Well they have done it again . Another lake has been ruined by the bucket brigade . The Bucket brigade are the folks who believe they are smarter than the Fisheries biologists . They get a bucket full of stocker fish , it could be bass , minnows , perch , dace , carp etc . In this case it was Yellow perch . They dumped perch into a trout only lake Ironically called Yellow lake . Sure for the first 5 years or so the perch gorge on the available food supply thriving to be very good sized perch fun to catch . The trout also benefit at first from eating the smaller perch and the size range rises for both species . Seems a win win . But it is NOT .. soon the bigger perch and bigger trout begin competing with each other .The initial "success story " turns sour with smaller trout and smaller perch competing for too little food to support both species adequately . The effect is irreversible . It is now 5 years or so down the road and the bucketeeer has moved on to a new lake because in His or her mind the fisheries people somehow have ruined both the trout and perch in that lake . The big fish are all gone . The lake where he started with his little bucket is in ruins but he doesn?t know it was His bucketful of fish so long ago was what caused it all .In some cases he knows but doesn?t care because he still has his bucket and there are more lakes to stock .
A prime example of this was Jewel lake near here . It was famous for its unbelievably large trout and is the home of the Gerard strain of Rainbow trout . Jewel is reputed to have yielded up a 56 pounder ! Then someone with a bucket introduced minnows into the lake and now a 6 pounder is the biggest you will find in Jewel .
The fisheries people are not entirely blameless either . In 1966 with good intentions , they introduced Mysis relicta
shrimp into Okanagan lake to feed the trout and Kokanee . After blaming overfishing for the decline in trout and Kokanee (landlocked sockeye ) . They finally realized that the problem was really due to their introduction of the Mysis shrimp . The mysis were out-competing the Kokanee and trout fry for available food . It was not the greedy fishermen to blame afterall .
Our resource doesn?t need idiots with a bucket helping out the biologists . Let them screw it up on their own .
I personally don?t think an FAOLer would be a likely candidate for the bucket brigade , because IMHO as a rule , fly fishers are more knowledgeable of their sport to do something like that .
However , just in case folks , leave your buckets with the live fish in them at home .


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I could be wrong , It seems unlikely , but I suppose it could happen.