Cormorants

[acabtp]

Originally Posted by toghead

So i put it out there to all:what do we do????

uh, nothing, they are wild birds. you going to shoot all the bald eagles who eat stocked trout or trophy smallies too?

is this a serious thread?

[NJ219bands]

SC hunters killed 11,653 cormorants last hunting season. http://www.thestate.com/2014/04/04/....kill-more.html They ruined the fishing in Carnegie Lake.

[Eskimo]

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It's a messy issue. I wouldn't normally support killing non-game, native wildlife but this is becoming an issue. I wouldn't mind seeing hunters with a migratory bird stamp shoot those cormorants.

When I was kayaking Merrill Creek Reservoir, one of those birds nearly shit on my head. I wasn't even under it. It actually projectile shitted in my direction.




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[Denlon]

Originally Posted by NJ219bands

SC hunters killed 11,653 cormorants last hunting season. http://www.thestate.com/2014/04/04/....kill-more.html They ruined the fishing in Carnegie Lake.

I agree with the comment about Carneige Lake. I often fish the board walk area by the Princeton aqueducts for Calico Bass in Carneige Lake.
Although we aren't talking trout here, you can watch the cormorants diving down and feeding all day long on crappies, sunfish, perch, small bass, etc.

I realize that this is all natural, and they hafta eat too, but I also like to eat the crappies and yellow perch they are scoffing down.

Also, at the dinky Mohawk Pond in Red Bank these birds seem to know when the stocking days are. Many of them sit on the pond overflow drain in the middle of the lake and rapidly go into action feeding on the trout as the stocking truck is dumping them in.

I've fished both these places for many years, and I never remember seeing them when I was a kid 60 years ago. Now the cormorants are all over.

Denny

[jmurr711]

i saw 1 eat a carp last year since then i have waged a secret war just know if i invite ya to a turkey dinner at my home it may be "fishy"

[acabtp]

they're just a part of nature, like snapping turtles, snakes and all the rest of stuff that eats the trout besides people... but unfortunately cormorants taste like garbage (fish actually). so no hunter that i know, myself included, would waste a shotgun shell on one... and i eat canada geese (not known for their flavor) all the time, so i am not exactly picky.

i really wonder what those SC hunters did with their birds

[Mjh609]

Originally Posted by acabtp

they're just a part of nature, like snapping turtles, snakes and all the rest of stuff that eats the trout besides people... but unfortunately cormorants taste like garbage (fish actually). so no hunter that i know, myself included, would waste a shotgun shell on one... and i eat canada geese (not known for their flavor) all the time, so i am not exactly picky.

i really wonder what those SC hunters did with their birds

Nothing I'm sure. They're just douche bags who get a thrill out of killing something. I've almost gotten into fights at the beach and lakes when I've seen people messing with seagulls or geese. I'm sure there will come a time when I see someone hurt a wild animal intentionally and I end up hurting them.

[buzzbaiter]

Mergansers can do a hurtin' on fish pops in rivers & streams as they hunt in packs. I've seen them on some very small trout streams. I once spooked a bunch and one of them actually regurgitated its last few meals when it saw me (this happens to me on some blind dates too. lol) any how the pic is below. It was two white suckers and a 4" wild brown. This is one mergansers meals in one hour or less of feeding. Multiple this by thousands of birds times hundreds of days of feeding and u can see how they could put a serious dent in fish pops. IDC about the suckers but the trout? That's another issue entirely. I've also seen them on the Raritan(main & both branches), Delaware and Paulinskill.



I've seen cormorants at Merrill staring down at me from the standing timber but never seen them feeding. That reservoir is chock full of fish so they don't seem to be bothering the fish there.

[Almaink]

Cormorants have ruined Colonial Lake in Lawrenceville too. All year long maybe 5 or 6 birds live there, but once the stocking starts they fly in from the Delaware River in droves to gorge on trout and whatever else they can catch.

[JIMMY L]

Originally Posted by acabtp

uh, nothing, they are wild birds. you going to shoot all the bald eagles who eat stocked trout or trophy smallies too?

is this a serious thread?

Not trying to start a pissing contest.Twenty years ago there were zero cormorants in my home lake. Now there are twenty swimming in wolfpacks wiping out every fish they can .Just was hoping the state would try to control them like any other species that becomes a nuisance.Deer,Canada Geese come to mind (also wild species i believe). I dont recall mentioning anything about shooting eagles but smartass answers sometimes make thier way into all discussions.