05-26-2016, 03:33 PM
[quote doggonefishin]And on we go. [
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b) It is true that a decent perch population is required for good growth to be seen in the smallies. It is also true that if there isn't a reduction in the bottleneck population, there won't be good growth even with a healthy perch population. See, TD and PBH are both right.[/quote]
My point all along has been that smallmouth do NOT need the perch. I would suggest that if the perch could or would be eliminated and the smallmouth numbers reduced, you would see a huge number of chubs and other forage species come back and the smallmouth would then use these species as forage.
Other reservoirs such as Minersville, Newcastle, Otter Creek, and Piute all are void of perch, yet smallmouth grow large due to their use of chubs among other fishes as forage. The same thing would happen at Jordanelle. The reason smallmouth over certain sizes only had perch in their bellies was because that was the only forage fish available.
The reality, as some have alluded to, is that the illegal introduction of perch is most likely the real culprit for the decline in the smallmouth fishery...
...one more thought, on a side note, to my knowledge smallmouth bass have never been able to put a damper on the chub population in any Utah reservoir like perch have. In Minersville, chubs always remained relatively constant even with high smallmouth numbers...the same can be said about Otter Creek and Piute. IN Newcastle, the golden shiners actually began reducing smallmouth numbers even though they were a forage species for the smallies. And, smallmouth numbers did not begin to rebound at Newcastle until wipers were introduced and knocked the golden shiners down to nothing.
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] b) It is true that a decent perch population is required for good growth to be seen in the smallies. It is also true that if there isn't a reduction in the bottleneck population, there won't be good growth even with a healthy perch population. See, TD and PBH are both right.[/quote]
My point all along has been that smallmouth do NOT need the perch. I would suggest that if the perch could or would be eliminated and the smallmouth numbers reduced, you would see a huge number of chubs and other forage species come back and the smallmouth would then use these species as forage.
Other reservoirs such as Minersville, Newcastle, Otter Creek, and Piute all are void of perch, yet smallmouth grow large due to their use of chubs among other fishes as forage. The same thing would happen at Jordanelle. The reason smallmouth over certain sizes only had perch in their bellies was because that was the only forage fish available.
The reality, as some have alluded to, is that the illegal introduction of perch is most likely the real culprit for the decline in the smallmouth fishery...
...one more thought, on a side note, to my knowledge smallmouth bass have never been able to put a damper on the chub population in any Utah reservoir like perch have. In Minersville, chubs always remained relatively constant even with high smallmouth numbers...the same can be said about Otter Creek and Piute. IN Newcastle, the golden shiners actually began reducing smallmouth numbers even though they were a forage species for the smallies. And, smallmouth numbers did not begin to rebound at Newcastle until wipers were introduced and knocked the golden shiners down to nothing.
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