04-24-2011, 04:18 AM
jeremypeace and MMDon, Thanks so much for the replies! I would like to ask each of you how much time either of you have spent in any college courses such as ichthyology, fisheries management, etc, but judging from your responses I would say none at all. MMDon, your apparent personal attack wihtout even attempting to refute anything I posted is indicative of the type of closed minded ignorance of one who belives what they want to belive rather than what is fact. My main intention was to try to help shed a little more light on the situation. So apparently some "idiot" introduced walleye illegally into Ririe Reservior and judging from the date of your previous posts, this happened a while ago. I do not agree with what has happened nor do I condone the illegal introduction of any species into a body of water. I strive to and expect others to fully follow the laws that are put in place. If caught, the person who did it should suffer the consequences.
All I am saying s that the negative impact is all speculation at this point. The quoted article did in fact mention the possibility of the walleyes behaving and focussing on the suckers, chubs and yellow perch as a prey source. If this is the case, the possible effect could be that the yellow perch size structure improves, which would mean fewer small perch.
To the comments about walleye living anywhere they want to live and they are hardier than people think, I dissagree. Although there is mention of walleyes being present both above and below Onida reservior, there is no comment on the negative effect that they have had because of their presence. All fish species have certain characteristics that help them survive under certain conditions. You do not see bass and bluegill in cold water environments, you do not find trout and salmon in warm water environments. They each have their own niche and if the conditions are not right, they will not be successful. There may be a small population that can survive, but they cannot be prolific.
Lastly, do you understand that the single most important factor in fish populations on a year to year basis are the environmental conditions? A strong yearclass can be wiped out by bad weather/water conditions while a small yearclass can do very well if conditions are optimum.
Before we jump the gun and kill all walleyes on sight, I would simply ask that we wait and see. Besides, the only viable way of totally removing a fish species from a certain body of water is poisoning the ENTIRE watershed. This would be expensive and labor intensive in addition to obviously negatively affecting the other species in Ririe. Regards...[fishin]
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All I am saying s that the negative impact is all speculation at this point. The quoted article did in fact mention the possibility of the walleyes behaving and focussing on the suckers, chubs and yellow perch as a prey source. If this is the case, the possible effect could be that the yellow perch size structure improves, which would mean fewer small perch.
To the comments about walleye living anywhere they want to live and they are hardier than people think, I dissagree. Although there is mention of walleyes being present both above and below Onida reservior, there is no comment on the negative effect that they have had because of their presence. All fish species have certain characteristics that help them survive under certain conditions. You do not see bass and bluegill in cold water environments, you do not find trout and salmon in warm water environments. They each have their own niche and if the conditions are not right, they will not be successful. There may be a small population that can survive, but they cannot be prolific.
Lastly, do you understand that the single most important factor in fish populations on a year to year basis are the environmental conditions? A strong yearclass can be wiped out by bad weather/water conditions while a small yearclass can do very well if conditions are optimum.
Before we jump the gun and kill all walleyes on sight, I would simply ask that we wait and see. Besides, the only viable way of totally removing a fish species from a certain body of water is poisoning the ENTIRE watershed. This would be expensive and labor intensive in addition to obviously negatively affecting the other species in Ririe. Regards...[fishin]
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