small mouth ?

[patches]

what have you guys herd about the small mouth in the fraser ? a bio friend of mine was talking about it a year ago and i hear very little about it any where since then. it could wipe out the populations of salmon , steelhead and trout......and others sturgon ,bait fish down low ...just cause some dumb red neck from where ever wanted to fish for small mouth bass just like back home......please ..the jerks may have just wiped out tens of thousand of years of evolution ! i would love to know who that was........they should be charged with so many things they will never see a river or lake again .has any one herd of this down their ? has any one caught any ?

[phearless]

Hey Patches.
Your fears are correct.
They have been caught at Duncan bar in Fort Langley while fly fishing for pinks.
I believe there are largemouth around as well.
From the presentation I saw last year from the LM Biologist they are in pretty much any water that looks like it should have bass in it.
Most of the sloughs, backwaters etc.

Well Billy Bob, I hope you are happy.

[w3stc0ast_0n7heFly]

so will this wipe out the trout population fast? or will it take a while and how do we help prevent it? just report people who are releasing them is all we can do i guess.

[patches]

nothing can be done . they are there and have taken hold ..they will only grow in population will having the food source of baby salmon coming down stream. kill any you catch and report all transportation of live fish ....its no joke it could wipe out the salmon runs and devastate the steelhead that are left.they thrive in warm water and will only get more populace as the climate changes ...enjoy steelhead now because i can only hope and do all i can to preserve habitat, and therefor the fish, now so my 2 boys can fish maybe...... the last wild steelhead on the west coast. if any body thinks this to be untrue then look at what we have done to the species in 60-70 years..devastated the population from white rock to Alaska . the small mouth will hurt sensitive Thompson fish and many small tribs to the Fraser. ;all you can do is be a watch dog for your stream and do all you can for the water sheds in your area. i plant willow all along the stream in places of fallen trees and steep, logged embankments .there are lots of things you can do without disturbing the creek or needing a permit for.some times a little can do allot >

[angus mitchell]

We have a similar problem in the shuswap and kamloops area with the yellow perch being intrduced into 10 lakes todate. Fisheries is taking it pretty serious now and have closed any lakes with perch in the kamloops region to fishing to try to discourage the morons from planting these prolific species . They have treated Skamna lake with rotonone in 2007, one of our club members took the application coarse with the fisheries guys and went through the whole process of killing off all gill breathers in the lake. The big fear up here is the perch entering the shuswap system and targetting the fry and there food sources.

[phearless]

Perch are usually the precursor to BASS.
They are a favourite forage of the spiny ray low down sons of so and so's.
First stock the shelves, then let the pigs go wild for a few years of hawgs.
Let's hope not.

[patches]

they also spread through water fowl moving from one body of water to another I do believe. its been a long time .....but i remember one of the local M.N.R officers telling me that the eggs of perch and large bass are laid in, and on a bed of weeds. if a water bird moves a small piece of weed with him the eggs can travel a short distance from 1 body of water to another.that means that they may spread from here,all on there own. i remember southern ont in tobacco country ....every little irrigation pond, in every field ,had perch,large mouth,blue gill and sun fish.some had crappie. when a farmer built a new pond after the weeds grew in and a few years there would be fish in it.....i mean i caught a lot of big bass and ate alot of perch but i came out here at the age of 15 and lived in a wall tent on van island because i was a trout and steelie bum ...i dont want to see pan fish take over!this is a province wide problem by the sounds of it ....any body elts???