Invasive Species

[OldTimer]

(01-21-2013 02:52 PM)Jeremy Ray Green Wrote:  What you'll want to really watch for and there have been some significant studies, is the Area Of the Largemouth Bas, It has been shown on certain maps the Growth of Area the Large mouth are found, and as the water temps get warmer Year after year they are finding that the Largemouth bass are taking over some of the more northern areas the Small mouth are living.

I think the largemouth bass would be a greater concern overtime...


~Jeremy.

I can relate to this.

One of my favorite lakes in Muskoka has, in less than the last decade, started producing the occasional Northern Pike, but yearly increasing numbers of Largemouth. Not a startling sweeping change - but definitely steady none-the less.

This lake has always (in my life) been a good producer of Smallmouth of GOOD size.

Any pike caught here are usually WOW size since the lake does not have suitable rearing habitats............. so there are few Pike but they get fed real well..........

My readings tell me that the natural evolution of lakes is un-stoppable and they will, over many centuries, "mature" - becoming more fertile...... with more weeds...........etc. However I do not think what I see is by any means a slow natural process. Perhaps this maturing process is being accelerated by new construction re: the massive growth in the numbers of cottages and such on the shores of this lake (with septic systems) and the resultant silting and fertilization being done endlessly - in combination with the obvious global warming the planet is going through.

My concern is that a rising Largemouth population will have a irrepairable negative impact on the Smallmouth (and trout, etc) - resulting in a larger, yet smaller population of fish of ALL species.

OT