I'm removing as many of the new recruit SMB as I can get trapped, really any less than 5". If I have some slow growers from original stockers they probably need removed anyway. The problem I see is the outlandish number of 4-5" perch.
If one SMB was successful in nesting, and based on size there could have been 2500-3500 eggs. If 5% made it to 3", that could be 150 fish?? If the fry survived predation due to my large amount of riprap that number could possibly be higher. I'm estimating my hatch date and with that said, my new recruits are growing at a higher rate than my original stocker SMB but I feel the diversity of my forage base was better for the new recruits but I don't feel that way now. I have very high numbers of GSH-I'm as dumbfounded by their numbers as I was by the FHM earlier this year. I had confirmation of YP fry long before I seen any smallie fry. I think I was behind the curve before I ever recognized it. If 2 SMB spawned successfully, well.. Maybe that happened but somewhere the entire system blew up and the forage base got hit hard-especially the easy targets.
I'm close to 100 smb less than 5" removed so maybe I should stop here.
EDIT: another item of interest that I want to add is my fall samples were 7 net sets, 1 per day. I decided to pull perch and smb so I set 2 per day for 2 nights. so in 11 net sets I collected 4-1/2 5gal buckets full of crawdads and I've removed every one of them. I stocked 2lbs a year ago and removed probably 35-40lbs now.
Last edited by Snipe; 10/20/19 09:21 PM.
