06-07-2015, 07:26 PM
[#0000FF]A big head and a long skinny body is not a sign of poor food. It is mostly a sign that the fish were once healthy but had an interrupted food supply...like the shad cycles in Powell. An ongoing lack of food just doesn't allow the fish to ever grow very big in the first place.
There is food in Jordanelle...but not the right kind of food to produce larger bass. Unless there are chubs, baby perch, crawdads or other larger food items the bass will never transition from their smaller sizes. And the food supply has to be year round...not just when the bugs are hatching and the fish can find more to eat.
Think about it Cliff. When there were lots of chubs and tons of perch the bass got bigger. That was when the lake was new and there was still a lot of nutrients. But the exploding populations of bass and perch ate up all the baby chubs as fast as they could be spawned...and the bigger chubs died out. Then the predators turned to the only remaining food supply...baby perch. When the population of big spawning perch crashed there were not enough small perch to feed the remaining bigger perch...and the bass.
There are lakes and streams all over the country with smallmouth populations in which the fish seldom grow larger than 12 to 14 inches. Most of these waters have a fair supply of aquatic invertebrates...but no big supply of minnows or crawdads.
Virtually all prime smallmouth lakes that produce big fish have crawdads as a base food source and several species of minnows or the young of other fish available year round. It takes abundance and a balance. That does not describe either Deer Creek or Jordanelle. But it does describe Pineview and Starvation...and Powell.
Once again, quit blaming DWR. The downturn in bass sizes was well underway before there were any changes in regulations that might result in the scenario you keep crying about. THERE ARE NO LARGE FISH because there is no food. In a healthy lake there will always be some large fish. Anglers cannot catch them all. And if a superstar angler like yourself can't score even one or two over a season that should tell you something. The fish are not being caught out by worm dunkers...as you suggest.
And it is not good biology to compare relative health and growth patterns of bass against trout in the same waters. They occupy different places in the ecology and mostly have vastly different diets. The bass will survive on bugs and other trout foods but they will not get enough nutrition to make the jump from teenagers to big healthy adults. Instead, their systems keep them at a smaller size so they can at least survive on what is available.
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There is food in Jordanelle...but not the right kind of food to produce larger bass. Unless there are chubs, baby perch, crawdads or other larger food items the bass will never transition from their smaller sizes. And the food supply has to be year round...not just when the bugs are hatching and the fish can find more to eat.
Think about it Cliff. When there were lots of chubs and tons of perch the bass got bigger. That was when the lake was new and there was still a lot of nutrients. But the exploding populations of bass and perch ate up all the baby chubs as fast as they could be spawned...and the bigger chubs died out. Then the predators turned to the only remaining food supply...baby perch. When the population of big spawning perch crashed there were not enough small perch to feed the remaining bigger perch...and the bass.
There are lakes and streams all over the country with smallmouth populations in which the fish seldom grow larger than 12 to 14 inches. Most of these waters have a fair supply of aquatic invertebrates...but no big supply of minnows or crawdads.
Virtually all prime smallmouth lakes that produce big fish have crawdads as a base food source and several species of minnows or the young of other fish available year round. It takes abundance and a balance. That does not describe either Deer Creek or Jordanelle. But it does describe Pineview and Starvation...and Powell.
Once again, quit blaming DWR. The downturn in bass sizes was well underway before there were any changes in regulations that might result in the scenario you keep crying about. THERE ARE NO LARGE FISH because there is no food. In a healthy lake there will always be some large fish. Anglers cannot catch them all. And if a superstar angler like yourself can't score even one or two over a season that should tell you something. The fish are not being caught out by worm dunkers...as you suggest.
And it is not good biology to compare relative health and growth patterns of bass against trout in the same waters. They occupy different places in the ecology and mostly have vastly different diets. The bass will survive on bugs and other trout foods but they will not get enough nutrition to make the jump from teenagers to big healthy adults. Instead, their systems keep them at a smaller size so they can at least survive on what is available.
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