Quote:
Originally Posted by 858king
Brown/cutt/rainbow trout, bullhead catfish, sunfish, and perch all do quite well in some Vancouver Island lakes...wonder if the effort could shift towards creating balanced ecosystems with triploid pike, weed-eating carp, etc.
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perch do not do well anywheres in BC where they are not natural. They have caused more than their share of headaches there. Not a single fisherman nor biologist would say the bucket brigade did anything more than ruin a valuable public fishery.
I am not familiar with bullhead catfish and sunfish introductions in BC. Triploid grass carp are a different beast with a different application and are not competing with native fish for food. Habitat impact may occur in large numbers but stocking locations are carefully controlled and the problem would only last till the fish dies of old age. Perch problem will still be here when you and I die of old age.
Pike is not feasible outside of the Peace drainage. They are highly predaceous and successful spawners and would severely impact the native trout and salmon populations. Bass introductions and potential pike introductions are devastating to these fisheries. To make triploid pike guaranteed infertile would cost about $30-40 per fish. What benefit is their from a cost/reward perspective. In a put and take lake I can understand the allure and benefit of introduced or unique fish to catch...but perch and bass have shown that you have to mitigate the dumbarses that do stupid things...so you can't give them the opporunity to have a ready source of perch/pike/bass to move around by bucket.