Slow on Owens and small fish on Gull
Hit the Lower Owens Friday on the way down to the USC game. Water was low and slow ... and fishing was for me also. Caught 3 bass and 3 blue gill which was new for me. NC's was all that worked. Admittedly, I still need to get good at using crickets.
Gull was pretty ... but very windy yesterday. And the fish were SMALL ... SMALL ... did I say SMALL ? Definitely need to have a 4-5 foot leader.
Anybody else seeing small fish coming out of the "Home for Monster Trout?" New ownership?
Yeah, this year at the June Lake loop we caught the fewest, smallest fish ever, in over 12 years of going up there. I've read that the DFW reduced by 50% the amount/poundage of trout this year (1.6M lbs vs. 3M in previous years). Also I've heard that the sterilized trout mandated to protect native species will grow slower. And the loss of the Alpers facility certainly doesn't help.
Not really a whole lot of fun for my family/kids to catch just a few 1/2-pound trout (although I'm just ecstatic to catch a 8-inch wild golden on a dry, but that's a different kind of fishing). May have to look elsewhere for a different adventure next year.
I believe the fish stocking reduction was 750,000 pounds versus previous of 1.5 million pounds...DFW claim the sterile fish actually grow bigger faster..Seems to me that stocking sterile fish will eventually lead to no new fish in the waters. I fished the Lower Owens on Friday and Sat...I did manage a 4 pound pink meated fish on Friday morning north of line street and after that I got 1 fish and no bites in about 6 hours of fishing. The Upper Owens was horrible, river filled with weeds and low water...Spent 3 days at the river, about 6 hours time and one lousy 6 inch fish and never had one bite after that. I have fished the Upper Owens for over 50 years and the past few years has been the worst fishing for the Upper Owens.
Kinda hard to grow bigger and faster when they are taken immediately after stocking.Originally Posted by retired96
But I'm sure the DFG worked that factor into their analysis about stocked sterile fish growing faster....
I believe it's both. They can (or not) grow slower before sexual maturity, but faster afterwards. As I understand it, it's because they put the energy usually applied to reproduction into growth instead.
Some quick google searches turn up:
"Most studies of triploid fish have shown thatthey have normal or only slightly diminished survival and growth as compared to normal diploids.For some species, the growth rate of triploid fish was greater than for diploids, after the fish reached sexual maturity."
"Meiotic triploids experienced a retardation in growth during the first 60 days after ponding relative to their diploid controls. In the period of 60-120 days, the growth rate of specific meiotic triploid crosses improved considerably such that they were indistinguishable from diploids. "
I think its BS that sterile fish are planted, DFW caves in again to the wacko don't harm anything in the world type people and groups.
Maybe it's a slow fall bite? The fish are definitely smaller out of Gull this year, but I caught a few fish topping 3 plus pounds. When it's windy I like to extend to a 6 to 8 ft leader, tends to work better. Anyways, I limited for 3 days straight, with standard 3/4 to 1 pound planters and a few of those larger ones, but this was back in August. Mammoth had a good summer too.
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