Bucket biology gone bad

John wrote:
Forty said:

An interesting article in today's Times about a trout
fishery lost to big bass.

Maybe not. All LM and SM bass are exotic species and introduced west of the
Rockies. Neither are native to Oregon nor are bluegill and crappie - all are
introduced. IMHO jail time is not enough for these thugs who do this. We
should bring back corporal punishment for them.

Maybe all is NOT well for these exotics.

Davis Lake flows into manmade Wikiup Reservoir on the upper Deschutes. Just
above Wikiup on the Deschutes is manmade Crane Prairie which has a very
large native trophy trout fishery that is/was threatened by jerks who
introduced LM bass, bluegill, crappie, and recently stickleback minnows into
Crane Prairie. The bass are disappearing. Trout are doing well. Last Sunday
my son and I saw sticklebacks every time we looked into the water - no
matter where we looked. According to one theory, trout have no problem
feeding on sticklebsacks but LM bass especially get punctured by their
spines and are dying outg. It is so bad that in May/June 2007 during LM
Bass spawn, Oregon F&G and local BASS clubs asked the public NOT to disturb
bass spawning to keep them alive. ROFLMAO.

So maybe someone will put sticklebacks into Davis Lake and all will be back
to normal, as well as normal could be.

Or maybe jerks will put tui chubs into Davis Lake like they did again into
Diamond Lake. It'll take rotonone and millions of bucks to kill everything
out.

I've asked several F&G personnel in several states why they don't mount a
big education program to get people to stop transporting and planting
exotics. They all say more education and press just makes some people do it
more often. UGH! Go figure.

Bye Bye bass in Crane g
John



I'm glad to hear that Crane is coming back. I have not been to either
Davis or Crane for many years. Maybe I'll have to put Crane back on the
pontoon trip next spring.

Bugcaster sez:

I'm glad to hear that Crane is coming back. I have not been to either
Davis or Crane for many years. Maybe I'll have to put Crane back on the
pontoon trip next spring.

OOPS! I did not mean to imply that all is well or even that all is getting
well. When jerks introduce exotic species into water bodies already
containing exotic species it may disturb things with unintended
circumstances the wrong way and still not work out well. O F&G biologists
are clueless about what's going on AFAIK.

For example, do you remember that tremendous blue damsel fly hatch on Crane
10 years ago? They're gone. My son and I have not seen a single damsel fly
the last two years. Weren't they supposed to be a main cause for the success
of the trout fishery? Did the LM bass destroy the damsel flies?

Another example. Remember the introduced sticklebacks we saw? There was a
midge hatch about 10:00 to 11:00 am and guess what was eating the midges?
Yep, the sticklebacks? Aren't midges a major food source for Crane's trout?

AFAIK Crane's trout never went away but they certainly aren't "back".
Regardless, it's a great fishery. Maybe the BASS bunch will suspend their
tournaments and the Powerbait boyz will go away and let you pontoon in
peace!

Good luck!
John