Bring back Flatheads in ND

[Jiffy]

I could walk a block or two and have enough for a meal in about 15 minutes. Too smoky…I’ve had enough of it for this week

 

[Trip McNeely]

Anytime I’d go to famous Dave’s I’d always get the catfish. Not sure if they still have it or not bit damn it was good. Had a group of guys from SC come up and hunt ducks with a guy I know. They’d bring up gallon freezer bags of a Cajun gumbo they’d make with catfish. Ive never had anything so good before, coulda ate it daily….cats get bad rap up here for some reason but those Cajuns have it down to a fine culinary art

 

[Sluggo]

I asked a ND GF biologist recently about reintroducing Lake Trout in Sak. He said they thrive in Peck because of the cisco and do poorly eating smelt. So no plans to put lakers in Sak where smelt is the primary forage.

 

[Allen]

There's paddlefish in the trinity river in texas, and in several other rivers along the gulf coast. Im convinced they enter the gulf and live in saltwater because there's no other way they can make it up some of the small gulf tributaries I've fished, but the ndgf has us convinced they're rare and endangered, as I see guys catching them in pensacola, calling them spoonbill catfish

They stock the hell out of them in Missouri. Not sure about their survivability in brackish waters, but I suppose it's possible they get from the mouth of one gulf trib over to the next.

 

[Trip McNeely]

I asked a ND GF biologist recently about reintroducing Lake Trout in Sak. He said they thrive in Peck because of the cisco and do poorly eating smelt. So no plans to put lakers in Sak where smelt is the primary forage.

How about some steelhead? Or stocking Cisco or lake herring….. whenever I hear about about reasons to not try to reintroduce lake trout I hear excuses but no valid reasons that couldnt be achieved without a bit of effort….the east end isnt exactly known as a walleyes factory like further upriver…..throw some steelhead or browns in and see what happens it just seems to me rhey are stuck on walleyes in ND and will pump millions into stocking unsustainable lakes but can’t give a bit of effort to ramp up our cold water fisheries into something even better…..

 

[MSA]

How about some steelhead? Or stocking Cisco or lake herring….. whenever I hear about about reasons to not try to reintroduce lake trout I hear excuses but no valid reasons that couldnt be achieved without a bit of effort….the east end isnt exactly known as a walleyes factory like further upriver…..throw some steelhead or browns in and see what happens it just seems to me rhey are stuck on walleyes in ND and will pump millions into stocking unsustainable lakes but can’t give a bit of effort to ramp up our cold water fisheries into something even better…..

They stocked lake trout in sak back in the 90s and they never took. The deep water habitat in sakakawea gets too warm after turnover in late summer and fall.

 

[Twitch]

They stocked lake trout in sak back in the 90s and they never took. The deep water habitat in sakakawea gets too warm after turnover in late summer and fall.

They tried rainbows and browns in the past too

 

[Kurtr]

How about some steelhead? Or stocking Cisco or lake herring….. whenever I hear about about reasons to not try to reintroduce lake trout I hear excuses but no valid reasons that couldnt be achieved without a bit of effort….the east end isnt exactly known as a walleyes factory like further upriver…..throw some steelhead or browns in and see what happens it just seems to me rhey are stuck on walleyes in ND and will pump millions into stocking unsustainable lakes but can’t give a bit of effort to ramp up our cold water fisheries into something even better…..

If you want some lake herring we are catching them even pulling cranks this summer

 

[Trip McNeely]

Not buying rainbows or browns wouldnt make it in sak….. they can tolerate warmer water than kings…. I can understand how lake trout may be a bit more fickle at turnover but I still can’t get on that train. If it were too warm for lakers surely we would lose a lot of salmon to the warmer waters as well….. I’d have to think a native species to the river would acclimate easier than an ocean species….. Ive had a fishhawk down enough to know Theres plenty of cold water below 45 degrees in sak. Hell most summers it’s 50 degrees or below around 75-85’ for only a few weeks in late summer….. if they’d tell us Theres not enough forage that deep i could believe that. I still can’t get on board with the temp thing…. Especially if kings can make it…..but somehow no other salmonoids can? I think it’s a forage issue personally

 

[CrappieHunter]

How about some steelhead? Or stocking Cisco or lake herring….. whenever I hear about about reasons to not try to reintroduce lake trout I hear excuses but no valid reasons that couldnt be achieved without a bit of effort….the east end isnt exactly known as a walleyes factory like further upriver…..throw some steelhead or browns in and see what happens it just seems to me rhey are stuck on walleyes in ND and will pump millions into stocking unsustainable lakes but can’t give a bit of effort to ramp up our cold water fisheries into something even better…..

or throw some stripped bass in there, it’s a shame they quit that program in DL because they actually did pretty well

 

[Trip McNeely]

