Cormorants

[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.

[Eskimo]

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[buzzbaiter]

Cool pics! Yellow perch are schoolers(even more so as juveniles) so it makes sense they can gobble up a bunch all at once. Most predatory gamefish like bass, pickerel, trout tend to be solitary feeders which may help them survive being eaten by birds en masse.

[Eskimo]

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Those scoundrels like to eat Pike, too!

[Ol Pedro]

Santee Lakes in San Diego has Cormorant problems They tried boomers, put in Catfish instead of Trout , even larger Trout with limited success. Finally they got a kill permit and that stopped it for a while.