Is Sprague Lake a bust for Bass and Panfish???

[YellowBear]

Went by Sprague this past Saturday and I must say I really wanted to be out there.
The water was flat calm. The only ripple to be seen on 90% of the lake was from the ducks swimming around.
There was one boat trolling the narrows and three others stacked up in the ole Perch hole out in front of the Sprague lake resort. The folks in Sprague must be excited about there new economic boom.

[Duwimaster]

Enough walleye fisheries in the state? Did I read that correctly? I think I did.....but the numbers just don't add up to me Out of the 3,000 some lakes we have in this state we have a list of 6 walleye fisheries? I have to drive some 180 miles to even think of touching a walleye.....I'll bet that is safe to say that over 95% of our fisheries contain some form of trout or another. Good thing we axed our states 7th walleye fishery, and gained another lake managed for trout.

But.....I fish for all fish, silver fish and warm water alike. But to say that the state of Washington has "enough" walleye fisheries is a far cry from the truth. Especially when you take a lake with walleye and turn it into a trout lake ....It is safe to say that Washington state has ENOUGH trout fisheries.....my .02 cents

[YellowBear]

Another sad note with our 6 Walleye fisheries is that these are being manipulated to produce small fish.
As the breeding population gets smaller in size so does there offspring.
Where we once had 15 and 16 inch Crappie we now have fish that are not worth cleaning.
The lakes that once boasted 9 and 10 lb Largemouth now produce 3 and 4 lb fish.
Where we once had a world class Walleye population we now have 12 inch fish, or no fish at all.
I allready see a decline in the numbers of hunters and anglers in my area.
With the cost of fuel,license,equipment,pass's,amo.
The idea that you need to have a law degree to keep up with the rules and regs.
The fact that the rewards are getting fewer and smaller really temps new folks to take up either activity.

[Anglinarcher]

I wonder, is the State that incompentent, or do you think it is "by design"?

[YellowBear]

Sadly Archer, I feel its by design.
I was talking with a old friend in Medical lake a couple of weeks ago.
We discussed how when we were younger,any lake that held panfish held large ones, and there were many in eastern Washington.
You may have to look around for the bigger ones but they were there.

Another buddy of mine stopped by a few days ago and we talked about fishing lake Roosevelt back in the 80s.
You could tie up and fish one spot and catch 14 and 16 inch Walleye untill your arms hurt.
It seems like every time the slot limit was changed, the size went down.
The Walleye in FDR have allways been thin but a 12 in eye in FDR does not have much for the pan.
Kind of like a 9 inch Crappie, you can read a paper through the fillet.

I have another friend that lives on Moses lk, last year at this time he had 64 keeper Walleye recorded, this year he has 2.
I told him what
WDFW said about there being to much forage and he asked when did they study the forage?
Even if there were as much bait in the lakes as we have been told, there would still be some fish caught with reaction baits and fast presintations.

Some will say that over fishing in the past is to blaim, but its hard to over fish when you have no limits.
I feel our Largemouth populations survived only because of tournaments and the money they brought in.
There are fewer fish caught today and there are not anywhere near as many kept.
(IMHO)

[Anglinarcher]

I suspect you are correct Bear. I am a transplant to WA myself, transplanted in 1999. I have never lived in a State that screwed it up so bad.

I have seen paperwork submitted by the State that says that Walleye do not/did not Spawn in Sprague, so one wonders how the huge numbers ever got there. I know the State had not stocked Walleye in Sprague for some time. I also know that anyone that really knew how to fish shallow for Walleye had NO problems catching them. They also said that the creal studies showed few Walleye. Well, when did they do those studies, because they never checked me, ever.

It is true that larger Walleye are harder to catch, and if that is all that exist in a body of water, ...... well let's just say that most fishermen never fish with lures/bait large enough to tempt a 10 pound NON-TROUT.

I also know that the Resorts were hurting. But then again, trout drives the resorts and they were planting fewer trout in the last 10 years before the kill off then they did this last year alone.

I suspect that the panfish and bass will recover in Sprague, but if it happens in the next 3 to 5 years, I will be supprised. By then, the carp will be back, perch will be back and starting to overpopulate, brown bullhead were not erradicated so they are already populating. Without bass, and/or walleye, to hold the numbers down, ....... well.

And yet, I am no expert. The state has experts. you know, the experts that seem to always screw it up.

[YellowBear]

The smallest Walleye I had ever seen in Sprague was 8 inches, I caught 2 in one day. These fish showed up a year before the kill. I don,t think WDFW has any idea of wheather or not the eyes spawned in Sprague. As far as I know the only study done was the FWIN. As soon as they started killing the fish off with the nets , I noticed a decline in the numbers of fish caught. The WDFW said killing 300 fish per netting had no effect on the population but...

WDFW says that the Trout is number one in Washington. The only way they can make that claim is to poll Trout anglers.
I talk to folks at the ramp year around and the only time I hear someone targetting Trout is in the winter. The rest of the year they are after anything but Trout. I think WDFW should put Trout in lakes where they can spawn naturally. If they can,t make it on there own then put something in there that can.

[Anglinarcher]

Interesting point. The only native fish(s) that would have existed in Sprague might have been Squawfish, suckers, and well that is it. There were never trout; it lacked spawning and previous connection to rivers or ocean.

It is equally true that most of our lakes were that way, and would be that way now. There were no Bass, no Walleye, no perch, no crappie, no bluegill, no silvers, no lakers, no .......... not even tench and carp.

In the interest of making our bodies of water more productive, earlier and more thoughtful fisheries managers introduced these species. Sometimes the introductions were made by bucket biologist.

Sure, in some cases, west slope cutts were replaced by rainbow (that is correct, these were not native either); bull trout were killed off (do you older guys and guys remember when Bull Trout were tossed on the shore because they were not desirable?)

Nevertheless, if our specialist in fisheries managers had their way, our waters would be barren. Yes, I fear I am correct, even rainbows and browns and silvers would not be planted, because they are NOT NATIVE.

I once read that it was Benjamin Franklin that said something like "common sense is not so common anymore". I fear that if that is true, Old Ben is rolling over in his grave today. LOL