 8" bluegills and lots of aggressive green sunfish.
Then perch were introduced and exploded. The lake became full of stunted perchlets. Smallmouths and then tiger muskies were introduced to help control perch and provide more fishing. That worked well...until the predation went past the tipping point.
Since then it has been tough to maintain a constant healthy balance of species...by sizes and numbers. Some years there have been hordes of small perch and fewer crappies. Then a good spawn and recruitment of crappies...during a year of poor spawn success with perch...and BINGO...we have the current unbalanced fishery.
All we can do is take advantage of whatever is going on during any given year and wait to see what Mama Nature deals up the following year.
In those days it was not unusual
[/#0000FF]
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