Holly shit batman , i could fill my chum freezers for the remainder of my life.
State ready to poison tui chub in Diamond Lake
9/5/2006, 12:43 a.m. PT
The Associated Press
(AP) — ROSEBURG, Ore. — After years of talk, it's time for action against the tui chub.
Starting Tuesday, Diamond Lake will be closed to boating so officials can press forward with a plan to poison the unwanted fish and return the lake to a showcase trout fishery.
In coming days, crews will spread rotenone, a chemical designed to kill only fish. After a day or two, about half of the estimated 90 million chub will rise to the surface. They will be skimmed from the water and hauled to a Douglas County farm to be used as fertilizer. The rest will sink and decompose.
The fish kill comes after years of public hearings and environmental battles over how to deal with an exploding chub population that has ruined an economy based on recreation.
The lake's deep-blue waters have clouded in recent years as the aggressive feeder proliferated. Brought in as bait from the Klamath Basin, the chubs multiplied like locusts, elbowed out rainbow trout, dirtied the water and drove campers away.
"It's a five-star restaurant for chub," said David Loomis, a fisheries biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife who is leading the $5.5 million restoration project.
Plans are to use a combination of liquid and powdered rotenone, which kills the fish by attacking their gills then quickly dissipates. Plans are to restock the lake with trout as early as next year, provided monitoring shows the lake's insect population and water quality have rebounded.
Diamond Lake had no fish in it until the state stocked it with trout in 1910 to form a recreational fishery. The tui chub was introduced in the mid-1900s, biologists think. The state lowered the lake and zapped it with rotenone in 1954 and thought the problem was solved.
But the fish showed up again in 1992.
"This lake drives the recreation in this area, but the trout fishery crashed here in 1996 because of the chub," said Rick Rockholt, a spokesman for Diamond Lake Resort. "You previously could see 100 boats out there at this time of year. Today, you can only see one or two."
Besides the millions of chub, Loomis estimates that several hundred to a few thousand trout will be killed. Chub eggs are not affected by rotenone, but there are no fish eggs in the lake this time of year, Loomis said, which was a factor in the timing of the treatment.
Rotenone is common in lake management. It will be spread this month on Deer Creek Reservoir in northern Idaho to get rid of golden shiners, a nonnative fish that threatens the trout fishery. When the chemical is added to Diamond Lake, law enforcement agencies will limit public access to the area.
While fishermen, business groups and homeowners at the lake supported it, the plan to poison Diamond Lake hasn't gone unopposed.
"Instead of considering a long-term solution of how to live with tui chub like many other lakes in Oregon — annual netting and stocking with predacious fish — ODFW is planning to just re-drain and re-poison Diamond Lake whenever it is economically prudent to do so," said Francis Eatherington, conservation director for the Roseburg-based Umpqua Watersheds.
___
CHUB. Leuciscus Cephalus.
Family: CyprinidaeDistribution: Common in England, lowland Scotland, Wales and isolated colonies in Ireland. Habitat: A common fish found in still waters and rivers. Once thought of as only a river fish, but lives and thrives in still waters.
Description: A thick-set fish with large mouth, brassy scales, convex dorsal and anal fins, thick white lips and a large blunt head (hence the nickname ‘loggerhead’), also has the old local names of Chavender, Chevin, Alderman or Skelly.
The back is olive green, the flanks bronze/silver and the belly white. All the fins, except the pelvic and anal fins which are red, are dark in colour.
Small chub are often confused with dace, but distinction lies in the large mouth and the shaping of the dorsal and anal fins. The chub has a convex shaped fins while the dace is concave.
British record: 8lb 10oz caught by P. Smith from the River Trees, any fish over 5lb is considered a worthy catch.
Chub are generally river dwellers and do not naturally inhabit still waters except where they have become trapped by floods or intentionally stocked by fishery owners. When introduced to lakes and ponds, they seem to attain a better size and weight, probably due to not having to continually fight against the flow of the river.
Like all fish, chub love underwater structures, tree roots, weed beds, over-hanging trees, etc., anything which gives them a sense of security to hide from predators and the ability to ambush any passing morsel of food.
Chub also feed well in winter when generally fishing is a little slow. A roving angler working his way quietly along the river bank can have good sport even on the coldest of days.
BAITS
Chub are just not fussy - if they can get it in their mouths they will have a go! Maggots, casters, worms, bread-flake or paste, cheese, boilies, meat, minnows - you name it and the chub will give it a try, even better if its smelly and on the large size! Tactics for catching. Chub can be caught on most methods, they will even take a bushy fly from a fly rod or a small plug or spinner. They will eagerly gulp down floating crusts given chance, (which helps in their location). Once they decide to take a bait they don’t hesitate or nibble at it, it’s all or nothing with chub.
The hardest part is finding them - if you can locate a shoal and you are stealthy enough, you should be able to catch one or two from a swim before they shy away. If a chub can see you - the odds of catching it are against you from the start - they really are the wariest of fishes.
LOL I THINK I CAN TELL THIS GUY WHERE THERE IS 90 MILLION OF THEM IF ITS THE SAME FISH THEY SPEAK OF.
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by matey8941
