I say a nuisance because they have inhibited BG recruitment (at least that's the thought). The shallows of this small city lake were suddenly teaming with OSS in water only a 2" fish could make a living in. The LMB were not doing much to the population of these invaders. The only "known" source of these were in a system 200 miles away. Keep in mind, most water in the very western part of KS is underground water.
From the time the OSS showed up in about 2000, the BG population went the other way. The biologist at the time felt the high numbers of these small but fast fish were raiding a lot of nests. within a few years the LMB WR was showing signs of decline so they opted to stock fingerling saugeye with the thought these small predators would cruise the shallows at night and bust some of the OSS population down, which never really happened. The remaining BCP grew to larger sizes but the LMB and BG continued to suffer.
There has never been a determination of what the actual, TRUE reason is for this, but the OSS has been blamed for this in this small lake and they still are very abundant.
40 miles east of this is another small community lake that had PSS that were very abundant-also with no clue how they got there. Both had similar populations of BG and LMB but the PSS didn't seem to wreck things like the OSS did-at least that was the thoughts at the time. 2 years ago, the impoundment with PSS flooded badly and now there is little sign of PSS but LMB and BG have rebounded fine. 2 different ponds though, funny how every one has it's own personality.
Last edited by Snipe; 06/25/22 01:49 PM.
