What ever happened to the bluegill?

[gocards40]

I used to fish Patoka lake alot as a teenager. The bluegill fishing was the best I had ever seen. What happened to it?

[CatFan96]

The shad that were introduced compete with them for the same food. It's pretty well ruined the 'gill fishing there.

[raporter]

The shad that were introduced compete with them for the same food. It's pretty well ruined the 'gill fishing there.

That is the answer. Sure messed up a great fishery.

[gocards40]

That is a shame. I loved that lake. Some of the those monster bluegill were just awesome.

So kind of lake is it now. Did the shad help the bass?

[CatFan96]

So kind of lake is it now. Did the shad help the bass?

Patoka is a great lake for bass, stripers and crappie now. Bass size has improved. Stripers are good, as are crappie, but there is some concern that bass might suffer from low reproduction due to the number of shad.

[gocards40]

Were the gizzard shad introduced on purpose, by fisherman or naturally. I am assuming the stripers were intrduced to help with the shad problem. Did that work? Why would the crappie population not get hurt by the shad?

[CatFan96]

Apparently by fishermen. The stripers were added to help with the shad. Crappie eat shad, so you will see bigger crappie with more forage for them.

[psprowler]

Yeah I remember back in the early 90's you could catch an endless supply of 8 and 9 inch bluegill within sight of most ramps. Crappie was unbelievable up the river channel. Now you're doing pretty good to get a 5 inch bluegill.

[SwampDonkey]

I have some friends that catch some pretty good size red ear up there. Why are there so many small crappie in patoka? you can catch hundreds of them.

[GeoFisher]

I have some friends that catch some pretty good size red ear up there. Why are there so many small crappie in patoka? you can catch hundreds of them.

There are a BILLION smaller crappie because as the year class shad from oh say 5 years ago get BIG, the compete with EVERYTHING..........

AND since the SHAD spawn like rabbits, there are about 10 billion of them in the lake.......It doesn't take rocket science to realize that the SHAD out produce, out NUMBER, and OUT EAT everthing on the lake.

No forage for the crappie mean STUNTED crappie.........

It really is TOO bad...........

Later,

Geo

[Spider04]

Were the gizzard shad introduced on purpose, by fisherman or naturally. I am assuming the stripers were intrduced to help with the shad problem. Did that work? Why would the crappie population not get hurt by the shad?

Does Patoka only have gizzard shad? Are there threadfin too?

[gocards40]

How long has it been since they stocked the hybrids? I am assuming this has not helped the bluegill fishing by the responses. Do they have any other plans to try and fix this problem. I ask because I know that smaller lakes have run into the same problem and when they get rid of the gizzard shad it does help the crappie and bluegill. Other guys can correct me if I am wrong but I think they chemically kill the shad in the small lakes in Kentucky. I guess something like that would not be an option for patoka. Patoka is a fairly large lake and I am wondering why the gizzard shad are that much of a problem. I am sure they are in other lakes of similar size. Does anyone know why Patoka would be different.