Hit Martha again bloom in full swing, it was moving around ? Is it turning, not heard of this till this spring. Anyway I went 2 for 3 on my cronimids. Happy times, 14" on the nose.
I go back 10-15 yrs at Martha WB (whenever Dave/Ceviche first took me there). All my experience bares that out, and I've found that to be the case almost everywhere else. Martha has a very good history of fat 20+" browns; I've never seen sizable warmwater fish there - plenty of dinks; carryover RB's have typically been solid (and fun), and I'll add the jumbos are worth looking for and not hard to find - seek them in the weeks following arrival (assuming that's still a thing).I'm not familiar with Martha but assume it's a natural lake. That being said, with the stocking of various sizes and varieties of trout along with the presence of warmwater species, the principles of reservoir biology apply. Back during my working days, we managed (or attempted to manage) trophy fisheries in reservoirs on state wildlife areas in northern California. In one case on a newly acquired wildlife area, we had a 200 surface acre reservoir that had an existing largemouth bass and bluegill population along with native rainbow trout (steelhead fingerlings). The rainbows accessed the lake via an unscreened diversion from a stream in the Upper Klamath River Watershed. After initial electrofishing surveys, the diversion was screened and we switched to an annual planting of 10"-12" Eagle Lake strain rainbow trout. These fish were planted in the fall (after the lake had closed to fishing) and allowed to grow through the winter months until the spring trout opener.
I had about 28 years of involvement in this program and can say there's a lot of variability in the food chain from year to year with booms and busts of various fish and prey species populations. Given the intensity of stocking as stated in Brian's post, I would expect the same sort of variability in Martha. Warmwater species compete with trout for prey as well, as that giant black crappie will attest. I would expect that some years (or a series of years) will be more favorable for rapid growth than others.
except none of the bows are planted as fry and the species that ARE planted as fry are nowhere to be found. i don't doubt there are some alpha lmb in there that could choke down one of the planted legals once or twice a week - but a lake that size can only accomodate so many of those specimens, right? and there are still plenty of those bows getting caught. i think it is the fry those bass and crappie are feasting on.Those rainbow trout are an ideal forage fish for LMB. Conversations with biologists stocking 8” rainbows in Southern California lakes who laughed at the feeding frenzy when stocking trucks unloaded their contents at boat launches. Of course, my memory is going back to grad school in 1977! If a trout made it to 12” it was probably safe.
Ideal forage for LMB? 8”-10”, cylindrical body, no spines in fins, stupid and schooling like they’re still in Their rearing ponds.
"catchable size" - the thing i find curious is i've never caught a trout there below "catchable" size. where are the stages between fry and 10"? with that many fry planted each spring - you would think you'd run across them in schools. i know i'm not a good enough angler to avoid them on purpose!I'm a little blown away with the shear number of fish being dumped into a 63 acre lake on an annual basis. Personally, I would not expect many of the fingerlings to reach catchable size - it must be a helluva productive lake. I just read Brian's comment and agree wholeheartedly, if few if any cutthroat reach catchable size, why does the state continue to dump 1000's in each year?
As I recall, the lakes were in the Sad Diego area which was producing potential world record LMB frequently.except none of the bows are planted as fry and the species that ARE planted as fry are nowhere to be found. i don't doubt there are some alpha lmb in there that could choke down one of the planted legals once or twice a week - but a lake that size can only accomodate so many of those specimens, right? and there are still plenty of those bows getting caught. i think it is the fry those bass and crappie are feasting on.
maybe the secret strategy is to create an exceptional bass and crappie fishery by feeding them 15,000 trout babies every spring, then distracting the trout anglers with a few easily catch-able legals =)
Last thought - from above regarding bird predation - anything that thins out fish stocks is a good thing as far as I'm concerned. Washington's #1 issue for trout in lakes: Overpopulation
What do you mean I MAY have issues? At my age I've proudly accumulated a lifetime of issues.You may have issues. When I heard about that I said yuk.
I said the same but with a F!! I won’t be rushing out to get that issue with that bread making prison hag.....You may have issues. When I heard about that I said yuk.
Jeez-another misogynist that can't bear a successful woman.....I said the same but with a F!! I won’t be rushing out to get that issue with that bread making prison hag.....