For me, this has been an extremely interesting discussion. I’ve now come to a number of conclusions.
I had been casting about for information about small lake management. I’ve concluded that I’ve found a home with Pond Boss. These chat rooms about different subjects are invaluable!
I think that current small lakes management techniques work very well for many people. The goal now is to spread the practice of these techniques even further.
Unfortunately, these techniques work poorly in other situations. I think that small lakes fisheries management techniques will expand dramatically to work with these other situations.
The concept of “plug and play” is starting to dominate many industries. Fisheries managers use this concept in put and take fishing. Many hunting preserves use this technique when they raise game birds and waterfowl for hunters to shoot. I think that this type of management will become more prominent in small lakes. Many lake owners have the money to stock adult fish and let their friends and family catch them.
Along these lines, more people are going to want to start fishing their new lakes just as soon as they start filling. I think that the techniques for establishing the micro flora and fauna and stabilizing the water chemistry needed to support fish very quickly will be developed as a general management technique.
Most put and take fisheries require very short-term management. There isn’t enough food in the lake or stream to sustain or grow these fish for the long term. One of the exceptions is trout or catfish lakes where the fish readily eat pelleted food. I think that more people will decide to use a modified form of this type of management. The modified form is using adult or subadult fish but also having natural reproduction of predators and growing the forage in your lake in addition to feeding the fish.
Pond Boss has many chat rooms devoted to crappies. Obviously crappies thrive in southern waters. The problem seems to be with the management techniques and their application. I predict that managers will develop techniques to manage crappies as easily as they do bluegills.
Speaking of bluegills, I think fisheries managers will start using other species for forage for LMB. From what I read, the lakes in southern California use trout as forage. One of the problems with bluegills is that they sometimes grow bigger than the LMB can eat. This is wasted energy in terms of LMB production. Species that are smaller but still very prolific might work better.
Another prediction is that owners of small lakes will start to want many more and different species in their lakes than the usual group. High diversity lakes such as I have will become much more common. Lake owners will discover that it is no harder to manage these high diversity lakes than it is anything else. Generally accepted management techniques will be developed to manage lakes this way.
I think that the bias to using only a few species will decrease. This isn’t a very radical idea. We now have catfish, crappie and carp fishing clubs and tournaments. Many more people will conclude that catching and releasing a LMB isn’t any different than catching and releasing bowfin, gar, goldeyes, skipjack herring, freshwater drum, members of the pike family or any number of other species of fish. People will also discover that many of these species are quite good eating if prepared in methods other than frying. Along with this will be a demand for these species to stock in small lakes.
Another thing that I think will become more common is the use of nonbreeding fishing in our lakes. Wipers are the most obvious start of this trend. Many people stock, grow and harvest catfish. This also requires periodic restocking. The species that I think has the most potential for expanded use is freshwater drum. Anyone that enjoys fishing for red drum in saltwater will enjoy their freshwater counterpart just as much. They would take the place of catfish or a person could have half catfish and half drum. It is highly unlikely that drum will reproduce in most of our small lakes. Many people will discover that managing nonbreeding species is very easy.
As with everything else, money is important to this discussion. I drive an old Ford van and an even older Dodge pickup. Still, I don’t begrudge people that want and have the money to drive new pickups and SUV’s. The same is true with spending money on our lakes. Keep in mind that having our own personal fishing lakes is a huge luxury expenditure.
Many businesses and individuals accept the idea that when the build a new place, that the cost of landscaping is just part of the total cost. For many of these people, stocking their new lake with large fish immediately will be a no brainer.
This will create a demand for subadult and adult fish. This type of industry already exists for trout and catfish. I think an industry will develop to raise many more species of fish for the market as well as stocking in lakes. In particular, I think that a demand will develop for LMB, SMB and walleyes from the subadult to the very large sizes. I especially think that demand for large individuals of these species will develop and that many people won’t hesitate to buy them.
None of these ideas are all that radical. All of these things are being done now. The only thing different is that I think that these things will happen sooner rather than later.
All of these ideas present tremendous opportunities for people that raise and sell stocking fish for a living. More importantly, all of these different types of small lake management present all of us much more variety in the ways we manage our lakes.
