The next world record goldfish just may come from the most unlikely of places…Lake Tahoe.
But if you want to get in on the action, you had better hurry because state wildlife officials are in the process of trying to rid the lake of several non-native invasive species.
Goldfish, largemouth bass, bluegill and crappie have all been illegally dumped into Tahoe over the years. While you wouldn’t expect these warm water species to thrive in the cold, clear waters of Tahoe, they have found a shallow, weedy sanctuary in the environmental abomination that is the South Shore’s Tahoe Keys.
When they built the Tahoe Keys, they basically filled in a very productive estuary and marsh and turned it into a housing development and marina. The resulting shallow warm water now doesn’t get flushed out by the upper Truckee River and have become a haven for warmwater invasive species.
When I used to run a six-pack charterboat out of the Keys back in the day, I would catch bass & crappie off the docks in the afternoons after my charters. There were some big bass in there, too — I saw largemouth to 10 plus pounds and crappie in the 2-pound class.
To read more about this issue, check out the Sac Bee
Is this a 30 pound steelhead?
Southern Oregon’s Umpqua River pumped out this ridiculous steelhead Monday, Jan. 14 for some buddies of Chuck Gross, El Presidente of Pavati Marine.
Chucky said that the beast measured a massive 42.5 inches but the guys didn’t get a girth, so estimating the weight is a crapshoot (it was released). However, it’s safe to say that it’s no-doubter mid 20’s…and if you told me it was close to 30 pounds, I wouldn’t disagree.
Apparently, the guy who hooked it handed Moby off to his less experienced buddy before realizing how big the fish was!
What an amazing creature! I just wish they got a better photo (sans towel).
A better way to spoon: Assist Hooks
One of the things that drew a lot of interest from the big crowds at my striper seminars the past couple days at the International Sportsmen’s Expo was the way I rig my jigging spoons.
We had a lot to cover in one short hour so I didn’t linger too long on this subject. If you missed it, here’s a closer look:
I simply remove the stock treble and replace it with an Owner assist (size depends on the size of the spoon).
These hooks come with a looped end so all you do is run it through the line attachment eye and loop it back over the hook…Done!
Soon, I will do a full blown post on striper spooning but for now, I’ll tell you that this rigging style is more snag resistant, never flips over and hooks the main line on the fall and is easier on the fish (fewer gill hooked fish). Give it a try!
Weird Science: Is Frankenfish coming to a store near you??
So, what do you get when you cross a Chinook Salmon with an Atlantic Salmon with an eelpout? In my mind…trouble, that’s what! Here’s the deal:
AquaBounty Technologies, a Massachusetts-based biotech company, has created what it calls the “AquAdvantage” salmon. Yep, salmon created in a lab, not gravel! They accomplished this feat by injecting a fragment of DNA from eelpout — along with a growth hormone gene from Chinook salmon — into a fertilised Atlantic salmon egg. The result? A salmon that produces growth hormone year round, instead of only during warm weather. This allows the fish to reach market weight in half the time of a real salmon.
The FDA is expected to approve the genetically engineered salmon after a 60-day public comment period. If approved, it will be the first approved food from a transgenic animal application to enter the U.S. food supply.
While fast-growing salmon seem like a grand plan, I am pretty leery of “better living through genetically messing with Mother Nature.” Though AquaBounty says their fish are sterile, environmentally sound, and have no chance to escape in the wild and, therefore pose no threat to wild fish populations, I’m still not so sure. Apparently, these fish eat five times more than wild salmon — and if they somehow got loose into the ocean, the AquAdvantage salmon could inflict major pain on native baitfish and salmon populations.
I wonder what they are going to feed these things?? The tuna farming business is wiping out baitfish populations around the world and I fear we could see something along the same lines here. And if the super salmon are not fed real baitfish..what then? I shudder the thought!
Then there’s the whole health question. Something about salmon completely engineered by humans makes me wonder about the nutritional value. Without labeling, will we be able to tell these things from wild fish in the market?
And you have other issues such as what effect these fish would have on US and Canadian fishing fleets and the businesses that support them.
Overall, it seems like a bad science project to me. Adding to the whole bad vibe I get is the fact that the FDA did some kinda sneaky business regarding this whole issue.
You should really read up on this and let the FDA know what you think. To sign a petition against Frankenfish, CLICK HERE (scroll to the bottom)
Further Reading
Nation of Change: FDA QUIETLY PUSHES THROUGH GENETICALLY ENGINEERED SALMON OVER CHRISTMAS BREAK
Nat Geo: FDA MISSES THE BOAT WITH GENETICALLY ENGINEERED SALMON
The Independent: GE FISH FOR DINNER
Grist: THE APOCALYPSE IS HERE
Catch More Steelhead with “Sploosh Balls”
Everybody’s first-ever reaction to seeing a “sploosh ball” is pretty much the same. Something like…
What the $#&% is that?? Or perhaps: You’re frigging kidding me…this is a joke, right?
It’s easy to understand, too, considering these black sinker balls that have taken the side-drifting world by storm look like they’re better suited for back-bouncing at first glance. Because they’re made of plastic, the balls are much larger than other drift weights and a ½ ouncer looks like it should weigh about 4 or 6 ounces. And the big ‘ol 1-ounce jobbies wouldn’t look too out of place being loaded into a cannon. When rigged up on typical side-drifting gear, these jumbo plastic weights look downright ridiculous. And the “splooosh” sound they make when they hit the river is just plain goofy. The whole thing seems so stinkin’ silly…
That is until fish them. Pretty quickly you’ll begin to see the light. Sploosh balls have several key attributes that make them very attractive to side-drifters. Here’s a look…Click here to read more…
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