MY friend kept 30 fish....?

Question

How will this effect the fish environment. A not very well fished lake, but fished. No pollution, and very good fish population. But how would this affect the population in one end of the lake? say a square half mile, where the fish have come from.

Answer 1

With that mix of trout, I imagine alot of the fish were stocked.  If it is a "put and take" lake, like alot of trout lakes are, it will have no impact.  The mix is interesting, years ago I was fishing in Colorado and the limit was 50 on brook trout, and 0 on cutthroat, the fisheries managers wanted the non-native brook trout gone, because they out competed the native cutthroats and were having a serious impact.  With that mix, some of the fish are not native, and more than likely none of them are.  I wouldn't worry about him taking those fish if it was within the law, the laws are made with the resource preservation in mind by folks who are aware of the situation in that particular body of water.

For those folks that are saying it is wrong, alot of fisheries biologist would disagree, fine example, the upper colorado river, non-native brook trout have out competed the native cutthroat which is about extinct because of the brook trout, the fisheries folk want you to take as many brook trout as possible.  Another example, the satilla river in south ga. the flathead catfish (non-native) is wiping out the native fish population, not only does the ga. dnr want you keep as many as you catch, this time of year they shock the river on a regular basis and everyone is invited to scoop up as many flathead cats as they want.  As for what to do with 30 fish, that many small trout will make a relatively small fish fry or gifts to a few people.  In alot of put and take lakes (this one sounds that way) the fish seldom live that long, especially during a heat wave, and no damage whatsoever is done to the population because it is stocked regularly.

The reason I think this is a put and take lake, there is nowhere in the United States where rainbow, brook and cutthroat trout are all native in the same area, not a single place.Cutthroat are typically from the rocky mountain states, the vast majority of sub species east slope, rainbow are west slope pacific river drainage fish, and brook trout are native in the eastern u.s.. If they are all in the same place, atleast two of the trout species are introduced.  Cutthroats evolved from being isolated from the gene pool of rainbow, they will cross breed if spawning together to make hybrids. Brook trout aren't even a true trout, they are a char related to lake trout (a char), dolly varden (a char) and ....artic char.  The brook trout is native only to east of the Mississippi in the U.S. and mainly in the appalachian mountains, however they will live in low altitude rivers if the oxygen content and temp are conducive (east canada, maine, etc...). There are no non-introduced rainbow trout populations that exist outside the pacific ocean drainage (i.e. rivers draining into the pacific ocean), those in east colorado, wyoming, etc... are no more native than the brown trout in those same rivers (all brown trout are from europe or asia).   Hence me thinking this is a stocked lake, and if it legal to keep that many fish, he did nothing wrong, I have on many occassions kept 50 and when it was legal 100 panfish in a day and they were all 1lb or there abouts, and they did not go to waste, down here, we often have "fish fries" and that is a major social occassion for churches, political rallies and just plain ol' get togethers. And, taking that many panfish (prolific breeders) did not hurt the population in that body of water, as a matter of fact, if panfish are not harvested heavily, they will over populate any body of water...each body of water can only support so much bio-mass per acre, be it minnows or bass or trout.

Answer 2

your friend is a greedy b*****d. what the h**l is he going to do with 30 trout?! hopefully it doesnt mess up the fish population

Answer 3

Why would you need 30 fish?

I'm not against eating what you catch.I don't do it myself.But I am against taking more than you can eat.I bet at least half those fish will go to waste.That is a real shame to hear this.

Answer 4

I dont think itl do much harm.

Answer 5

I agree with xxx911 there is no need for 30 fish let alone 3. You should let him know the dangers of what he has done in order to educate him. 30 fish is a lot and it will definetly mess up the population. Just let him know that thats not ok to do. And like some one else said we are stewards, and that is so true.

Answer 6

BAD IDEA! I love to fish and admit I might have kept a couple over the limit posession-wise, but never 30! I'm 99% sure that would be illegal, anyway. Next time your buddy tries to keep 30 fish, convince him to throw the smaller ones back before other people copy him and wreck the lake.

Answer 7

If this is a private lake. This could be good. less fish per square acre the larger and usually healthier the fish population. A public lake however not so good. If the legal limit was followed OK, but if not do you realize public means jointly owned some of those fish were someone`s besides your friends.

Answer 8

30 of what kind of fish?

Addition:

In many places, keeping 30 trout in one day isn't legal. If it is legal to keep 30 trout in your area, keeping that many fish might still not be so good. If there are a lot of trout in the lake and he doesn't keep 30 fish very often, the remaining trout will actually have a better chance of growing bigger; he removed extra trout so the remaining trout in the lake don't have to compete as hard for food. However, fishing at the lake will become harder over time. If he does it excessively, your friend will eventually put a small dent in the trout population and upset the ecosystem of the lake. Once the ecosystem of the lake was upset, it will take many  years to recover.

PS: It doesn't take many people and it doesn't take a very long time to ruin a good lake. It will take a very long time for a good lake to recover.

Answer 9

As humans we are the stewards of the land and waters. We have to be diligent in the harvest of the natural resources we have if we want to keep enjoying them. If he caught the large females out of the pond and only a few of the breeding population is left, then the pond is permanently harmed without re-stocking.

Educate him and ask him to take some for supper, leave the rest, especially the larger females.

As old timers use to say "leave some for seed son."

Answer 10

It will start to affect it greatly if he keeps 30 fish on each trip, if there is no-restocking policy eventually there will be a low or non-existent population of fish in the lake, its not fair for other anglers who practice catch and release, keep only what you need.

Answer 11

it mostly depends on the size of lake.  

  if it is a stocked lake, No impact, or if it is a big lake with a few waterways entering the lake.  or if it is a big lake.   fish  travel alot.  so it will have very little impact to that end of the lake,   think about ice fish houses, they stay in one spot, and catch many fish.   houndreds can be caught out of one house in a winter.  If the fish did not travel or roam the lake this would not happen.  

if it is true that the fish population is good in the lake for starters, by taking out some fish makes it easier for the remaining fish to feed, and also makes it easier for the grow.   Think about a gold fish in a fish tank, the bigger the fish tank the bigger a fish grows.

  Most fish dont start to reproduce till they are 5 years old on average.  

my question is why would you keep 30 of those fish?