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Anybody know why the spring Rainbow plant at Minersville came so late this year?
Also why when they did plant some on June 27th, they were only 4 1/2 inches?
Pretty much Wiper bait! They have almost always planted 9 to 10 inchers in the past.
Is there some kind of change of corse in the works for Minersville?
Are they setting the fishery up to fail as a trophy Rainbow lake?
Or am I just tripping?
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Good questions. The plan was always to have the Rainbows planted after the Cormorants had come and gone. And plant them big enough to grow to 14 inches or so by the time the Cormorants migrated South. Wiper food.
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Seems like they're really pushing the wipers in a lot of these lakes. I can't imagine that small of a fish having any chance of survival once the wolfpacks found them. Those wipers are ferocious! I wonder if it'll help or hurt the smallies in there as well with it being a smaller lake?
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It will be the best thing in the world for the Smallies. They have a horrible habit of overpopulating wherever they're planted. Most people who fish for them don't keep very many of them. They soon deplete their groceries. Wipers will eat a bunch of the smaller ones, and leave the bigger ones to be caught by fishermen. Unless, of course, you start seeing 20 + pound Wipers.
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The 4.5 inches stocked recently were extra fish that were not scheduled to be stocked anywhere else. Though the wipers will certainly eat some of them, some will also certainly survive. The DWR felt like the reservoir us low on trout and is trying to get those numbers back up. The spring stocking of larger--9 inchers--were stocked at the beginnings by of June like always. I also believe that future stockings of wipers are going to be reduced based on current wiper numbers. In other words, the reservoir will continued to be managed as a rainbow trout fishery. Also, based on sampling of fish populations at both Newcastle and Munersvilke, the DWR feels like wiper stocking can be beneficial to both smallmouth and rainbow trout populations.
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I have not seen any sign of the spring 9 to 10 inchers, and it does not show on the official stocking report for what ever reason.
Hope you are right.
Thanks for the info.
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