Quote:
Originally Posted by wind drift
Its not the number of trout that matters, but their mass. Fish weight increases exponentially with length. 100,000 10cm long fish would have an equivalent mass and caloric need as much fewer larger fish. Where did you get the bug data?
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This is the way it works.
The uncropped lakes are in balance between predators and prey. Curiously enough, all the predators are large, the prey small.
When a new predator is introduced (trout), it will turn to readily available larger bugs working it way down to smaller and smaller insects as the larger bugs are removed or very limited. Some insects are able to avoid this predation through concealment. Gomphus dragon and chironomids are examples.
One only has to spend 100 days a year on water for 50 years to see this occur.
What does happen when bugs are few is the catch rate collapses. Unlike the accepted horse**** that they are hungry and will hit anything, animals can’t waste energy this way. They will wait patiently for a abundance of food resources. Failure to do so where energy is expended with no return means you will die.
Many of the insects I saw 50 years ago have diminished. Cow Lake was a wonderful example. Stocking of perch nearly removed all the bugs like caddis. As the perch died due to winterkill, the caddis slowly returned . At one tine the hatch of dragon flies meant a touring of Hiway 752 past the lake killed a bunch of adults. Now, they are rarely seen. The leeches in Crimson Lake were famous for their abundance and size. Well, the perch got them too.
Sometimes environmental conditions decimate bug population. After the flood of 1995, there were few bugs left in the Oldman/Livingstone. Took sometime for the bugs to return. Presently, as WD cleans out the fish, bug life will explode making catching easier of the last few fish.
By the way, humans are one of the few organisms on earth who do things without a return on food, sex, shelter.
Don