Hey Betty...nice hearing from you..I'm glad to hear you enjoyed your Davis outing. As you know I fish Davis quite a bit and the big fish are what got me hooked on the lake many years ago. The size of fish being taken over the last couple of years has defiantly decreased. We're currently looking at 15 to 18 inch fish as the average size. Twenty plus inch fish have become pretty scarce. They are being taken but the numbers are nowhere near where they used to.
The lake has had enough time since the last treatment to produce those big fish. The food source is definitely there to grow big fish even with the elimination of the snail population...as Jonny pointed out the fish have gone to town on the crawdad's and there are tons of crawdad's in the lake. I think if there was a lack of food and an over population of fish you'd be seeing a lot of very skinny fish being taken and this isn't the case. I agree with Jay - it's the increased number of fish in the lake and it's this over population in my opinion that has put the nay on growth. DF&G in my humble opinion is at fault for the over population of the lake due to the wild trout law suit filed a couple of years back which left them with a surplus of trout and was also responsible for the introduction of trout infested with parasites because of the overstock of trout created by this law suit.
On the positive side the fish are now clean and healthy for the most part and for their size are putting up one hell of a fight. And I'd bet for those who keep and eat these fish they taste a lot better having switched over from snails to crayfish.
I'd be a very happy camper taking two or three twenty plus inch fish putting me into my backing per outing - I do miss that...
Pete
Sonny, the black lab, ran ahead to make sure there were no gophers or jackrabbits in the way. If you don't give a dog a specific job, he'll improvise one for himself and it will invariably be fun. There's a lesson there.
John Gierach
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