04-04-2014, 06:24 PM
From the study, I thought it was pretty obvious that they know what is wrong with the walleye. "“It’s their nature to eat themselves out,” Stanton said".
Too many walleye and not enough prey. The relative weight of the fish has dropped progressively.
I don't see where Montana or anywhere else would tell them anything different. Really only two things you can do. Reduce the number of walleye or increase the prey. Thus the suggestion on artificial habitat for more perch etc to survive when the water is down. But even if you increase the prey, more walleye will be born. They need enough harvest to keep their numbers in balance. As they said it is too expensive for F&G to go in and net them, and it looks like raising the limit wouldn't work either as people aren't harvesting their limit now. People and clubs have to get the word out. Harvest your limit. Don't put them back to grow. That just isn't going to happen. They won't grow well until their numbers are more in balance with the food supply.
We've had some bad water years, and it's showing its ugly side. The water drops too quickly for the prey species to spawn, or the spawn is left high and dry. Then when the reservoirs get below the weeds and brush it becomes an open fish bowl with no where for the ones left to hide. They get wiped out.
Maybe with a couple of good water years the prey species will have some good spawns and growth for the walleye will come back up. A waiting game, and not much else F&G itself can do.
Most will have to be up to the anglers. Increase harvest and do all you can to increase the perch numbers. Maybe if the perch numbers are low enough groups could see if there are possibilities of helping with a perch relocation project. That gets pretty spendy and might not be in the F&G budget this year, but if there is enough encouragement maybe it will happen in the near future.
I don't know your F&G people there, but several that I do know in other areas really care about the warm water species too. People think that they aren't doing anything, because they don't see stocking numbers etc. But once put into a reservoir, they seldom need to be restocked. The warm water species are very difficult to manage for that very reason. It is much easier to get a trophy fishery with sterile fish that you can limit the numbers on. Much more difficult not to have boom and bust cycles on the ones that spawn in the lakes.
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Too many walleye and not enough prey. The relative weight of the fish has dropped progressively.
I don't see where Montana or anywhere else would tell them anything different. Really only two things you can do. Reduce the number of walleye or increase the prey. Thus the suggestion on artificial habitat for more perch etc to survive when the water is down. But even if you increase the prey, more walleye will be born. They need enough harvest to keep their numbers in balance. As they said it is too expensive for F&G to go in and net them, and it looks like raising the limit wouldn't work either as people aren't harvesting their limit now. People and clubs have to get the word out. Harvest your limit. Don't put them back to grow. That just isn't going to happen. They won't grow well until their numbers are more in balance with the food supply.
We've had some bad water years, and it's showing its ugly side. The water drops too quickly for the prey species to spawn, or the spawn is left high and dry. Then when the reservoirs get below the weeds and brush it becomes an open fish bowl with no where for the ones left to hide. They get wiped out.
Maybe with a couple of good water years the prey species will have some good spawns and growth for the walleye will come back up. A waiting game, and not much else F&G itself can do.
Most will have to be up to the anglers. Increase harvest and do all you can to increase the perch numbers. Maybe if the perch numbers are low enough groups could see if there are possibilities of helping with a perch relocation project. That gets pretty spendy and might not be in the F&G budget this year, but if there is enough encouragement maybe it will happen in the near future.
I don't know your F&G people there, but several that I do know in other areas really care about the warm water species too. People think that they aren't doing anything, because they don't see stocking numbers etc. But once put into a reservoir, they seldom need to be restocked. The warm water species are very difficult to manage for that very reason. It is much easier to get a trophy fishery with sterile fish that you can limit the numbers on. Much more difficult not to have boom and bust cycles on the ones that spawn in the lakes.
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