Pretty sure everyone, including myself, have said dams and water management are the main issue. But you seem to think striper have no part of the issue. There are many links, podcasts, and pictures with bellies full of smolt by biologist/fisherman that say striper are invasive and don’t help native salmonoid populations. Dams in the valley are here to stay. No use debating that. Water management sucks and we need to vite in a better rep to help solve that. I don’t know why everyone one is fixated on a person legally harvesting fish. Would you rather someone buy farmed fish that spread disease to wild fish? Striper are far more abundant than everyone is making it out to be. There aren’t as many large stripers BECAUSE salmon population is down so forage (smolt) items aren’t as plentiful and not to mention the population of fisherman targeting striper.. That’s why stripers are showing up in and above Redding. Trout to feed them and the guides up there are promoting the take home method of stripers there. Barging smolt down past kill zones is imperative. That’s why the Mokelumne has such good returns of salmon the last few years. All the evidence is there. People are just so touchy about stripers. They’re absolutely fun to catch and they’re good to eat. They also fall under the category as invasive by scientific standards. Who cares if a spear fisherman LEGALLY pops one and takes it home or gives it to a friend. Everyone needs to relax.
And Ross stripers only became a problem in the late 90’s funny isn’t it!
Aron-
"I own a time machine, but it only moves forward at regular speed..."
"So many rivers to fish so little time!"
Good points Rossflyguy, Walter, and Jcam!
Bans are great when 'your side' is winning, sucky when not! And it's unlikely to run the table of always being on the side you want to be in a ban.
Also as an invasive to CA and a native of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, I can attest that everyone should eat lots of stripers! Agree that the big cows have too much mercury.
PS I may be blending these two threads together.
y;185207]Pretty sure everyone, including myself, have said dams and water management are the main issue. But you seem to t[QUOTE=Rossflyguhink striper have no part of the issue. There are many links, podcasts, and pictures with bellies full of smolt by biologist/fisherman that say striper are invasive and don’t help native salmonoid populations. Striper are far more abundant than everyone is making it out to be. There aren’t as many large stripers BECAUSE salmon population is down so forage (smolt) items aren’t as plentiful and not to mention the population of fisherman targeting striper.. That’s why stripers are showing up in and above Redding. [/QUOTE]
I don't know of anyone who has studied striped bass impact on the Bay/Delta ecosystem as much as Dr. Peter Moyle of UC Davis - not even close. He would refute just about everything you have said except for the impact of our artificial water regime. His studies, spanning over 30 years, show that stripers eat far more salmon predators than they do salmon. Salmon smolts are in and out of striped bass territory in less than a few weeks as they journey to the ocean. Stripers will certainly eat smolts given a chance, but that window of opportunity is quite small. Pikeminnow, hardhead, and black bass, all salmon smolt predators, must contend with striper predation year round. In the big picture, lack of salmon has little to nothing to do with striped bass. Even during outsmolting, stripers eat more non game fish than salmon. This is a scientifically published and peer reviewed fact, disavowed only by the water agencies. Please point me to any scientific evidence which demonstrate that stripers are the cause of the salmon decline.
Last edited by Ralph; 07-26-2018 at 07:45 AM.
That's absolutely correct. Stripers predation on salmon smolts is seasonal and therefore minimal. The rest of the year they feed on crayfish, bass, shad, smelt etc, etc, and after over a century is California have certainly being "naturalized" and are part of the ecosystem. Of course the water guys have them on their list to demonize and target. Years ago they try to remove the size and limit and now they are being targeted by allowing spearfishing in freshwater.
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