I guess thats the point Im trying to make…. Will literally pump millions into wallayes in lakes that are highly likely to get killed but when it comes to other species it’s “na we tried that 35 years ago” or some other bullshit excuse. Let’s say they are right….. maybe they don’t take….then what would it hurt to dump 5k lakers in for 3 years in a row….. surely they don’t mind knowing the fish are likely to die with the how many thousands of trout stocked in kids ponds that probably dont make it to June or the 20k walleye stocked in a 7’ deep slough that’ll die within 5 years

 

[Trip McNeely]

Do a 3 year program and log meaningful data this time. Tag some fish and see what the incidence rate it and if there are enough fisherman catches to consider a more meaningful attempt. Maybe supplemental Cisco stocking, maybe they take off ajd actually do well and people start coming from miles around to target them. Maybe they all die and no one ever see one again I can’t get on board with the we tried it 35 years ago thing and accepting we have just be happy with pencil dick 5lb salmon year after year……especially when the department has zero issue dumping fish into lakes that are known to kill off frequently or trout in 1/2 acres ponds….

 

[Twitch]

I would guess the little slough lakes get fished out almoat as fast as they winterkill. As much as you may hate walleyes they’re way more popular than trout in this state

 

[Trip McNeely]

I would guess the little slough lakes get fished out almoat as fast as they winterkill. As much as you may hate walleyes they’re way more popular than trout in this state

I have my doubts….you think 20k walleyes are taken out of wood house lake yearly? I don’t think it’s even close in many of these lakes….. and you are kind of proving what I’m trying to say…. Tried 35 years ago, temps too cold…. Imo is bullshit excuses for really wanting to say “ if we put lakers in sakakawea Theres a chance if they do take this time they will compete with walleye and salmon for forage and being a bigger more dominant and aggressive predator could end up harming our walleye and salmon population which we want to pump for tourism….. now if they just came out and said the last statement id accept what they are saying……

 

[Eatsleeptrap]

I guess thats the point Im trying to make…. Will literally pump millions into wallayes in lakes that are highly likely to get killed but when it comes to other species it’s “na we tried that 35 years ago” or some other bullshit excuse. Let’s say they are right….. maybe they don’t take….then what would it hurt to dump 5k lakers in for 3 years in a row….. surely they don’t mind knowing the fish are likely to die with the how many thousands of trout stocked in kids ponds that probably dont make it to June or the 20k walleye stocked in a 7’ deep slough that’ll die within 5 years

A local lake that filled up in the early 90's was GREAT perch fishing. Then some moved to a shallower slough in high water and winter killed and the walleyes they kept stocking, 550,000 in ten years, got big enough to clean out the rest. Now it is a really good walleye lake, a half hour before sunrise and a half hour before sunset. Dead sea in between. We have been trying to get them to stock a bunch more perch to have something to catch during the day, but the brains in the chairs in Bismarck say it isn't worth it because the walleyes will just eat them. How about crappies? Nope. We are just going to do it ourselves.

 

[Sluggo]

A local lake that filled up in the early 90's was GREAT perch fishing. Then some moved to a shallower slough in high water and winter killed and the walleyes they kept stocking, 550,000 in ten years, got big enough to clean out the rest. Now it is a really good walleye lake, a half hour before sunrise and a half hour before sunset. Dead sea in between. We have been trying to get them to stock a bunch more perch to have something to catch during the day, but the brains in the chairs in Bismarck say it isn't worth it because the walleyes will just eat them. How about crappies? Nope. We are just going to do it ourselves.

Maybe throw some bullheads in there…they bite all day long.

 

[Trip McNeely]

A local lake that filled up in the early 90's was GREAT perch fishing. Then some moved to a shallower slough in high water and winter killed and the walleyes they kept stocking, 550,000 in ten years, got big enough to clean out the rest. Now it is a really good walleye lake, a half hour before sunrise and a half hour before sunset. Dead sea in between. We have been trying to get them to stock a bunch more perch to have something to catch during the day, but the brains in the chairs in Bismarck say it isn't worth it because the walleyes will just eat them. How about crappies? Nope. We are just going to do it ourselves.

Thats the same logic they use when stocking northerns and walleyes in the same lake how many walleyes end up northern food…..

Maybe throw some bullheads in there…they bite all day long.

Yea but then we will go full circle and end up the same point this conversation started and have to stock flatheads to get rid of the bullheads

 

[Ruttin]

Got some pike pickling going on right now

 

[Eatsleeptrap]

Maybe throw some bullheads in there…they bite all day long.

Ha. Rumor is some local "old guys" bucket stocked northern pike in it because they like pike. No record of game and fish ever stocking any, but they are there, a long ways from any other source. Long and skinny. Funniest looking pike I have seen.

 

[Duckslayer100]

.you think 20k walleyes are taken out of wood house lake yearly?

I think natural mortality rate (i.e. getting eating by bigger things, croaking from stress/diseases, etc.) far outpaces our ability or inability to tease them out of the water on hook and line...