1flyfisher
07-25-2009, 04:30 PM
I put in quite a few dozen days last fall and a couple dozen so far this spring/summer.
I began noticing the sores already last fall and the fish were jumping out of the water quite often with unusual frequency like I had not seen before. I believe they may have been trying to shake off the parasites. Some kids I know from reno showed up to fish with me (last july 2008) having never fished the lake they just wore shorts in their float tubes and t shirts as it was mid july and HOT. They got bit up real bad by something but were unable to see what it was (perhaps something microsized?). Mosquito bite size welts all over their legs and stomachs (dozens) and they were very itchy they said. They launched from cow and tried to catch up to me as I was already at first point fugawee and they could see my kayak from cow. They kicked straight through all the weeds. So be careful wetwading starting about now. I did swim in the lake last week with no bites.
Last summer the lake level was quite low and was a swamp of weeds from north point fugawee all the way over to freeman. One big giant weed bed. Lake levels are the same this year as the lake didn't come up much from last season. The parasites are ergasilus or commonly known as gill maggots and also anchor worms. I have never seen this in the decades I have been fishing Davis. Parasites do not kill the fish outright but do stress the fish and open them up to infection, Sores result in a loss of body fluids and increases the risk of summer or winter kill and that is just not good. Ergasilus Gill maggots also do damage to the gills. The energy levels of the fish do not seem to be effected as I had some very hot fish this spring/summer and only one that I had to nurse for a half hour as it kept rolling over. That fish had massive amounts of gill maggots and was in really bad shape. There have been fewer of the holdover 20"+ fish porpoising around the shoreline as in years past. I do not know if that is due to fisherman yanking out limits or due to winter kill stress from parasites. Trollers do pound the lake hard and davis has been receiving alot of pressure since the re-stocking post treatment and the trollers seem to like taking limits of 10.
I don't often eat these fish as they have poor taste to me but DFG says you can eat them if you want to. I'll pass as they look pretty damn unappetizing with all the sores and holes in their skin and parasites in their gills. Nasty.
Last week I landed quite a few that were clean and in pristine condition. I think they may have been recent planters as I heard DFG threw in some larger fish recently. There have been alot of dinker size fish this year in the 8-12" range. They are covered with sores and parasites also. You could have caught 20-30 of these planters. I tried to avoid them as much as possible and target bigger fish in the skinny water. It was a tough spring though.
DFG says the outburst of parasites is cyclical and occurs from warmer water levels (last summer). Perhaps this year with the cold june and cooler water temps they will go away.
The lake needs a good fill with a wet winter to raise water levels and improve water conditions.
One positive note. I have been seeing some improvement in the number of snails in the LightningTree to Mosquito Slough area. Hopefully they can spread back through the entire lake again as they have been few and far between the last few years. I have logged a couple dozen days this season so far and have seen 2 blood midges. Damsels were very light but they are there and next spring should be a great hatch weather permitting. This june we had rain for 6 weeks straight in reno and some days didn't even make it out of the 50's. It really shut down the damsels compared to average numbers we should normally see. Last year being a mega size hatch. Another positive. Callibaetis were out in big numbers and fishing the nymph was a good choice. Not so much fish keying in on the duns though. I would see hundreds of duns on the water with only the occasional sporadic riser which made the fish hard to target with a dryfly.
Compared to what I have experienced in years past I would rate this season pretty low. It is a bit disappointing as I was expecting this spring/summer to have had some really nice quality fat 20-22+" rainbows porpoising around and the lake to really shine as we are a few years post treatment and this season should have been a good one. The sores are a real bummer to me. It is tough seeing those feisty davis bullets all covered with holes.
Maybe this fall things will turn around and all the 8-12" dinks add some size.
We shall see......
......I may go up this coming week. If I do I will report back.
Paul B.
I began noticing the sores already last fall and the fish were jumping out of the water quite often with unusual frequency like I had not seen before. I believe they may have been trying to shake off the parasites. Some kids I know from reno showed up to fish with me (last july 2008) having never fished the lake they just wore shorts in their float tubes and t shirts as it was mid july and HOT. They got bit up real bad by something but were unable to see what it was (perhaps something microsized?). Mosquito bite size welts all over their legs and stomachs (dozens) and they were very itchy they said. They launched from cow and tried to catch up to me as I was already at first point fugawee and they could see my kayak from cow. They kicked straight through all the weeds. So be careful wetwading starting about now. I did swim in the lake last week with no bites.
Last summer the lake level was quite low and was a swamp of weeds from north point fugawee all the way over to freeman. One big giant weed bed. Lake levels are the same this year as the lake didn't come up much from last season. The parasites are ergasilus or commonly known as gill maggots and also anchor worms. I have never seen this in the decades I have been fishing Davis. Parasites do not kill the fish outright but do stress the fish and open them up to infection, Sores result in a loss of body fluids and increases the risk of summer or winter kill and that is just not good. Ergasilus Gill maggots also do damage to the gills. The energy levels of the fish do not seem to be effected as I had some very hot fish this spring/summer and only one that I had to nurse for a half hour as it kept rolling over. That fish had massive amounts of gill maggots and was in really bad shape. There have been fewer of the holdover 20"+ fish porpoising around the shoreline as in years past. I do not know if that is due to fisherman yanking out limits or due to winter kill stress from parasites. Trollers do pound the lake hard and davis has been receiving alot of pressure since the re-stocking post treatment and the trollers seem to like taking limits of 10.
I don't often eat these fish as they have poor taste to me but DFG says you can eat them if you want to. I'll pass as they look pretty damn unappetizing with all the sores and holes in their skin and parasites in their gills. Nasty.
Last week I landed quite a few that were clean and in pristine condition. I think they may have been recent planters as I heard DFG threw in some larger fish recently. There have been alot of dinker size fish this year in the 8-12" range. They are covered with sores and parasites also. You could have caught 20-30 of these planters. I tried to avoid them as much as possible and target bigger fish in the skinny water. It was a tough spring though.
DFG says the outburst of parasites is cyclical and occurs from warmer water levels (last summer). Perhaps this year with the cold june and cooler water temps they will go away.
The lake needs a good fill with a wet winter to raise water levels and improve water conditions.
One positive note. I have been seeing some improvement in the number of snails in the LightningTree to Mosquito Slough area. Hopefully they can spread back through the entire lake again as they have been few and far between the last few years. I have logged a couple dozen days this season so far and have seen 2 blood midges. Damsels were very light but they are there and next spring should be a great hatch weather permitting. This june we had rain for 6 weeks straight in reno and some days didn't even make it out of the 50's. It really shut down the damsels compared to average numbers we should normally see. Last year being a mega size hatch. Another positive. Callibaetis were out in big numbers and fishing the nymph was a good choice. Not so much fish keying in on the duns though. I would see hundreds of duns on the water with only the occasional sporadic riser which made the fish hard to target with a dryfly.
Compared to what I have experienced in years past I would rate this season pretty low. It is a bit disappointing as I was expecting this spring/summer to have had some really nice quality fat 20-22+" rainbows porpoising around and the lake to really shine as we are a few years post treatment and this season should have been a good one. The sores are a real bummer to me. It is tough seeing those feisty davis bullets all covered with holes.
Maybe this fall things will turn around and all the 8-12" dinks add some size.
We shall see......
......I may go up this coming week. If I do I will report back.
Paul B.