Bullshead

[bloom]

Just an update, and a call for some assistance.

 

1. Bullshead lake will be stocked with triploid fish this Spring. Trips are non-reproductive trout, that will not go through the spawning process in spring. The benefit to this is that they grow faster as they do not have to waste the energy to create eggs and then reabsorb them again. This will also be beneficial in that they should not be cruising the shore lines in Spring like the standard diploids and be highly susceptible to catching and harvest. The stocking numbers of triploids will also be around the 28,000 mark compared to the usual 35,000-40,000 diploids.

For more information on triploids, see http://www.gofishbc.com/docs/2208A06B4B85CFDB.pdf

This is great news for Bullshead and other Alberta lakes.

 

2. Due to the stocking of the trips, we are going to need to collect some baseline date. What we need is to track the size of the fish that were stocked LAST SPRING...we are looking for the 1 year old diploids. Having this data will give us something to compare the triploids to next year. So what we need you do to is:

-measure all the small fish (~15'' or less), record the date, and send the information to Terry Clayton at Terry.Clayton@gov.ab.ca or pm it to me here.

 

April, May and June should be enough time to collect the data. The only problem is that you guys will have to target the small fish in Spring

 

Thanks in advance for all your help.

[beedhead]

Thats great...I remember you talking about this last year...Awesome. I will help out in any way I can!

[monster]

I really think this is a great idea with the triploids, however I think at the same time we should also try and scare away the pelicans and the commrants(please excuse my spelling on this bird). These 2 species of birds raise their young at Bullshead, these youngsters are taught how to search for food, and that food happens to be our nice rainbows. Now I do not know what an average size Pelican eats but by the size of their bills and watching some feeding the past few years they can take a very large Rainbow. Before Bullshead regs were changed we used have this waterbody stocked with approx-80,000 Rainbows, now I know why the numbers of stocking are lower than before the lakes trophy status was implemented, I think its either try to scare the birds away or bump the stocking numbers back up to 80,000 rainbows. Also I will try and conduct a creel survey and go around and ask the fishermen what they have caught. Any suggestions on what questions to ask besides the obvious would help out alot.

[Tako]

Buy a bigger rod Triploids are fun

[Guest Sundancefisher]

Just an update, and a call for some assistance.

 

1. Bullshead lake will be stocked with triploid fish this Spring. Trips are non-reproductive trout, that will not go through the spawning process in spring. The benefit to this is that they grow faster as they do not have to waste the energy to create eggs and then reabsorb them again. This will also be beneficial in that they should not be cruising the shore lines in Spring like the standard diploids and be highly susceptible to catching and harvest. The stocking numbers of triploids will also be around the 28,000 mark compared to the usual 35,000-40,000 diploids.

For more information on triploids, see http://www.gofishbc.com/docs/2208A06B4B85CFDB.pdf

This is great news for Bullshead and other Alberta lakes.

 

2. Due to the stocking of the trips, we are going to need to collect some baseline date. What we need is to track the size of the fish that were stocked LAST SPRING...we are looking for the 1 year old diploids. Having this data will give us something to compare the triploids to next year. So what we need you do to is:

-measure all the small fish (~15'' or less), record the date, and send the information to Terry Clayton at Terry.Clayton@gov.ab.ca or pm it to me here.

 

April, May and June should be enough time to collect the data. The only problem is that you guys will have to target the small fish in Spring

 

Thanks in advance for all your help.

 

I suspect the triploids should be pretty close to the same size at year 1, 2 and at age 3-4 is when the triploid growth rates should increase over diploids. Age 3-4 is when rainbows start to reach spawning age.

 

You should clarify what length measurement Terry wants...either total length or fork length. Also we may get added mortality if people do not properly handle the spunking little fish while trying to get an accurate measurement.

 

Triploids will be great to see in about 3 years! I would love to see the size limit up to 22 inches. There is plenty of growth left to see that in more fish...however you can see very few big fish as they are getting bonked. Why not bonk them bigger and provide more sport in the process?

 

Just a thought.

 

Sun

[reevesr1]

Bob,

I don't know exactly what the Pelican's and Cormorant's eat here. Back home, where there are millions of them, they eat relatively small stuff. In fact, we use both birds as indicators of where game fish will be. Not because they eat the game fish, but because they eat what the game fish eat. I know that Pelican's have big beaks, but I don't recall ever seeing one eat something very big. With Cormorant's, even smaller stuff. That said, they can certainly eat juvenile fish, and Cormorant's will go pretty deep to get at food. Pelican's not as much. But both swallow fish whole, so they couldn't eat anything very big.

 

How big are the fish when stocked?

 

As an aside, I've hooked a Pelican before. Them suckers fight good!

[Guest tallieho]

dipping vat lake is stocked in the fall with the hope that both bird species are long gone,this practice has helped better than when we doned or tiawan sandals & went for an evening walk over to nesting grounds at cochrane lake. that is very good news about the trip's & will gladly send off the info..would be nice to clarify fork or total length thou.

[monger]

Excellent news! 2012 is going to be a blast. Can't wait to get some big, chrome females. The males will still get dark, but will be infertile.

Hopefully the government will put triploids into Police as well.

Maybe I can get Sundancefisher to be my executive assistant and write down lengths for me.

[bloom]

Excellent news! 2012 is going to be a blast. Can't wait to get some big, chrome females. The males will still get dark, but will be infertile.

Hopefully the government will put triploids into Police as well.

Maybe I can get Sundancefisher to be my executive assistant and write down lengths for me.

 

Let me know when you're coming...you catch, I'll record (and drink a beer)

[Kyle]

wow, awesome news..very excited!

