I along with another guide, and a business owner met with a fisheries biologist on Monday in Portola and discussed the management of Lake Davis for a little over 2 hours. As many of you know the catch rates are not like they used to be, and I finally have the answers.
For the last 7 years CDFW had been receiving complaints about the parasites on the fish. They started to manage the lake for quality, not quantity, and that's what we have now, fewer fish but they are big. Besides planting catchable and sub catchable rainbows in low numbers, the department has been putting in huge numbers of fingerlings. Studies in the last 3 years have seen the largemouth bass population explode, and it seems the bass have been eating the fingerlings before they can mature. You can bet I will be focusing on catching bass on the fly this season.
This will be the last year of fingerlings. I do not have permission to post the numbers of fish being planted or the dates. There will be more catchables planted this year than in the past. These fish will be triploids. There are plenty of fertile rainbows, and a few browns in the lake. They are not all triploids. For example right now in a unnamed creek on the west shore there is a good population currently spawning. The department will be managing Lake Davis as they did back from 2001 to 2008, minus the pike situation, and the second treatment.
The rainbows in the lake are a mix of Shasta strain and Eagle Lake strain. Frenchman's is entirely the Eagle Lake strain and will never be managed any other way, no triploids. The fishery there is extremely healthy.
Lake Davis is iced out and the county started to plow the east road this morning. Parking may be an issue, and most likely snowshoes will be needed to reach the lake without postholing. - J.
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