Lake trout reports

[finnbay]

Good day on the ice today, Steve (and Mr. Maki). I was expecting a text on my way home, but was disappointed. Let's do it again next year!

[Steve Foss]

Ken, we DID have a raven or two. As for the fish, I did get one on the ice after you left (it was a dink), but dropped it back down ASAP, since it was hooked pretty deep. Good fishing with ya, buddy.

[Jackpine Rob]

Its too bad they have to close the season when there's plenty of ice left - but I guess we want to protect the lake trout during the spawn, eh?

Oh wait...... lake trout don't spawn in the spring......

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I miss the spring ice-out laker trips - and curse the chuckleheads who foisted this closed season on us. May they forget their frozen minnows in the pockets of their parkas.

[Steve Foss]

Lakers don't spawn in spring? Who knew?

I know that if the season wasn't interrupted from March 31 to the May opener, I'd have been out there today. And tomorrow, and the day after, until it was no longer safe to walk out. And I'd be out in the boat as soon as there was enough water between ice floes to nose my way around in the Alumacraft. I'm mostly a C&R guy, BTW, and know how to care for and release lake trout.

Very few years you can find a way to fish safely during the month of April up here.

Actually, I've been told by DNR folks that closing the season in late winter/spring is one way to take the pressure off a species that grows very slowly. It does make sense, in a way. But, wait a minute, they've decided the cost/benefit ratio isn't good enough to keep stocking Burntside, and based on specious data. Looks like the smelt are going to re-establish their heyday!

And here's a thing to wonder about. Me and mine have just finished our best winter in eight years on Bside. Clients and I have iced 69 lakers, 14 at or over 30 inches. Almost all of them released. Hmmmm. That doesn't sound like the bell clap of doom for this fishery, right? Except that they dumped in about 1,000 mature Gillis Lake strain laker brood stock fish along with the last stocking of yearlings.

Bounty today, dead sea tomorrow?

I guess we'll see. I reckon it'll take a good 10 years or more to get a handle on the Stoccus interruptis issue. And if the news is bad, it'll take 20 years of stocking to establish recovery. Bummer that money requires reinventing the wheel.

Armchair biologist checking out!

[leech~~]

Can't lake associations or groups of Sportsman pay for some private stocking of the lake? I know the lake my Mom is on the L/A paid to stock some Walleyes in it a few years back. Maybe the bait stores up their could have a stocking jar on the counter all summer to try and raise some cash for restocking? Or the L/A or sportsmans clubs could do some fund raisers?

[delcecchi]

Specious? Isn't that the $10 word for Bogus? Pretty serious accusation there isn't it?

[Great Outdoors]

Not really a serious accusation, just a true statement.

There have been instances where Burntside data has resulted in conclusions that were incorrect.

[Steve Foss]

Specious = superficially plausible, but actually wrong.

Dictionary = a book or Web site where people who don't know the meaning of a word can actually look up the meaning.

That being said, I used it in the wrong context. I believe the conclusions drawn from the data are specious, not the data itself.

Like I said, armchair biologist here. I don't think we really know how well lakers are reproducing and how the recruitment is going. Even though there seem to be more fish without fin clips being caught in the last several years, that's anecdotal information. The actual sampling data represents a miniscule percentage of the lake trout population. You can see that by reading up on Bside on the DNR's Lake Finder site.

Are the lakers reproducing and surviving well on their own? Definitely room for doubt. Maybe they are, maybe not. I'm actually inclined to think they are doing better, but not better enough to maintain their numbers in the face of increased fishing pressure and no stocking. Whether or not they can handle it is an experiment that will take quite a few years to play out.

Just one guy's opinion, and not necessarily of any importance.

[delcecchi]

Specious is not a synonym for wrong or incorrect. Specious has an implication that I personally wouldn't agree with in this case. In particular that the conclusion was somehow "pleasing".

spe·cious

 

1. apparently good or right though lacking real merit; superficially pleasing or plausible: specious arguments.

2. pleasing to the eye but deceptive.

Apparently the last survey was done in 2007, and the proportion of native fish was over 50 percent. The nets seem to sample smaller fish for some reason.

What percent of the fish you caught were stocked? It looks like they were putting 60,000 or so yearling trout in every other year through 2008.

I wonder what the statistical significance of their test netting is, since they only get like 30 trout per year. Like, what is the 90% confidence level on natural reproduction proportion, based on a sample size of 26? Assuming uniformity and randomness and all that, of course.

A brief look at the literature on the web tells me I will need more time to figure this statistics stuff out.

[Steve Foss]

Specious is not a synonym for wrong or incorrect. Specious has an implication that I personally wouldn't agree with in this case. In particular that the conclusion was somehow "pleasing".

spe·cious

 

1. apparently good or right though lacking real merit; superficially pleasing or plausible: specious arguments.

2. pleasing to the eye but deceptive.

[delcecchi]

Well, maybe I will get motivated to read up on "design of experiments" and "binomial distributions" one of these days. I found a calculator but it wasn't working correctly for me.

However if there is something goofy with the size distribution, that could affect things because apparently gill nets are size selective. I don't know too much about gill nets.

[Great Outdoors]

DNR gill nets have graduated mesh size, which start with a smaller size on one end, and increase in size as you go down the net. (that is my understanding of the net) This allows different sizes and species to be caught to determine their averages.