[monger]

Ok Tim. It might be hard to move away from one of those pods of 18-21" fish though. Last year we got kind of stuck for about 3 hours in one area until our wrists were sore. You might have to throw rocks to make me move along and look for little fish.

The water in front of the boat launch seems to hold lots of little fish. That would be a good place to collect data.

[bloom]

In front of the boat launch is probably the best place. That's where I take my daughter and the action is pretty fast with many 15-18'' fish

[Guest Sundancefisher]

Bob,

I don't know exactly what the Pelican's and Cormorant's eat here. Back home, where there are millions of them, they eat relatively small stuff. In fact, we use both birds as indicators of where game fish will be. Not because they eat the game fish, but because they eat what the game fish eat. I know that Pelican's have big beaks, but I don't recall ever seeing one eat something very big. With Cormorant's, even smaller stuff. That said, they can certainly eat juvenile fish, and Cormorant's will go pretty deep to get at food. Pelican's not as much. But both swallow fish whole, so they couldn't eat anything very big.

 

How big are the fish when stocked?

 

As an aside, I've hooked a Pelican before. Them suckers fight good!

 

Hi Rickr

 

Pelicans can eat extremely large fish. Once while electrofishing Wolf Lake up north, we made our way over to the inlet stream. The walleye had finished spawning even though the ice had just completely come off the lake two days earlier. The white suckers were starting to spawn. The pelicans were in their thick picking off very large suckers (greater than 2 feet long) and eating all they can. They were so heavy they could not fly. A two foot long sucker never even slowed down when swallowed. I suspect they could easily eat a 6-10 lb rainbow. Cormorant's should be able to eat rainbows over 16 inches. The orientals used them for fishing and would tie a noose around their necks to prevent them from eating the bigger fish. Between Loons and cormorants I would guess cormorants could eat bigger fish but that is a guess. Grebes and merganzers would be more apt to eat minnows and such sized fish.

 

Therefore I would say any stocking of under 16 inches is at risk of being prematurely killed by predators if pelicans, cormorants or loons are around. The stocked trout will often school in shallow making them susceptible to group pelican attacks which are very efficient.

 

Cheers

 

Sun

[dryfly]

Pelicans will eat quite large fish as noted. I saw one eat a 18-inch pike a few years ago in the ponds across the street. When F&W stocks 20-cm trout the gulls and cormorants have a heyday.

[Guest RedWiggler]

That was great i wonder what that little girl was thinking "mommy mommy look at the baby goose.......CHOMP!!!!".

[monster]

How does a person keep these birds away from this lake, the pelicans usually congregate at the eastern end of the lake where the water comes in. Can they be captured live and removed to a more suitable habitat where they will not interfere with the growth potential of this lake? any suggestions are much appreciated.

[admin]

This is great....

 

No Way, that was awesome. Thanks for the video link Clive.

[Maximum]

Wow! That's insane, I wonder what kind of indigestion that caused!

[reevesr1]

Hi Rickr

 

Pelicans can eat extremely large fish. Once while electrofishing Wolf Lake up north, we made our way over to the inlet stream. The walleye had finished spawning even though the ice had just completely come off the lake two days earlier. The white suckers were starting to spawn. The pelicans were in their thick picking off very large suckers (greater than 2 feet long) and eating all they can. They were so heavy they could not fly. A two foot long sucker never even slowed down when swallowed. I suspect they could easily eat a 6-10 lb rainbow. Cormorant's should be able to eat rainbows over 16 inches. The orientals used them for fishing and would tie a noose around their necks to prevent them from eating the bigger fish. Between Loons and cormorants I would guess cormorants could eat bigger fish but that is a guess. Grebes and merganzers would be more apt to eat minnows and such sized fish.

 

Therefore I would say any stocking of under 16 inches is at risk of being prematurely killed by predators if pelicans, cormorants or loons are around. The stocked trout will often school in shallow making them susceptible to group pelican attacks which are very efficient.

 

Cheers

 

Sun

Well there ya go. Must be that the huge amount of bait fish (mullet, menhaden, shad, etc. etc.) makes it totally unnecessary for them to go after big stuff in saltwater. Either that or the gamefish do not school in shallow, clear water the same way as raised fish.

 

A pelican weighs what, 10-15lb? A 24" sucker would weigh 5? Hard to imagine how long before said Pelican could fly again.....

[monger]

Nice video. Who knew pelicans loved squab

[Tako]

2012!? It's 2008! They grow faster than that! From what I've seen and heard about BH, you'll have 3lb fish by 2010 for sure

[birchy]

Holy crap!! No seriously.. maybe that pigeon crapped on the pelican not too long before that...

[dryfly]

BobEMonsater wrote, "Can they be captured live and removed to a more suitable habitat where they will not interfere with the growth potential of this lake?" Did you mean the birds? Buggers got wings and if they know where the grub is they will return in a heartbeat. Won't work unless you break their wings or clip them which would not be kosher with the PETA group. Pelicans and cormorants are to be mildly tolerated of not respected. I love to watch pelicans fishing in the ponds across the road. I don't like to see them in real lakes and rivers.

 

Couple of old ones....

 

 

[RandyS]

 

Therefore I would say any stocking of under 16 inches is at risk of being prematurely killed by predators if pelicans, cormorants or loons are around. The stocked trout will often school in shallow making them susceptible to group pelican attacks which are very efficient.

/quote]

 

 

 

I heard someone mention that they should do the stocking at night when the big birds aren't around. Seems like a good idea. Only problem is getting the stocking trucks to do it.

[beedhead]

Randy,....You and I were talking about it a couple years ago at B.H. in the parking lot over a pop? . After a day on the lake.

 

I remember talking to Terry Clayton about it and... I Think he did mention something about the trucks cant do it in night