Sunday funday Lakers/bows

[Billfish715]

Originally Posted by Jigman13

Scuds and shiners.

Lakers ate all the herring and the water doesn't have substantial phytoplankton for herring to feed on to prosper.

So, in your opinion, was the introduction of lake trout into RV a good thing? Something obviously disturbed the food chain and thereby the ability of The Valley to maintain any semblance of its being a trophy trout impoundment. Without food for the herring, their numbers have dwindled. Without the abundance of herring, the growth of the trout is limited. A long time ago, the Valley was loaded with herring and the brown trout fishing was doing fine. The trout were large and could often be caught throughout the water column.

To what extent are the biologists responsible for the disruption in the food chain? Is anything being done to improve the situation? A laker or rainbow has to eat a lot of scuds to grow to a trophy compared to their growth potential when they feast on herring.

[NJSquatch]

Originally Posted by Billfish715

To what extent are the biologists responsible for the disruption in the food chain? Is anything being done to improve the situation? A laker or rainbow has to eat a lot of scuds to grow to a trophy compared to their growth potential when they feast on herring.

From my understanding they didn't anticipate the lake trout being able to reproduce.

Round Valley Trout Association's meeting tomorrow 3/15 (open to everyone) will have a presentation by NJDF&W Principal Fisheries Biologist, Shawn Crouse. He will present the findings of the ongoing study of the reservoir. He also presented this topic at the Fisheries Forum in February and it was very good. I would recommend attending.

http://www.fishrvta.com/

[Chrisper4694]

Originally Posted by NJSquatch

From my understanding they didn't anticipate the lake trout being able to reproduce.

Round Valley Trout Association's meeting tomorrow 3/15 (open to everyone) will have a presentation by NJDF&W Principal Fisheries Biologist, Shawn Crouse. He will present the findings of the ongoing study of the reservoir. He also presented at the Fisheries Forum in February and it was very good. I would recommend attending.

http://www.fishrvta.com/

they may not admit it but, yeah, they were basically stocking lake trout in there for years based on the assumption that they would not successfully spawn. When they finally realized not only were they spawning, but very successfully, it was too late and they population is now stunted in that medium/avg size range (also because of the forage problems). basically someone really screwed up bad when they declared the lake trout wouldn't be able to reproduce in rvr haha.

[Mikey topaz]

Originally Posted by Billfish715

After seeing your picture of some very "healthy" trout, I was wondering about their diet. What were they eating.......besides your lures? There has been talk about the decline of forage fish (herring) in the Valley over a number of years and the amount of aquatic insect life that are or did make up a substantial amount of the trouts' diets. It was theorized that the decline in the population of big brown trout was a direct result of their voracious appetites for herring. They simply ate more baitfish than could be annually spawned. What is your take on the variety and amount of bait in the Valley?

Jigman pretty much got it... The Lakers are kinda of like a freshwater bluefish to me they eat anything and everything.... Most of the diet of the fish over there are tiny shrimp. There's bait in there but few and far between most of the time u will mark what looks to be bait balls but are actually small Lakers which the lakers eat as well a few of them i been cleaning have had them in their stomachs....

[thmyorke1]

Curious to know more about the story of lake trout, such as why they initially thought lakers wouldnt reproduce. From what I hear they are currently seeing if Golden Shiners can fill in that high demand from the lakers.

[Chrisper4694]

Originally Posted by thmyorke1

Curious to know more about the story of lake trout, such as why they initially thought lakers wouldnt reproduce. From what I hear they are currently seeing if Golden Shiners can fill in that high demand from the lakers.

I'm no biologist, but i would imagine a pelagic species of bait fish (like herring) would be the best solution in a deep reservoir like rvr...unfortunately, as was said already, the lake can't support herring in it's current state apparently.

maybe there is another pelagic bait fish species they could look into, idk if that's a viable option..probably some regulation preventing it (just like everything else that makes too much sense in this state)

[Jigman13]

Not pelagic but what about gobies?

[NJSquatch]

Originally Posted by Mikey topaz

Jigman pretty much got it... The Lakers are kinda of like a freshwater bluefish to me they eat anything and everything....

To Mikey's point.

Shawn's presentation showed a lake trout with 5 or 6 senkos in its gut and another one that was stuffed with young of the year sunfish.

[AndyS]

Lake trout will eat just about anything.

[reason162]

Lol Andy wtf!!

Now my question is, what are those 20lb lakers in RVR eating? Surely they're not chasing scud?